,  |i^^  "'''^'^■"BMWffilBIIW* 

^^^^^^^^K.                                            -"^hB^^X^^^^I 

^ 

\       v^       /  — ■ 

/         ,/  %         V  i 

ma^. 


''^jf^ 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/duplicatecopyofsOOaslilrich 


God  our  Father,  Christ  our  Redeemer,  Man  our  Brother. 


THE 


LIBRARY    EDITION 


Hon.  J.  M.  Ashley  SouDcnir. 


As  he  Appeared  in  the   Thirty-sixth  Congress. 


DURIvICATK  COF^Y 


Souvenir 


FROM 


The  Afro-American  League 


OF  TENNESSEE 


HON,  JAMES  M,  ASHLEY 

OF  OHIO. 


"  That  flag  means  more  to  you  and  to    me  to-night  than  ever  it  did 

before 

"  It  means  that  never  again,  on  the  land  or  on  the  sea,  can  it  be  a  flag  of 
^  stripes '  to  any  of  God's  children,  however  poor  or  however  black." — p.  746. 
"  No  more  its  flaming  emblems  wave 
To  bar  from  hope  the  trembling  slave  ; 
No  more  its  radiant  glories  shine 
To  blast  with  woe  one  child  of  Thine." 

Page  384. 


Edited   by  BENJAMIN    ^V.   ARNETT, 

One  of  the  Bishops  of  the  A.  M.  E.  Church, 
WILBERFORCE.  OHIO. 


PUBLISHING    HOUSE   OF   THE   A.  M.   E.  CHURCH, 

631  Pine  Street,  Philadelphia. 
1894. 


^s/)f 


CONTENTS. 

Pagb 
Introduction 3 

Report  of  Publication  Committee 8 

Correspondence  "with  Afro-American  League 9 

Speech  at  Cranesville  Banquet 13 

Answer  at  Charloe  to  Senator  Stephen  A.  Douglas's  Squatter  Sov- 
ereignty Demagogism , 22 

Banner  Presentation,  German  Township,  Fulton  Co 31 

Address  at  the  Wigwam  in  Toledo 38 

First  Speech  in  Congress ^ 44 

Second  Speech  in  Congress 116 

Letter  protesting  against  the  army  being  used  to  capture  and  return 

fugitive  slaves 165 

Address  at  College  Hall,  Toledo 171 

Speech  for  the  Abolition  of  Slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia 213 

Speech  for  the  Organization  of  the  Territory  of  Arizona 226 

Letter  of  Congratulation  on  Mr.  Lincoln's  Proclamation  of  Emancipa- 
tion, January  1,  1863 240 

Speech  at  White's  Hall,  Toledo 248 

Speech  at  Wood  County  Union  Convention 257 

Speech  on  Eeconstruction 264 

Speech  when  renominated  for  Congress 298 

Letter  to  the  Officers  and  Soldiers  of  the  Union  Army 305 

Address  at  the  Oliver  House  Banquet 309 

Address  at  Napoleon,  Ohio 315 

History  of  the  Bill  for  the  Abolition  of  Slavery  and  the  Thirteenth 

Amendment 328 

Speech  on  Reconstruction,  with  Senator  Sumner's  Resolutions 333 

Copy  of  the  First  Reconstruction  Bill . 359 

Speech  on  Reconstruction  at  San  Francisco,  Cal. 370 

Speech  on  Reconstruction  at  Sacramento,  Cal 385 

Congressional  Speech  on  Impartial  Suffrage  and  Reconstruction 392 

Congressional  Speech  on  Reconstruction 415 

Remarks  on  Impeachment  of  the  President 436 

Congressional  Speech  on  Amendment  of  the  National  Constitution 459 

Address  on  Renomination  in  1868 605 

Congressional  Speech  on  the  Amendment  providing  for  the  Modifica- 
tion of  the  Veto  Power 519 

Speech  on  Grant  and  Greeley «. 5G0 

Centennial  Oration 578 


M1920052 


Page 

Speech  at  Montpelier,  1856 601 

Speech  at  Bowling  Green,  1862 ^ 630 

Speech  at  Gilead,  1865 634 

Oration  on  the  Death  of  Hon.  Owen  Lovejoy,  of  Illinois 638 

Oration  on  the  Death  of  Hon.  Thaddeus  Stevens,  of  Pennsylvania 640 

Oration  on  the  Death  of  D.  Pw.  Locke  ("Nasby") 646 

Oration  at  the  Centennial  of  Daniel  O'Connell 651 

Eulogium  on  Daniel  O'Connell 657 

Letter  and  Rules  on  Co-operation  and  Profit-sharing 661 

Address  to  the  International  Train  Dispatchers'  Convention 667 

Address  in  the  Congressional  Campaign  of  1890 675 

Memorial  Address  at  Wauseon 681 

Address  to  Pioneers 685 

Address  before  the  Ohio  Society  of  New  York  on  the  Abolition  of 
Slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  and  the  Passage  of  the  Thir- 
teenth Amendment 692 

Address  before  Grand  Army  Posts  in  Toledo 714 

Address  on  Lincoln  before  the  Ohio  Republican  League  at  Toledo 747 

Address  before  the  Ohio  Society  of  New  York  in  favor  of  Nominat- 
ing and  Electing  the  President  and  U,  S,  Senators  by  direct  vote—  767 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  name  of  Honorable  James  M.  Ashley  revives  the 
most  exciting-  events  in  the  conflict  between  freedom  and 
slavery  in  the  United  States.  It  bring-s  to  mind  that  grand 
uprising-  ag-ainst  the  extension  of  slavery,  which  opposed  the 
annexation  of  Texas,  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise, 
and  the  Missouri  border  ruffian  raids  into  Kansas  ;  which 
witnessed  the  capture  by  John  Brown  of  Harper's  Ferry,  the 
election  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  war  of  the  Union,  the 
assassination  of  Lincoln,  the  reactionary  rebellion  of  Andrew 
Johnson,  and  the  battle  for  the  enfranchisement  and  citizen- 
ship of  the  negro.  In  every  phase  of  that  conflict  James  M. 
Ashley  bore  a  conspicuous  and  honorable  part.  He  was 
among  the  foremost  of  that  brilliant  galaxy  of  statesmen 
who  reconstructed  the  Union  on  a  basis  of  liberty.  He  was, 
so  to  speak,  ever  far  out  on  the  skirmish  line,  in  the  most  ex- 
posed position.  He  was  the  subject  of  the  most  violent 
attacks,  and,  though  he  went  down  in  the  contest,  the  cause 
which  he  championed  was  largely  indebted  for  its  triumph 
to  his  courage  and  advocacy  upon  the  floor  of  the  House  of 
Representatives.  His  eloquence  and  power  in  debate  were 
clearly  recognized  and  appreciated  by  hi§  pa-rty,  and  he  was, 
therefore,  often  put  forward  to  do  a  work  which  many  of  his 
comrades  felt  reluctant  to  undertake. 

With  many  others  (the  present  writer  included),  Mr. 
Ashley  plead  the  cause  of  the  slave  with  poetic  fervor.  His 
speeches  on  the  slavery  question  were  enriched  by  splendid 
quotations  from  Whittier's  burning  verse. 

In  this  he  showed  his  appreciation  of  the  profound  in- 
sight and  sublime  ethical  conscience  by  which  that  humane 

(3)  . 


—  4  — 

poet  was  guided  in  all  lie  had  to  say  on  this  question,  and  in- 
deed on  all  others  where  human  rights  were  concerned. 

Honorable  James  M.  Ashley  early  caug-ht  the  living 
faith  and  prophetic  spirit  of  Whittier.  He  felt  and  fully 
understood  the  flagrant  sin  of  slavery.  This  will  appear 
vividly  to  all  who  shall  read  the  addresses  and  orations  which 
have  been  compiled  by  his  negro  friends  and  published  in  this 
volume.  It  was  given  to  Mr.  Ashley  prior  to  and  after  the 
outbreak  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  to  point  out  the  line  of 
policy  to  be  pursued  in  forum  and  field,  for  the  salvation  ol 
the  nation. 

Conversant  as  I  am  with  our  anti-slavery  literature  foi 
over  half  a  century,  and  with  the  speeches  and  orations  oi 
our  ablest  anti-slavery  leaders,  I  am  warranted  in  saying 
that,  among  them  all,  there  are  few,  if  any,  more  worthy  oi 
preservation  than  are  the  prophetic  speeches  and  orations 
contained  in  this  book. 

Remembering  that  truth  is  many-sided,  and  that  fe-v^ 
men,  even  with  the  best  intentions,  are  able  to  see  it  excep' 
from  its  single  or  narrow  side,  the  abundant  charity  to  b( 
found  in  Mr.  Ashley's  speeches  becomes  the  more  marked,  anc 
attests  the  nobility  of  the  man. 

To  Mr.  Ashley,  as  to  few  other  great  legislators,  it  wa; 
given  to  grasp  with  a  firm  understanding  the  problems  in 
volved  in  our  great  battle  with  slavery  and  in  the  reconstruc 
tion  of  the  government  after  the  war.  Like  Sumner,  Wilson 
Wade,  and  Thaddeus  Stevens,  he  saw  the  necessity  of  arm 
ing  the  negro  with  the  panoply  of  the  elective  franchise. 

He  was  foremost  in  the  debate  for  this  great  measure,  am 
did  not  hesitate  to  risk  the  success  of  his  own  election,  b; 
the  prominent  part  he  took  in  face  of  formidable  opposition 
Nor  was  this  opposition  confined  to  the  members  of  the  oppo 
site  party.  There  were  timid  Republicans  in  those  days,  a 
there  have  been  since,  and  this  timidity  was  shared  by  hi 
State  and  the  people  of  his  district,  as  well  as  b}^  mem 
bers  of  Congress,  and  it  is  no  marvel  that  his  prominence  i: 
furtherance  of  this  measure  of  enfranchisement,  caused  hi 
defeat. 

With  the  aid  of  the  Tribune  Almanac,  I  am  able  to  giv 
the  facts  and  figures  in  this  case. 


In  1867  Ohio  astonished  the  country  by  voting-  ag-ainst 
the  granting-  of  the  ballot  to  her  own  colored  citizens.  No 
wonder,  then,  that  Mr.  Ashley,  who  championed  the  cause  of 
enfranchisement,  incurred  the  concentrated  enmity  of  all 
those  who  hated  the  negro,  and  by  their  votes  refused  him 
the  rig-ht  of  the  ballot. 

The  vote  of  Ohio,  in  1867,  stood  255,344  against  grant- 
ing  the  ballot  to  the  negro,  and  216,987  in  its  favor. 

The  majority  against  the  measure,  on  the  vote  actually 
cast  for  and  against,  was  38,353.  The  number  of  those  not 
voting  on  the  question  was  12,276. 

As  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Ohio  requires  an 
affirmative  majority  of  all  the  votes  cast  at  such  an  election, 
the  proposition  to  adopt  this  measure  was  defeated  by  a  ma- 
jority of  50,629.  At  all  elections  for  amending  the  Constitu- 
•tion  of  that  State,  each  blank  ballot  cast  is  counted  against 
the  proposed  amendment. 

In  Mr.  Ashley's  own  district,  of  the  votes  cast  for  and 
against  giving  the  negro  the  ballot,  a  majority  of  965  was 
against  it,  and  1,057  electors  voted  blank;  so  that  in  his  dis- 
trict, the  constitutional  majority  against  the  amendment  was 
2,022.  At  the  State  election,  on  the  same  day,  the  Republi- 
can party  elected  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  governor,  by  the 
slender  majority  of  2,883,  and  the  Republican  State  ticket 
had,  in  Mr.  Ashley's  own  district,  a  majority  of  975. 

These  figures  disclose  the  fact  that  there  was  a  formi- 
dable faction  in  the  Republican  party  in  Ohio,  and  also  in 
Mr.  Ashley's  district,  against  granting  the  ballot  to  the 
negro. 

Notwithstanding  this  astonishing  vote,  Mr.  Ashley 
steadily  battled  in  Congress  and  on  the  stump,  as  his  speeches 
in  this  volume  testify,  for  granting  the  ballot  to  the  negro, 
and  by  an  amendment  to  our  national  Constitution,  as  the 
records  of  Congress  show,  he  materially  aided  in  securing  in 
all  the  States  and  Territories  of  the  republic,  the  right  of 
the  negro  to  vote,  and  because  of  his  fidelity  to  the  cause  of 
the  negro,  a  fidelity  maintained  in  despite  of  violent  opposi- 
tion, the  negroes  of  Tennessee  have  prepared  this  '*  sou- 
venir "  volume,  and  have  requested  me  to  write  this  introduc- 
tion to  it. 


A  number  of  Mr.  Ashley's  cong-ressional  speeches  and 
platform  addresses  in  favor  of  negro  suffrage,  notably  the 
one  delivered  in  1865,  in-  San  Francisco,  California,  will  be 
found  in  this  volume  and  read  with  interest.  For  ability 
and  broad  statesmanship  these  speeches  impress  me  as  being, 
beyond  question,  the  master  effort  of  his  public  life. 

I  do  not  believe  that  any  intelligent  man  who  reads 
these  speeches  can  point  to  one  important  proposition  intro- 
duced or  advocated  by  Mr.  Ashley,  in  Congress  or  on  the 
stump,  whether  by  bill  or  resolution,  which  is  fundamen- 
tally wrong  either  in  morals  or  politics;  and  if  he  cannot, 
then  all  men  must  conclude  that  they  are  fundamentally 
right. 

Mr.  Ashley's  patriotic  Centennial  oration  in  1876;  hi; 
splendid  orations  on  O'Connell  (the  early  and  steadfas 
friend  of  the  negro)  ;  his  touching  and  tender  testimony  a 
the  grave  of  his  friend,  David  R.  Locke  ("Nasby");  hi 
address  on  Lincoln;  his  speech  on  Memorial  Day  at  Wauseon 
his  noble  tribute  to  Columbus,  in  his  address  to  the  earl 
pioneers;  and  especially  the  grand  speech  made  by  him  a 
Montpelier  in  1856  —  all  stamp  him  as  a  remarkable  platf orr 
orator.  But  of  higher  significance  is  the  fact,  that  in  all  o 
his  speeches,  he  puts  the  rights  of  humanity  above  ever 
other  right  and,  as  inseparably  connected  with  the  rights  c 
all  races  of  men,  he  includes  the  rights  of  labor,  and  claim 
that  humanity  and  labor  have  rights  which  are  above  an 
superior  to  the  material  interests  of  capital  or  governmentj 
Above  tariffs  and  commerce,  above  financial  interesi 
and  so-called  vested  rights,  he  places  the  rights  of  man! 

He  makes  his  plea  for  the  protection  of  the  weak  again^ 
the  combinations  of  capital,  and  with  eloquence  and  pow( 
he  denounces  the  spirit  of  caste  and  all  special  legislation  f( 
the  benefit  of  any  one  class  at  the  expense  of  labor  and  tl 
rights  of  humanity.  His  address  to  the  Train  Dispatcher 
Association  of  America  is  a  generous  appeal  for  the  rights  ( 
labor,  and  his  plea  for  the  organization  of  all  labor 
worthy  of  careful  study  and  of  adoption  by  all  prudent  at 
thoughtful  laboring  men. 

Conspicuous  in  the  character  and  in  the  public  life  < 
Mr.  Ashley  was  his  moral  courage.      He  never  lacked  tl 


—  7  — 

courag-e  of  his  convictions.  What  he  believed,  that  he  spoke 
and  acted.  "Words  were  never  allowed  by  him  to  conceal  his 
thoug-hts  and  it  was  never  his  misfortune  to  be  misunderstood. 
In  the  lang-uag-e  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  **He  followed  the 
rig-ht  as  God  g-ave  him  the  ability  to  see  the  rig-ht."  Neither 
ridicule  nor  denunciation,  thoug-h  both  were  employed  ag-ainst 
him,  could  swerve  him  from  his  course. 

He  showed  this  quality  in  a  remarkable  deg-ree  while 
dealing-  with  Andrew  Johnson,  who,  when  President,  under- 
took to  array  the  executive  against  the  leig-slative  department 
of  the  government  and  to  substitute  his  own  will  for  the 
policy  of  Congress.  Johnson  was  no  man  with  whom  to 
trifle.  There  was  in  him  much  more  of  the  lion  than  of  the 
lamb.  When  his  will  was  crossed  he  did  not  hesitate  to  use 
the  whole  power  of  the  presidential  office  to  punish  offenders. 
He  had  little  regard  to  consequences.  His  battle  with  Con- 
gress concerning  reconstruction,  was  bold,  fierce  and  bitter, 
and  was  even  a  menace  to  the  peace  of  the  country. 

It  became  necessary  for  Congress  to  assert  its  power  and 
curb  this  lion,  and  Mr.  Ashley,  as  one  of  its  members,  dared 
to  lead  Congress  in  this  perilous  duty.  There  is  no  power  in 
the  American  government,  the  employment  of  which  is  more 
dangerous  than  is  that  of  the  power  of  impeachment.  It  is 
emphatically  a  last  resort,  and  when  it  is  used  by  one  party 
against  another,  the  whole  fabric  of  government  is  imper- 
iled. And  yet  there  are  times  when  its  employment  is 
essential  to  the  salvation  of  government. 

Such  a  crisis  was  precipitated  by  Andrew  Johnson,  and 
though  he  escaped  impeachment,  the  threat  of  this  chastise- 
ment proved  highly  beneficial.  I  think  in  connection  with 
this  controversy  that  Mr.  Ashley  rendered,  in  the  part  he 
took,  one  of  his  best  services  to  liberty  and  to  the  republic, 
yet  it  has  happened  to  him,  as  it  has  happened  to  many  other 
good  men,  to  have  his  best  work  in  the  world  least  appre- 
ciated  and  commended  by  the  world. 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  dwell  upon  the  part  which 
Mr.  Ashley  has  taken  in  the  great  conflict  with  wrong. 

His  speeches  contained  in  this  volume  are  his  best  com- 
mendation, and  I  leave  them  to  speak  for  themselves. 

Frederick  Dougi^ass. 


« 


I 


Hon.  Wm.  Henderson  Young, 

President  Afro-American  Leag-ue  of  Tennessee. 

Dear  Sir  :  The  undersig-ned,  on  behalf  of  the  Publication 
Committee,  beg-  leave  to  report  that  they  have  carefully  com- 
piled and  caused  to  be  published,  the  great  anti-slavery 
speeches,  orations  and  papers  of  public  interest  contained  in 
this  book. 

We  did  this  in  pursuance  of  the  plan  adopted  by  the 
committee  having-  in  charge  the  preparation  and  publication 
of  the  **  Souvenir,"  which  the  officers  of  the  Afro- American 
Leagnie  of  Tennessee  directed  to  be  prepared  and  presented 
to  Hon.  James  M.  Ashley,  of  Ohio. 

In  discharg-ing"  that  agreeable  duty,  we  have  taken  special 
care  to  collect  such  matter  as  we  believed  to  be  of  historic 
interest  to  the  public  and  especially  to  our  race. 

Our  work  has  been  a  labor  of  love,  and  is  herewith  re- 
spectfully submitted. 


Chairman. 
NAMES    OF    COMMITTEE. 

Bishop  Benjamin  W.  Arnett,  Chairman,  Wilberforce,  O. 
Bishop  Benjamin  F.  Lee,  Waco,  Texas. 

Rev.  Charles  S.  Smith,  Nashville,  Tenn. 
Pres't  I.  T.  Montgomery,  Grand  Bayou,  Miss. 
Bishop  W.  J.  Gaines,  Atlanta,  Ga. 

Rev.  J.  C.  ExviBRY,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Rev.  A.  H.  Ross,  Cynthiana,  Ky. 

Prof.  B.  W.  Arnett,  Jr.,  Little  Rock,  Ark. 


Nashvii<i.e,  Tenn.,  March  8,  1892. 
Hon.  James  M.  Ashley,  Toledo,  Ohio. 

Dear  Sir  :  The  American  neg-ro  has,  time  and  ag-ain, 
been  charged  with  ingratitude  toward  his  public  benefactors 
and  an  incapacity  to  appreciate  the  public  acts  of  the  states- 
men whose  life-work  has  been  directed  toward  securing"  him 
the  full  enjoyment  of  American  citizenship. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  and  in  view  of  the  further  fact 
that  your  life  has  been  an  incessant  warfare  against  the 
invidious  distinctions  which  have  been  embodied  in  the  cus- 
toms and  fundamental  law  of  the  American  people  ;  but 
which,  happily  for  all,  have  been  expunged  from  the  or- 
ganic law  of  the  land  by  the  enactment  of  the  Thirteenth 
Amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States :  we, 
the  undersigned  citizens  and  members  of  the  Afro- American 
League  of  Middle  Tennessee,  have  determined,  on  behalf 
of  the  Afro-American  League  of  this  country,  to  present 
to  you  some  kind  of  testimonial,  in  recognition  of  your 
distinguished  services  to  the  cause  of  liberty,  in  the  dark 
days  of  slavery  and  reconstruction. 

To  the  end  that  the  passing  generation  may  take  new 
hope  for  its  progeny,  in  having  recounted  to  it  the  triumphs, 
which  your  unselfish  devotion  in  behalf  of  human  liberty 
aided  in  accomplishing ;  and  that  future  generations  may 
have  in  their  homes  and  schools  a  perennial  fountain  of 
inspiration ;  and  that  other  men  with  noble  aspirations 
may  be  encouraged  to  urge  on  * '  the  harvest  of  the  golden 
year,  when  all  men's  good  shall  be  each  man's  rule,"  we  ask 
that  you  grant  us  the  privilege  of  publishing,  in  book  form 
of  convenient  size,  the  prophetic  and  now  historic  speeches 
made  by  you  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  against 

t  crime  of  slavery,  and  to  include  with  said  speeches  such 
(9) 


-10)- 


^M| 


of  your  orations  and  public  addresses  and  articles  from  your } 
pen,  of  historic  interest  to  us  and  to  all  lovers  of  human  liberty.  ■ 
We  desire  to  present  to  you,  your  family  and  friends,  a  book' 
which  shall  be  an  acceptable  and  historic  souvenir.  t 

If  our  plan  shall  meet  your  approval,  you  will  do  us  a 
great  favor  if  you  and  your  friends  will  place  at  our  com- 
mand such  papers,  orations  and  public  addresses  as  may 
have  been  preserved,  which  are  not  to  be  found  in  public 
libraries,  as  their  possession  will  materially  facilitate  our 
work. 

With  great  respect  we  await  your  early  reply.  i 

Wm.  Hendkrson  Young, 

President. 
Wm.  a.  Crosthwait, 

Secretary. 

S.  A.  McKi^wEi*. 
J.  H.  Ke:kbi,e:. 
M.  Vann. 
Fklix  Paskktt. 
L.  Mason. 
H.  S.  HowKi.1.. 
M.  Hopkins. 
L.  W.  Crosthwait, 
H.  W.  Whitk. 
J.  N.  Bryant. 
D.  N.  Crosthwait.  ' 
We  approve  and  endorse  the  above 

T.  Thomas  Fortune, 

Prest.  National  League 
W.  H.  Anderson, 

Secretary 


TOI.EDO,  Ohio,  March  19,  1892. 

Gentlemen  :  Your  esteemed  favor  of  the  8th  inst.  is 
before  me.  I  would  not  disg-uise  the  fact  that  your  com- 
munication stirs  my  heart  with  pleasurable  emotions.  In- 
deed it  is  a  source  of  unalloyed  satisfaction  to  me  to  know 
that  the  officers  and  members  of  the  **  Afro- American 
League"  of  Tennessee  remember  me  and  my  work  in  be- 
half of  their  race,  at  a  time  when  they  were  held  in  cruel 
bondag*e  and  could  neither  speak  nor  act  as  they  can  now,  and 
that  they  voluntarily  propose  to  honor  me  in  the  manner  in- 
dicated. 

When  the  liberation  of  every  slave  beneath  our  flag-  was 
officially  decreed  by  Abraham  Lincoln's  emancipation  proc- 
lamation, it  became  our  bounden  duty  as  a  nation  to  confirm 
and  make  perpetual  that  act  of  liberation,  so  that  in  the  land 
of  Washing-ton  a  slave  would  be  as  impossible  as  a  king-. 

In  common  witli  many  others  I  did  no  more  than  my 
duty  in  that  g-reat  historic  battle.  But  I  do  not  attempt  to 
conceal  from  any  one  that  I  am  proud  of  my  anti-slavery 
record,  and  grateful  for  the  evidence  which  your  letter  gives 
me,  of  its  recognition  by  the  colored  citizens  of  Tennessee. 

If  you  compile,  as  proposed,  from  official  or  authenticated 
sources,  any  utterrnces  of  mine,  touching  the  enslavement  of 
men,  I  am  confident  that  from  whatever  page  j'-ou  may 
select,  you  will  not  find  a  word,  act,  or  vote  of  mine,  which 
either  you  or  any  of  my  friends  could  wish  to  change  or  blot. 

In  consenting  to  your  request,  I  am  not  without  hope 
that  I  may  thus  contribute,  as  you  suggest,  some  word  or 
thought  that  may  aid   in  the  advancement  of  your  race. 

I  regret,  however,  that  I  can  supply  you  with  but  little 
matter  of  personal  or  historic  interest  outside  of  the  public 
records.  My  library,  and  all  my  valuable  official  and  private 
papers,   were  destroyed   some  years   ago  by  fire,  so  that  I 

(11) 


k_ 


-12  — 

cannot  furnish  you  with  papers  which  were  to  me  personally 
of  g-reat  historic  interest.  But  such  addresses  and  papers  as 
I  have  been  able  to  collect  from  friends,  tog-ether  with  a  hali 
dozen  or  more  public  addresses  made  since  I  was  in  Cong-ress, 
I  shall  be  ready  to  place  in  your  hands  whenever  you  or  youi 
authorized  ag-ent  may  call  for  them. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

JaMKS  M.    ASHI^lEY. 

To 

Wm.  Henderson  Young,  Esq., 

President. 
"Wm.  a.  Crosthwait,  Esq., 

Secretary. 
and  others, 

Nashville,  Tennessee. 

Letter  from  Rev.  J.  C.  Price,  President  of  Living-ston  CoUege,  Salis- 
bury, N.  C. 
Wm.  a.  Crosthwait,  Esq. 

Dear  Sir  :  Your  letter  and  circular  are  received.  I  read  with 
interest  and  pleasure  the  pamphlets  of  the  Hon.  James  M.  Ashley, 
which  you  so  kindly  sent  me.  I  heartily  endorse  the  movement 
that  has  in  view  a  *'  testimonial"  in  recognition  of  Mr.  Ashley's  dis- 
tinguished services  in  the  interest  of  human  liberty  and  of  the 
equality  of  all  men  before  the  law.  It  seems  to  me  not  only  a  patri- 
j.  c.  PRICE.         otic  but  a  grateful  endeavor  as  well. 

I  am  yours  sincerely,  J.  C.  Pricb. 


ADDRESS 

DELIVERED    AT    CRANESVILLE,    OHIO, 
JANUARY  27th,  1859. 


ENTHUSIASTIC     MEETING    OF    THE    PEOPLE    OF    PAUI.DING    AND 
DEFIANCE   COUNTIES. 


On  Friday  of  last  week,  says  the  Paulding-  Eagle,  Hon. 
J.  M.  Ashley  visited  Cranesville,  in  this  county,  and  stopped 
with  General  Curtis.  The  citizens  of  Crane  and  Mark  town- 
ships. Defiance  county,  turned  out  en  masse  to  welcome  him. 
They  came  up  feeling-  they  were  to  see  a  man  who  would 
maintain  their  rig-hts  and  endeavor  to  redress  their  wrong's. 
General  Curtis  had  prepared  an  excellent  dinner,  after  partak- 
ing- of  which,  Esquire  Hutchinson  of  Mark  township  was 
called  to  the  chair,  and  Lewis  S.  Gordon  appointed  secretary, 
when  the  following-  toast  was  read : 

*'  Our  Congressman-elect — Gen.  J.  M.  Ashley,  of 
Lucas, — entitled  to  our  confidence  by  his  services  in  defense  of 
our  cause  when  there  appeared  no  hope  of  success ;  we  wel- 
come him  with  pride  as  our  g-uest,  and  pledg-e  him  that  the 
citizens  of  Paulding-  county,  who  were  first  to  invite  him  to 

Letter  from  Hon.  James  Hill,  Postmaster,  Vicksburg-,  Miss. 
The  first  three  addresses  which  appear  in  this  book  were  deliv- 
ered, as  the  reader  will  observe,  after  Mr.  Ashley's  first  election,  and 
prior  to  taking-  his  seat  in  Cong-ress,  and  two  years  before  President 
Lincoln's  first  election.  Mr.  Ashley  was  then  a  young-  man,  and 
had  never  been  in  public  life.  When  the  time  and  circumstances  are 
remembered  under  which  these  addresses  were  delivered,  it  will  be 
•  conceded  that  they  are  remarkable,  as  well  for  their  patriotic 
thought  as  for  their  breadth  and  depth,  and  for  the  clearness  and 
JAMES  HILL,  hopefulness  of  their  prophecy.  The  address  at  Archibald  is  a  plat- 
form in  itself,  and  will  stand  for  all  time  as  an  epitome  of  republican  principles.  The 
address  at  Charloe  is  a  masterly  answer  to  the  pro-slavery  sophistry  of  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  as  delivered  in  a  speech  at  Memphis,  Tennessee,  December  1, 1858.  In  this  ad- 
dress  Mr.  Ashley  put  Doug-las's  own  words  in  the  mouth  of  the  Emperor  of  China 
with  a  force  and  truthfulness  that  could  not  be  successfully  answered  then,  nor  now. 

James  Hill. 

(13) 


r 


—  14- 


the  leadership,  will  be  the  last  to  desert  him  while  he  is  faith- 
ful in  the  maintenance  of  the  Union,  and  true  to  the  princi- 
ples of  freedom.     Ag'ain  we  say,  we  welcome  him  here." 

After  which  General  Ashley  made  the  following"  address  : 

I  will  be  more  than  compensated,  Mr.  President,  for  all  my 
past  labors  in  the  ranks  of  the  Republican  party,  if,  while 
representing-  this  district  at  Washing-ton,  I  shall  be  able  to  re- 
tain the  g-ood  opinion  and  unwavering-  friendship  heretofore 
shown  me  by  the  people  of  Paulding  county.  And  if  I  am  ever 
false  to  principle,  unfaithful  to  duty,  or  should  cease  to  defend 
and  maintain  a  reverential  reg-ard  for  the  union  of  these  States, 
may  you  forg-et  the  past  and  condemn  me  as  an  unworthy 
and  unprofitable  servant. 

I  come  to  participate  with  you,  ladies  and  g-entlemen,  in  a 
social  g-athering-,  and  not  to  make  a  speech,  but  in  person  to 
thank  most  cordially  my  fellow-citizens  of  this  county  for  the 
support  g-iven  me  at  the  recent  election.  I  am  indeed  g-reatly 
indebted  to  the  true  democracy  of  little  Paulding*  for  the 
past  and  present  manifestations  of  their  regard  and  confi- 
dence. 

Over  five  years  ag-o,  and  when  comparatively  a  strang-er 
in  the  district,  it  was  you  who  first  united  in  requesting-  me 
to  become  your  standard-bearer ;  you  who  first  publicly  ex- 
pressed sympathy  with  me  in  the  efforts  I  (in  common  with 
others)  was  making-  to  org-anize,  without  regard  to  past 
party  associations,  the  friends  of  freedom  in  this  State  and 
district  into  a  new  and  honest  democratic  party,  representing* 
the  principles  of  Washington  and  Jefferson.  From  that  hour 
to  this,  your  friendship  has  been  uniform  and  your  support 
most  cordial,  not  only  in  conventions,  but,  when  opportunity 
offered,  at  the  ballot-box.  For  this  g-enerous  confidence  I 
feel  deeply  grateful,  and  hope  so  to  discharge  the  duties  of 
the  position  you  have  aided  in  assigning  me  as  to  merit 
its  continuation. 

The  Democratic-Republican  party  of  Ohio  and  in  this 
district  have  achieved  a  glorious  triumph  over  the  allies  of 
the  slave  barons.  This  triumph  may  rightfully  be  called  a 
triumph  of  truth  over  error,  of  right  over  wrong,  of  liberty 
and  political  independence  over  despotism,  and  centralized 
government,  in  the  hands  of  the  President ;  a  triumph  of  the 


—  IS 


friends  of  the  Union  over  disunionists  and  political  tricksters ; 
of  the  constitution  as  interpreted  by  our  fathers,  over  the 
sectional  interpretation  of  the  slave  democracy  and  the  Su- 
preme Court.  It  is  indeed  a  g-lorious  triumph,  and  one  well 
worthy  of  our  congratulations.  But  let  us  remember  that  this 
triumph,  althoug'h  achieved  by  our  union  and  energy,  and  the 
power  of  our  principles,  was  not  achieved  alone  for  our  benefit 
as  a  party,  nor  for  any  one  of  us  as  individuals,  but  that  it  was 
achieved  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  people  against  corrupt 
presidential  combinations  and  party  despotism. 

As  citizens  we  are  divided  in  political  opinions,  and  must 
of  necessity  aCt  within  different  political  organizations,  and  I 
am  pleased  to  learn  that  some  of  our  friends  who  differ  from  us 
are  present  this  afternoon ;  it  is  proper  that  it  should   be  so. 

Jefferson  said  when  speaking  of  the  people,  '*  We  are  all 
Republicans  and  all  Federalists,"  and  so  we  are  to-day,  all  citi- 
zens of  the  same  coifntry,  having  common  hopes  and  a  com- 
mon destiny.  If  the  constitution  confers  any  blessing  upon 
us,  it  must,  if  the  government  be  rightly  administered,  confer 
its  blessings  upon  all.  If  the  constitution  be  violated  and  the 
Union  dissolved  (which  God  forbid),  a  common  ruin  will  come 
alike  upon  the  whole  people,  regardless  of  men  or  party.  If, 
however,  the  government  be  honestly  administered  under  the 
constitution  as  its  framers  administered  it,  and  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  people  and  the  rights  of  the  States  be  re- 
spected, this  Union  which,  under  the  blessing  of  heaven,  has 
come  down  to  us,  will  continue  forever,  and  a  Republic  and 
the  Union  of  these  States  be  one  and  inseparable.  But  let  the 
true  principles  which  are  the  foundation  of  our  government, 
the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  and  the  right  of  the  States,  be 
violated,  and  presidential,  senatorial  or  judicial  usurpa- 
tion continue  as  it  has  begun,  and  there  is  no  guarantee  for 
either  a  continuance  of  the  Union  or  a  Republic.  To  preserve 
inviolate  the  constitution  and  the  Union,  to  roll  back  the  dark 
tide  of  sectionalism  and  fanaticism  which  is  insidiously  ap- 
proaching us  in  the  shape  of  a  formidable  political  party  or- 
ganized under  the  lead  of  a  privileged  class,  and  bearing  the 
sacred  name  of  Democrat,  is  the  purpose  and  mission  of  the 
Republican  party. 


—  16  — 

This  wc  cannot  accomplish  at  once,  nor  without  grea 
labor  and  a  union  of  the  friends  of  freedom,  but  we  can  an< 
shall  accomplish  it,  if  we  are  true  to  the  principles  and  doc 
trines  of  the  fathers  of  the  revolution,  as  I  believe  we  shall  be 
If  I  thoug-ht  it  possible  to  fail,  I  should  have  no  faith  in  th 
success  of  any  just  appeals  to  the  people.  But  we  shall  no 
fail.  I  believe  the  right  will  yet  triumph,  and  that  the  in 
herent  power  of  our  principles  will  make  us  invincible.  Le 
us  then  rally  around  our  banner,  the  banner  of  "  libert; 
and  union,"  bowing"  to  no  presidential  dictations  or  judicia 
usurpations,  acknowledg-ing-  no  hig-her  earthly  power  than  th 
constitution  of  our  country,  and  the  individual  responsibilit; 
and  sovereignty  of  the  citizens,  and  a  triumph,  a  g-lorious  tri 
umph,  awaits  us.  Yes,  the  future,  the  g-olden  future,  prom 
ises  to  us  the  realization  of  all  our  hopes,  the  inauguration  c 
a  true  democracy  in  the  land  of  Washing-ton,  and  the  admit 
istration  of  our  national  government  as  it  was  administere 
by  our  fathers,  so  that  in  every  State  and  in  every  Territor 
in  all  our  broad  Union,  there  shall  eventually  come  an  end  t 
oppression  and  to  slavery.  Let  us  keep  this  faith  or  non( 
If  as  a  people  we  so  act  as  to  deserve  this  deliverance,  w 
shall  g-et  it,  never  doubt  it.  Since  the  org-anization  of  th 
Republican  party,  I  have  contemplated  with  rapture,  not  onl 
this  triumph,  but  the  inauguration  of  the  day  long  looke 
for  which  shall  surely  come,  when  not  only  in  America  an 
in  Europe,  but  in  every  land  beneath  the  sun,  despotism  sha 
cease,  aristocracies  and  special  privileges  have  an  end,  an 
the  people  of  every  race  and  religion  be  fully  and  freely  ei 
franchised.  This  faith  grows  stronger  with  every  contes 
and  though  our  principles  and  most  generous  aspirations  f( 
humanity  have  been  everywhere  condemned  and  disparage 
with  unbecoming  mendacity  by  our  opponents,  we  must  not  1 
deterred  from  the  faithful  defense  of  these  principles,  but  r^ 
member  that  as  citizens,  we  have  a  higher  duty  to  perform  tha 
blind  obedience  to  the  behests  of  any  party,  and  that  the^ 
malignant  assaults  have  ever  been  the  favorite  weapons  of  tl 
enemies  of  right.  During  the  last  canvass  I  was  persoi 
ally  assailed  by  the  opposition,  with  a  rudeness  and  bitterne; 
which  told  too  plainly  the  desperation  of  their  cause  in  th 
locality  and  the  unsavory  character  of  the  men  who  are  i 


17 


recognized  leaders.  It  is  a  source  of  much  satisfaction  to  me 
now,  as  I  trust  it  is  to  you  and  all  my  friends,  to  know  that 
in  my  late  canvass  I  nowhere  descended  to  personalities, 
or  appeals  to  the  baser  passions  of  men,  or  to  the  use  of  an 
argument  or  remark  that  would  not  have  been  entirely  in  place 
and  proper  in  any  legislative  body. 

I  felt  m3^self  highly  honored  in  being  commissioned  by  you 
to  stand  up  and  defend  the  principles  of  Jeffersonian  democracy 
when  most  bitterly  assailed  and  insulted  by  its  professed 
friends.  The  strength  and  confidence  which  I  felt  in  defend- 
ing them  arose  from  no  over-estimate  of  my  own  abilities,  but 
from  a  simple  reliance  upon  the  power  of  truth.  Yes,  upon 
the  rock  of  truth  we  rest  our  cause,  and  we  have  the  promise 
that  neither  adverse  winds  nor  waves  shall  prevail  against 
it.  When  truth  was  born  angels  rejoiced.  God  in  his  love 
sent  it  down  from  heaven  to  earth  for  the  guidance  of  man. 
It  is  a  principle  that  will  never  die  ;  humanity  cannot  meas- 
ure its  omnipotent  strength.  It  has  often  been  crushed  to 
earth,  but  survives  to-day  in  all  its  original  power,  and  will 
live  to  witness  the  death  of  all  its  foes.  Neither  earthly  wis- 
dom nor  worldly  policy  can  stay  its  advance  or  prevent  its 
final  triumph. 

In  the  mighty  political  conflict  which  is  approaching  be- 
tween freedom  and  despotism  in  this  country,  it  will  gain  a 
victory  such  as  has  not  been  recorded  since  the  organization 
of  governments  by  man,  because  it  will  be  a  victory  for  uni- 
versal liberty,  encircled  in  a-  halo  of  righteousness  and  peace. 
It  may  not  be  achieved  this  year  or  next,  but  it  will  come  ;  be 
aiot  deceived,  it  will  surely  come  ;  no  earthly  power  can  stay  it. 

That  this  great  party  of  freedom  to  which  we  belong  will 
•prove  the  salvation  of  our  country,  I  firmly  believe.  Let  us 
/see  to  it,  then,  that  none  but  good  and  true  men  are  chosen 
by  us  as  leaders,  and  that  we  preserve  the  organization  free 
from  the  corrupting  influences  of  compromises. 

You  have  all  read  of  the  numerous  schemes  proposed  by 
as  many  different  political  tricksters,  all  tending  to  a  total 
abandonment  of  the  Republican  organization  as  a  distinct 
national  party.  It  was  attempted  by  a  large  number  of  these 
^isorganizers  during  the  late  contest  in  Illinois,  where  they 
jfnade  an  effort  to  drive  the  Republican  party  in  that  State  into 


18  — 


the  support  of  Mr.  Douglas.  I  know  this  to  be  true,  for  afte: 
our  election  in  this  State  I  went  to  Illinois  and  labored  unti 
the  election  for  the  success  of  the  Republican  cause.  There 
Ilearned  to  mysurpiise  that  there  were  men  here  in  Ohio,  anc 
all  over  the  Union,  editors,  leading-  politicians,  and  member 
of  Congress,  who,  having  been  entrusted  by  a  Republican  con 
stituency,  betrayed  that  trust  far  enough  to  unite  (som* 
openly  and  many  secretly)  in  counseling  and  urging  s< 
shameful  an  abandonment  of  our  principles  and  organization 
as  the  election  of  Mr.  Douglas  as  senator,  for  the  allegec 
purpose  of  obtaining  a  temporary  triumph  over  Mr.  Buchanan 
Could  the  madness  of  folly  have  exceeded  this  ? 

By  this  means  Abraham  Lincoln,  one  of  our  best  and  trues 
men,  was  defeated  in  Illinois,  although  we  have  a  Republi 
can  majority  in  that  State,  and  Mr.  Douglas  is  again  returne< 
to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  for  six  years.  This  may  b 
particularly  gratifying  to  that  class  of  professed  Republican 
who  aided  in  bringing  about  such  a  state  of  things,  but  it  ap 
pears  to  me  one  of  the  greatest  misfortunes  that  ever  befell 
free  people, 

Mr.  Buchanan  and  his  administration  had  been  passe^ 
upon  and  condemned  ;  he  had  no  longer  any  power  for  evil 
he  is  a  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  all  honest  people,  and  in  tw 
years  more  the  country  will  be  rid  of  him,  and  I  trust  of  th 
party  which  elected  him,  but  Mr.  Douglas  is  fastened  upo 
the  country  for  six  years,  which  probably  could  not  have  bee 
done  but  for  the  powerful  outside  influence  to  which  I  hav 
alluded.  Suppose  he  does  antagonize  Mr.  Buchanan's  admit 
istration,  which  I  do  not  believe  he  will,  on  any  materi* 
issue,  he  will  do  it,  if  at  all,  only  far  enough,  on  the  slaver 
question,  to  deceive  and  mislead  the  Northern  people,  whil 
secretly  he  will  be  in  league  with  every  Southern  scheme  fc 
the  propagation  of  slavery,  as  he  openly  declares  that  h 
'*  does  not  care  whether  slavery  is  voted  up  or  voted  down." 

These  schemes  for  the  disintegration  of  the  Republica 
party  originated  either  with  vain,  weak,  and  ambitious  mei 
who  hoped  in  the  general  disorganization  thus  effected  i 
rise  to  the  surface  and  become  leaders,  or  else  with  cui 
ning  and  designing  traitors  in  our  own  ranks.  It  matters  no 
however, -from  whom  these  overtures  for  a  surrender  come 


19 


if  from  those  who  have  been  entrusted  with  our  confidence, 
they  are  spies  in  our  camp  and  must  be  shot  down.  If  from 
those  who  were  our  most  bitter  revilers,  and  caused  our  defeat 
in  1856,  or  those  who  profess  to  be  in  our  ranks  and  entertain 
propositions  for  a  surrender,  they  are  unworthy  of  our  confi- 
dence another  hour.  I  trust  that  all  these  men  may  be  ferreted 
DUt,  in  every  State,  and  the  people  demand  a  surrender  of  the 
trust  committed  .to  them,  no  matter  how  high  the  station,  be- 
cause of  their  conspiracy,  for  the  betrayal  of  a  cause  entrusted 
to  them  to  defend.  Let  us  set  our  faces  as  flint  ag-ainst 
such  men  and  such  schemes.  We  in  Ohio,  who  left  the 
old  dominant  party,  having-  possession  of  all  the  depart- 
ments of  the  National  and  State  Government,  did  so  be- 
:ause  of  the  departure  of  that  party  from  every  principle  of 
iemocracy  ;  and  whenever  the  alternative  is  presented  ag-ain  to 
the  same  democratic  element  in  the  Republican  party,  to  aban- 
ion  the  principles  which  it  cherished,  and  held,  when  in  the 
Did  org-anization,  to  be  paramount  to  all  others,  it  will  reso- 
lutely adhere  to  and  defend  them  ag-ainst  any  and  every 
scheme  for  their  abandonment.  Did  you,  my  fellow-citizens, 
who  were  nearly  all  members  of  the  old  Democratic  party  in 
this  county,  leave  that  org-anization  in  mass,  as  you  did,  and 
aid  in  the  formation  of  the  Republican  party  merely  for  the 
sake  of  chang-e?  [No,  No.]  Or  was  it  because  you  deter- 
mined to  follow  principles  in  preference  to  leaders?  [*'Ta 
follow  principles."] 

I  knew  you  would  thus  respond.  I  may  say  further  that 
the  men  who  could  thus  leave  a  dominant  party  for  a  princi- 
ple and  join  a  party  weak  in  numbers,  strug-gling-  ag-ainst  a 
party  having-  in  its  hands  all  the  patronage  of  the  National 
Government,  and  the  prestige  of  many  victories,  may  be  re- 
lied upon  to  withstand  the  blandishments  of  power,  and  to  pre- 
fer defeat  to  the  humiliation  of  a  triumph  secured  by  a 
surrender  of  their  cherished  principles.  To  all  true  men  one 
such  victory  would  be  a  greater  humiliation  than  a  score  of  de- 
feats. The  live  men  in  the  Republican  party,  *'The  Old 
Liberty  Guard,"  who  have  given  it  its  life  and  vitality,  have 
fought  too  many  battles,  when  their  numbers  were  compara- 
tively insignificant  and  when  there  was  no  hope  of  success,  to 
think  of  abandoning  the  Republican  organization,  now  that 


—  20  — 

thousands  of  new  recruits  are  daily  joining-  the  army  of  free 
dom  and  victory  everywhere  throug-hout  the  Free  State 
has  crowned  our  appeals  to  the  judgments  and  hearts  o 
the  people. 

The  banner  of  liberty  can  wave  g-allantly  only  over  well 
contested  fields,  where  brave,  earnest  men,  armed  with  th 
panoply  of  truth,  are  battling-  ag-ainst  slavery  and  its  allie 
for  the  liberty  of  the  human  race. 

**  Then  let  us  rally  'round  our  banner, 

For  none  can  better  be  ; 
Shout  out  the  g-ood  old  watchword, 

Death  or  victory. 
Blow  the  blasts  upon  your  bug-les, 

Call  the  battle  roll  anew, 
If  months  had  well  nigh  won  the  field, 

What  may  not  four  years  do  ?  " 

You,  my  fellow-citizens,  have  aided  most  materially  i 
commissioning-  me  to  represent  the  principles  of  the  Republ 
can  party  in  the  councils  of  the  nation,  and  to  defend,  so  far  i 
the  vote  and  watchfulness  of  a  representative  can,  your  inte 
ests  and  that  of  free  labor  everywhere,  against  the  section: 
fanaticism  and  combined  forces  of  the  slave  barons.  I  sha 
g-o  to  the  scene  of  my  labors  with  a  distrust  in  my  own  abil 
ties,  and  a  consciousness  of  the  want  of  experience  indispei 
sable  to  success  in  leg-islative  assemblies,  but  faith  in  the  justi( 
of  our  cause,  and  the  immutability  of  our  principles,  shall  1 
my  shield  of  protection  and  defense.  With  them  for  my  guid< 
I  have  no  fears  but  that  the  inexperience  of  the  most  unski 
ful  may  become  formidable,  and  their  humblest  defender  1 
able  to  withstand  the  attacks  of  the  strongest.  But  ho^ 
ever  true  our  principles  and  certain  of  ultimate  success,  a  repr 
sentative  needs  and  must  have  the  cordial  cooperation  and  su 
port  of  his  constituents,  or  his  efforts,  be  they  ever  so  able  ai 
well-directed,  will  be  in  a  great  degree  powerless.  That  I  she 
have  this  support  from  Paulding  county,  your  past  and  prese: 
expressions  of  esteem  and  regard  warrant  me  in  believin: 
In  conclusion,  let  me  say  that  this  social  gathering  is  mo 
agreeable  and  pleasant,  and  that  I  am  amply  repaid  for  the  u 


—  21 


avoidable  disappointment  we  had  on  the  Sth  of  October  last. 
Had  it  not  been  for  that  disappointment,  this  g-athering* 
would  not  have  been  held,  the  meeting-  being-  intended,  as  I 
understand  by  General  Curtis  and  my  friends  here,  to  com- 
pensate, in  part,  for  that  disappointment. 

May  we  all  live  to  witness  many  such  reunions,  and  may 
each  returning  occasion  of  the  kind  find  the  cause  of  our  re- 
joicing* as  ample  as  .this  afternoon,  and  the  citizens  of  little 
Paulding-  as  true  to  freedom,  as  faithful  to  the  principles  of 
rig-ht  in  any  contest  through  which  we  may  be  called  to  pass, 
as  the  gallant  patriot  and  hero  of  the  Revolution  in  honor  of 
whom  your  county  was  named. 


ADDRESS 

DELIVI^RED  AT  CHARLOE,   OHIO. 


On  Monday,  January  31,  1859,  Hon.  J.  M.  Ashley,  of 
Toledo,  visited  Paulding*  county,  a:id  presented  the  Republi- 
cans of  Brown  township  with  a  fine  flag-,  it  being-  the 
banner  township  of  this  county. 

Early  on  Monday  morning-  the  people  of  Brown  town- 
ship, and  from  other  portions  of  the  county,  beg-an  to  gather 
at  Charloe.  They  came  with  music — rich,  soft  and  sweet — 
and  an  enthusiasm  which  far  exceeded  our  expectations,  and 
which  told  that  the  feeling-  in  Paulding-  is  not  of  a  spasmodic 
nature. 

At  eleven  o'clock  Hon.  Mr.  Ashley  presented  to  the  Re- 
publicans of  Brown  the  flag-,  in  an  appropriate  speech  setting 
forth  the  object  of  the  g-ift,  and  requesting-  that  they  should 
give  the  flag  to  that  township  which  shall  hereafter  give 
the  greatest  increased  Republican  vote  over  that  of  last  fall. 

J.  W.  Ayres,  on  behalf  of  the  citizens  of  Brown,  made 
some  remarks  which  we  were  not  able  to  report,  after  whicL 
a  procession  was  formed,  and  the  throng  marched  to  the 
court-house,  where  Judge  Shirley  was  called  to  the  chair, 
and  after  calling  the  house  to  order,  J.  O.  Shannon  read  the 
following  sentiment : 

**  Gkn.  Ashi^ky,  of  Tolkdo — Our  Congrkssman-ei.kct— 
We  bid  him  welcome  to  the  homes  and  hearts  of  the  Republi- 
cans of  Paulding.  May  his  future  efforts,  in  the  councils  oJ 
the  nation,  be  as  successful  and  as  worthy  of  our  hearty  ap- 
proval, as  his  past  labors  in  defense  of  true  democracy — evei 
battling  against  that  kind  of  popular  sovereignty,  that  woulc 
allow  the  majority  to  enslave  the  minority,  because  they  were 
weak  and  defenseless,  so  that  when  he  returns  to  his  homt 
we  may  say  to  him  *  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant." 

(22) 


I        The 


—  23 


The  chairman  then  introduced  Mr.  Ashley,  who  made  the 
following-  address  : 

Mr.  President  :  I  thank  you,  most  heartily  do  I  thank 
.  you,  for  your  words  of  encouragement  and  confidence,  and  I 
^  trust  that  my  acts  and  votes  in  the  new  and  untried  field  of 
labor,  to  which  you  have  commissioned  me,  will  be  such  that 
on  my  return  home  I  may  find,  to  some  extent  at  least,  to  have 
(justified  your  expectations.  I  can  hardly  hope,  however, 
with  my  inexperience,  to  be  entitled  to  the  full  commenda- 
«tion  of  the  sentiments  just  read. 

I  I  need  not  say,  ladies  and  g-entlemen,  that  it  affords  me 
imuch  pleasure  to  meet  and  participate  with  you  in  the  fes- 
tivities of  this  afternoon  ;  my  presence  at  this  season  of  the 
year  is  a  guarantee  for  that.  When  I  was  here  in  August 
last  and  addressed  you,  you  promised  me  that  Brown  town- 
ship would  give  the  largest  increased  Republican  vote  of  any 
township  in  the  county  of  Paulding,  and  you  have  nobly  re- 
deemed that  promise.  For  the  support  you  then  gave  me, 
and  the  compliment  of  this  afternoon's  entertainment,  I  am 
deeply  grateful,  and  shall  spare  no  effort  to  earn  a  continu- 
ance of  your  confidence. 

I  indeed  hardly  know  what  to  say,  or  how  to  say  what  I 
would,  in  return  for  the  many  acts  of  personal  regard  you 
|have  shown  me. 

I  am  a  poor  hand  to  make  such  a  speech  as  is  gen- 
erally expected  on  occasions  of  this  kind,  and  as  I  have  al- 
ready spoken  before  a  meeting  similar  to  this  at  Gen.  Cur- 
tis's,  where  some  of  you  were  present,  I  will  now  only 
detain  j^ou  long  enough  to  refer  briefly  to  such  matters  as 
suggest  themselves  to  me  on  the  spur  of  the  moment. 

The  Republican  party,  my  fellow-citizens,  in  the  late 
contest  in  this  district  and  State,  and  indeed  all  over  the 
Union,  has  given  evidence  of  its  life  and  vitality,  and  the 
power  of  .its  principles.  The  basis  of  its  faith  is  the  rights 
of  man.  An  investigation  by  the  people  of  our  claims  to 
-their  support  is  all  we  ask. 

I  We  need  no  trickery,  fraud,  or  falsehoods  to  commend 
faie  doctrines  of  the  Republican  party  to  the  enlightened  un- 
derstanding of  every  independent  citizen,  and  when  once  our 
principles  are  clearly  understood  we  shall  be  invincible.     Let 


k 


24 


none  be  discouraged  or  weary  in  well-doing-.  Let  all  remem 
ber  that  liberty  is  the  birthright  of  the  human  race,  that  n( 
consistent  believer  in  that  greatest  and  best  charter  of  humat 
freedom  can  do  otherwise  than  acknowledge  the  justice  o 
that  principle  which  recognizes  the  natural  right  of  ever 
human  being,  and  claims  that  they  are  entitled  to  the  pro 
tection  of  life  and  liberty,  by  every  law  of  man's  enactment 
The  Creator  made  all  men  of  every  race  and  country  free 
and 

**  On  this  round  earth,  which  God  to  Adam  gave 
For  freedom,  there  breathes  no  fettered  slave 
That  does  not  hope  and  long  and  pray  to  see 
And  taste  the  fruit  that  grows  on  freedom's  tree." 

And  while  this  is  true,  I  cannot  believe  that  the  Create 
intended  to  leave  man  to  struggle  on  forever  without  attair 
ing  that  freedom.  He  destines  a  calmer  and  brighter  futur 
for  the  struggling  millions  of  earth. 

Conceived  in  the  bosom  of  Everlasting  Love,  this  princ: 
pie,  **that  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons,"  was  sent  down  t 
us  and  authoritatively  proclaimed  to  the  world  by  the  grea 
apostle  of  the  new   covenant,    more  than  1800  years  ag( 
Neither  you  nor  I  can  fix  the  day  when  this  just  principl 
will  become  a  law  universally  received  by  man ;  but  it  wil 
I  have  an  abiding  faith  in  its  ultimate  fulfilment,  and  sha 
not  cease  to  believe  it  because  I  cannot  point  to  the   hoi 
when  the  final  triumph  shall  be  witnessed.     It  is  enough  fc 
us  to  know  our  duty  as  men  and  to  act  it ;  to  know  that  th 
right  will  triumph,  that  truth  cannot  fail ;  that  amid  all  th 
sophistry  of  dema'g'ogues,  of  compromises  with  wrong  an 
popular  sovereignty  deceptions,  there  will  come  an  hour,  wit 
every  man,  when  his  conscience  will  refuse  to  submit  to  tli 
doctrines  and  commands  of  any  party  which  tramples  upc 
the  rights  of  man.     Because  the  Democracy  disregards  tt 
natural  rights  of  man  we  oppose  it,  and  cannot  assent  to  tl 
interpretation  given  by  it  to  the  so-called  doctrine  of  popuh 
sovereignty,  which  surrenders  the  natural  rights  of  man  1 
the  unlicensed  will  of  a  majority,  and  by  an  enabling  act  ( 
Congress  would  make  it  lawful  for  every  fifth  man  in  a  te 


-is- 


ritory,  by  combining,  to  enslave  the  sixth,  and  keep  him  and 
his  posterity  in  bondage  forever.  I  believe  in,  and  have  al- 
ways been  au  advocate  of  "true"  popular  sovereignty,  **the 
right  of  a  majority  to  rule  (not  enslave);  that  the  clearly 
expressed  will  of  a  majority  of  the  bona-fide  electors  of  any 
legally  organized  territory,  on  all  proper  subjects  of  human 
legislation,  should  be  the  law  of  said  territory." 

But  I  cannot  recognize  that  principle  as  Republican  or 
Democratic  that  would  concede  the  right  of  the  majority  to 
enslave  the  minority,  merely  because  they  were  poor,  or  be- 
cause they  were  black,  and  without  sufficient  power  to  resist 
the  wrong.  To  do  so,  would  be  to  establish,  as  the  policy  of 
our  government,  the  doctrine  that  might  makes  right.  I 
cannot  consent  that  by  any  enabling  act  of  Congress,  for 
which  the  whole  people  of  the  United  States  would  be  re- 
sponsible, the  residents  of  any  territory  under  our  national 
jurisdiction,  may,  because  they  happen  to  be  in  the  majority, 
subjugate  even  a  few  of  its  inhabitants  and  hold  them  under 
rules  and  regulations,  or  laws,  if  you  choose  to  call  them 
such,  the  most  barbarous  the  world  ever  saw,  to  labor  against 
their  will,  without  compensation,  and  without  hope  for  an 
end  of  their  or  their  children's  servitude  but  in  the  grave. 

The  natural  rights  of  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  learned 
and  the  ignorant,  the  strong  and  the  feeble,  of  whatever 
country,  caste,  or  religious  belief,  should  be  held  sacred  and 

,  inviolable  by  Republicans,  because  the  right  of  a  majority 
to  enslave  but  one  man — no  matter  who  that  man  is^presup- 
poses  the  right  to  enslave  all,  without  regard  to  race  or  color, 

i  who  by  fraud  and  force  can  be  reduced  to  chattelhood. 

This  kind  of  popular  sovereignty  would  not  be  very 
agreeable  to  any  of  its  present  noisy  aavocates,  if  they  or 
their  friends  were  the  persons  upon  whom  its  blessings  were 
to  operate.  If  any  of  them  were  reduced  to  slavery  by  a  pop- 
ular vote  of  any  nation  on  the  globe,  the  most  solemn  pro- 
tests and  appeals  would  be  made  by  each  victim  to  the  mercy 
of  the  enslavers,  and  to  the  God  of  heaven  for  deliverance ; 
just  such  appeals  as  can  now  be  heard  daily  at  the  whipping- 
-  post  on  every  plantation  in  the  South. 

Suppose  the  Chinese  nation,  many  of  whose  citizens  we 
are  enslaving  under  the  disguise  of  the  apprenticeship  sys- 


26  — 


tern,  should  by  a  popular  vote  in  any  of  their  territories  de 
cide,  even  unanimously,  to  enslave  some  of  these  popula 
sovereig^nty  doctors,  if  found  in  that  empire  ;  and  when  thos< 
who  were  thus  enslaved  should  appeal,  as  they  doubtles 
would,  to  the  head  of  that  great  empire  for  protection  agains 
such  an  outrage  upon  the  natural  rights  of  man,  what  wouh 
you  think  of  the  honor,  or  justice,  or  humanity  6f  that  ruler 
if  he  should  answer  them  in  the  language  of  their  own  grea 
popular  sovereignty  champion,  Douglas,  only  changing  tb 
word  *' black"  to  "white  man,"  and  say,  "  I  cannot  help  you 
individually  I  am  very  sorry  for  you,  but  it  is  a  decree  o 
heaven,  as  the  difference  in  your  organization  and  ours,  you: 
high  foreheads  and  white  skins  clearly  indicate  that  you  ar< 
to  be  servants  and  '  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water, 
and  whether  you  are  to  be  kept  as  slaves  or  not  is  left  en 
tirely  with  my  people.  I  do  not  care  whether  slavery  i 
voted  up  or  voted  down  in  any  particular  district  or  ter 
ritory  of  my  kingdom ;  that  is  a  matter  which  belongs  ex 
clusively  to  the  people  of  the  several  localities,  and  if  a  ma 
jority  agree  that  they  want  you  or  any  other  race  for  slaves 
they  will  have  them ;  and  wherever  in  my  empire  the  soil 
climate  and  productions  make  it  the  interest  of  my  people  t« 
use  slave  labor  *they  will  vote  slavery  up,'  and  whereve 
climate,  soil  and  productions  preclude  the  possibility  o 
slave  labor  *  they  will  vote  it  down ; '  they  are  left  per 
fectly  free  to  form  and  regulate  their  own  domestic  in 
stitutions  in  their  own  way,  subject  only  to  the  suprem 
constitution.  This  is  not  a  question  between  the  China 
man  and  the  white  man,  but  between  the  white  man  an< 
the  crocodile ;  and  as  between  the  white  man  and  th 
crocodile  we  go  for  the  white  man,  but  between  th 
Chinaman  and  the  white  man,  we  go  for  the  Chinaman 
The  Almighty  has  drawn  a  line  through  my  empire,  on  on 
side  of  which  the  soil  must  be  cultivated  by  slave  labor,  01 
the  other  side  by  free  labor.  This  slave  line  is  not  boundec 
by  36  degrees  and  30  minutes,  but  in  the  sugar  fields  and  ric 
plantations  of  the  South,  and  " — • 

[The  remainder  of  this  sentence  in  the  great  popular  sovereig-nty  argrument  c 
the  emperor,  like  Senator  Doug-las's  speech  at  Memphis,  was  unfortunately  los 
amid  the  *'  noise  and  confusion  "  arising"  from  the  applause  of  the  admiring-  Chins 
men  who  surrounded  the  reporter,  so  that  I  am  unable  to  g-ive  it  to  you.] 


27 


The  emperor,  however,  continued  by  saying",  **  It  is  with 
me  and  my  people  a  mere  principle  of  dollars  and  cents.  If 
it  were  not  convenient  and  profitable  to  make  slaves  of  you, 
we  would  not  want  you." 

But  our  popular  sovereig-nty  doctors  would  probably  pro- 
test ag-ainst  the  practical  application  of  their  doctrine,  and 
claim  that  pirates  had  stolen  them,  that  they  were  born  free 
and  above  all  were '  *white,  "  and  the  Chinaman,  to  carry  out  the 
Douglas  popular  sovereignty  theory  to  the  letter,  could  reply  as 
our  Supreme  Court  and  the  slave  democracy  have  done,  by  say- 
ing", *'that  all  men  were  originally  born  free,  and  by  pirates 
were  first  stolen  and  sold  into  slavery,  and  it  is  agreed  that 
all  who  first  steal  men  are  pirates,  and  punishable  by  the  laws 
of  nations  with  death  ;  yet  the  law  regulating-  the  receipt  of 
stolen  goods  and  compelling-  their  return  to  their  original 
owner  does  not  apply  in  your  case.     When  once  sold  you  are 
legally  the  property  of  the  purchaser.     This  traf&c  has  been 
sanctioned  by  the  usages  of  my  people   for  more  than  two 
hundred  years,  and  our  laws  and  constitution  recognize  the 
right  of  man  to   property  in  man,  and   although  you  now 
have  no  remedy  but  submission,  yet,  if  we  capture  the  pirates 
who  brought  you  here,  we  will  try  them  and  punish  them,  as 
our  laws  and  treaties  require,  provided  the  juries  in  the  locali- 
ties where  we  order  the  trials  to  take  place  find  them  g-uilty. 
But  my  people  having"  once  invested  their  money  in  this  kind 
of  property,  it  is  guarded  with   peculiar  care  by  the  supreme 
g-overnment,  and  you  must  remain  in  servitude.    This  is  a  fun- 
damental principle  of  our  democracy,  '  to  leave  the  people  of 
this  country  perfectly  free'  to  regulate  their  local  institutions 
in  their  own  way,  and  I  learn  with  pleasure  that  it  is  the  cor- 
ner-stone of  the  democracy  in  your  country,  where  some  of 
these  same  kind  of  pirates  have  recently  landed  several  car- 
goes of  free  men,  who  were   immediately   sold  to  g-ood  and 
kind  masters,  as  they  all  unite  in  assuring-  the  world,  and 
only  from  motives  of  humanity  and  for  the  purposes  of  chris- 
tianization.     You  will  find  that  my  people  are  governed  ex- 
actly by  the  same  benevolent  principles,  and  I  trust  that  their 
efforts  under  Providence  will  not  be  without  good  results  in 
reclaiming  you  and  your  children  from  the  heathen  super- 
stitions  of  your   country.     As    to  you    being    *  white,'  the 


i 


^28  — 

court  of  last  resort,  the  hig^hest  judicial  tribunal  known  t( 
our  laws,  has  decided  '  that  white  men  have  no  rig'hts  tha' 
Chinamen  are  bound  to  respect,'  so  that  your  being-  whiti 
is  only  an  arg"ument  against  you,  and  would  make  no  more  dif 
ference  with  my  people,  than  it  does  with  yours  in  America, 
as  I  find  on  examining-  many  of  your  countrymen's  newspapers 
which  contain  advertisement  after  advertisement  offering 
*  large  rewardsi or  runaway  slaves,  dead  or  alive,  and  describee 
as  branded  on  the  cheek,  breast,  legs  and  arms  with  a  hoi 
iron,  in  the  shape  of  the  initial  letter  of  the  owner's  name,  anc 
badly  scarred  on  the  back  with  whipping,  and  so  white  tha 
they  would  readily  pass  for  white  persons,'  all  of  whicl 
would  be,  I  regret  to  say,  lamentably  too  true.  For  as  Bige 
low  says,  and  says  truly,  in  this  country 

*  Slavery  aint  o'  nary  color, 

'Taint  the  hide  that  makes  it  wus, 

All  it  keers  for  in  a  feller, 

's  just  to  make  him  fill  its  pus.' " 

This  is  a  true  and  faithful  exhibition  of  popular  sovei 
eignty  as  advocated  by  the  Douglas  democracy,  and  is  give: 
in  almost  the  exact  words  of  their  great  champion  in  th 
foregoing  Chinaman's  argument,  as  a  reference  to  Douglas' 
published  speeches  recently  delivered  at  Memphis  and  NeA 
Orleans  will  show.  I  need  not  ask  you  if  you  are  ready  t 
abandon  the  principles  and  policy  of  the  fathers,  which  ar 
also  the  principles  of  the  Republican  party,  and  adopt  sue 
bogus  democracy  as  this.  I  know  you  will  not.  You  believe 
all  of  us  believe,  that  a  truly  democratic  government  will  se 
to  it  that  the  poor  and  defenseless  are  protected  against  th 
aggressions  of  the  rich  and  powerful,  and  that  all  thei 
rights  as  individuals  are  carefully  secured  and  guarde 
against  any  such  abuse  of  '*  popular  sovereignty  "  as  that  ac 
vocated  by  those  who  say  that  ' '  they  do  not  care  whether  you 
rights  or  mine  are  voted  up  or  voted  down,  or  whether  we  ai 
slaves  or  free,"  and  are  willing  to  concede,  and  not  only  1 
concede,  but  to  put  it  in  the  power  of  those  who  desire  it,  an 
•to  encourage  them  to  enslave,  if  they  can,  all  the  defenseles 


—  29  — 

in  our  territories,  and  to  hold  them  in  servitude  in  defiance 
of  the  principles  of  our  national  constitution. 

Ag-ainst  such  popular  sovereig-nty  I  protest,  you  protest, 
and  honest  men  every-where  protest. 

If  this  government  was  organized  for  any  purpose,  it  was 
to  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  to  our  pos- 
terity, and  not  to  enslave  any  liisan,  nor  to  become  the  defend- 
ers of  slavery.  It  was  a  maxim  of^-G:^n.  Jackson,  and  in  his 
day  a  cardinal  principle  of  democratic  faith,  that  "the  gov- 
ernment should  be  so  administered  as  to  secure  the  greatest 
good  to  the  greatest  number,  protecting  all,  and  granting 
special  favors  to  none."  This  doctrine  is  now  reversed,  and 
a  privileged  class,  who  enslave  the  defenseless,  are  not  only 
the  special  object  and  care  of  the  government,  biit  they  con- 
trol the  government  as  absolutely  as  if  they  were  the  only 
citizens  of  the  republic.  To  meet  and  resist  the  aggressions 
of  this  privileged  class,  who,  with  the  stolen  garb  of  democ- 
racy, are  striving  to  force  slavery  into  all  the  States  and 
Territories  of  the  Union,  and  reopen  and  legalize  the  African 
slave  trade,  the  Republican  party  was  organized,  and  though 
side  and  immaterial  issues,  and  the  so-called  doctrine  of  pop- 
ular sovereignty,  may  deceive  and  mislead  the  people  for  a 
time,  these  deceptions  will  all  fail  at  last,  and  the  cause  of 
humanity  and  right  shall  triumph. 

And  what  ought  to  be  said  of  those  who,  in  a  free  land 
like  ours,  privileged  to  do  right  if  they  will,  yet  permit  them- 
selves to  be  coerced  by  unprincipled  leaders,  and  sacrifice 
their  convictions  of  right  and  the  better  impulses  of  their 
hearts,  to  the  despotism  and  tyranny  of  party,  merely  because 
it  assumes  to  bear  the  sacred  name  of  Democrat  ? 

That  the  Republican  party  triumphed,  in  the  late  contest, 
in  all  the  strongholds  of  the  so-called  Democracy,  under  the 
adverse  influence  of  an  alluring  name,  immense  patronage, 
and  all  the  resorts  to  frauds,  falsehoods,  and  misrepresenta- 
tion, demonstrates  to  my  satisfaction,  the  truth  and  power  of 
our  principles. 

Our  success  for  the  past  two  years  is  due  in  no  small  de- 
gree to  the  freedom-loving  Germans.  Let  us  not  fail  to  ac- 
knowledge our  indebtedness  to  them,  and  to  thank  them  most 
cordially  for  their  invaluable  aid,  for  without  them  we  should 


—  30-^ 

have  been  defeated.  Not  only  in  this  congressional  district, 
but  in  States  all  over  the  country,  this  honest,  sturdy,  Saxor 
element  is  everywhere  uniting-  with  us,  and  if  we  are  but  tru( 
to  the  cause  of  freedom  they  will  remain  with  us.  Had  it  nol 
been  for  the  charg-e  of  Know-Nothing-ism,  which  was  so  persist- 
endy  and  falsely  made  ag"ainst  us,  by  the  very  party  whict 
has  to-day,  and  had  then,  nearly  all  the  pro-Slavery  Know- 
Nothing-  leaders  secretly  in  its  ranks,  we  should  have  number- 
ed with  the  Republican  army  in  1856  about  the  entire  Germar 
element  in  the  United  States.  They  will  be  with  us  in  1860. 
They  can  be  deceived  with  the  name  of  democracy  no 
longer.  In  all  our  larg-e  cities,  in  Chicag-o,  St.  Louis,  Cin- 
cinnati, Milwaukee  and  Toledo,  and  indeed  in  nearly  all  thi 
States,  we  owe  our  success  to  the  German  vote.  It  was  in- 
deed a  glorious  sight  to  see  that  solid  old  Saxon  elemenl 
showing  its  true  independence,  and  uniting  with  us,  as  they 
did  in  Toledo,  in  rallying  around  the  banner  of  liberty.  It  is 
a  good  omen  for  the  future,  and  if  we  but  remain  true  tc 
them  and  to  ourselves,  and  without  compromise  stand  by  oui 
organization,  and  our  gallant  and  true  leaders,  who  in  four  suc- 
cessive campaigns,  in  nearly  all  the  free  States,  have  safelj 
led  us  to  battle  and  .0  victory,  there  can  be  no  such  word  as 
fail.  Every  pulsation  of  the  popular  heart  gives  us  the  as- 
surance that  the  shout  of  the  awakening  is  at  hand,  that  the 
day  for  the  triumph  of  our  cause  dawns  upon  us,  that  the 
people  in  1860  will  arise  in  their  majesty  to  hurl  the  preseni 
corrupt,  extravagant  and  sectional  administration  froiB 
power,  and  place  a  tried  and  true  statesman  of  the  national 
Republican  party  in  the  presidential  chair. 


ADDRESS 

DELIVERED  IN  GERMAN  TOWNSHtP,  FULTON 
COUNTY,   OHro. 


On  Tuesday  last,  November  1,  1859,  a  large  meeting*  of 
the  Republicans  of  German  township,  Fulton  Co.,  Ohio,  was 
held  at  Archbold  villag-e,  at  which  a  banner  was  presented 
to  the  Republicans  of  that  township  ik  honor  of  their  first 
victory  over  the  Democracy,  achieved  at  tthe  late  election.  The 
oanner  was  of  white  satin,  upon  which  was  the  following* 
inscription  in  gold  and  colors  : 

"From the  Republican  Mothers  ana Daug-hters  of  Fulton 
:ounty  to  the  Republicans  of  Germap  township."  **We 
^reet  you  as  brothers." 

"In  commemoration  of  the  g-lorious  victory  of  1859.'^ 

On  the  reverse — top  and  sides — "  Fraternity,"  "Liberty," 
*  Equality."  The  filling  in — "Where  Liberty  dwells,  there 
s  my  Country."  "Free  Homes  for  Free  People."  "Lands 
o  the  Landless."  "Protection  to  Foreign-born  Citizens 
Lbroad." 

After  the  presentation  was  made  a  resolution  was  passed 
•omplimenting  Hon.  J.  M.  Ashley,  eliciting  from  him  in 
eply  the  following  remarks,  which  we  find  in  the  Wauseon 
Republican : 

Mr.  President  and  Ladies  and  Genti^emen  :  It  is 
lot  my  purpose  to  detain  you  long,  for  I  come  not  so  much  to 
aake  a  speech  this  afternoon  as  to  be  a  listener,  and  to  enjoy 
'.  social  hour  with  friends  who  are  convened  to  celebrate  an 
vent  that  should  make  glad  the  heart  of  every  free  man, 
•"or  your  compliments,  and  the  manner  in  which  you  have 
>een  pleased  to  express  your  appreciation  .of  my  humble  ef- 
orts  for  the  cause,  I  return  you  my  sincere  thanks.  And 
•ermit  me  to  express  the  hope  that  no  act  or  vote  of  mine  in 
he  new  and   untried   field  of  labor  to  which  you  have  com- 

(31) 


32 


missioned  me,  and  to  which  in  a  few  days  I  must  repair,  wi 
ever  cause  any  of  my  fellow-citizens  to  regret  that  the 
suffrages  were  bestowed  upon  me. 

The  victory  we  have  assembled  to  celebrate,  my  felloe 
citizens,  is  not  a  victory  for  any  one  man,  or  a  number  < 
men,  but  a  victory  for  principle,  a  victory  for  humanit 
for  right,  for  truth,  for  justice.  It  is  indeed  a  glorioi 
victory,  the  effects  of  which  will  soon  be  visible  at  the  slav 
holding  capital  of  the  Republic,  where  Ohio  will  again  1 
represented  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  by  a  senat 
true  to  freedom.  This  is  a  consummation  over  which  \ 
may  properly  express  our  gratitude,  and  exchange  congrat 
lations,  and  to  no  township,  of  the  same  number  of  inha 
itants,  in  the  State,  are  we  more  deeply  indebted  for  01 
triumph  in  Ohio  this  fall,  than  to  German  township  in  Fult( 
county.  And  I  express  to  you,  but  imperfectly,  the  joy  tl 
Republicans  of  Lucas  feel,  especially  the  German  Repub! 
cans  of  Toledo,  at  the  redemption  of  German  township  fro 
the  control  of  a  spurious  and  false  democracy.  You  foug] 
the  battle  well  and  gallantly,  and  the  beautiful  banner  ju 
presented  to  you  by  the  fair  daughters  of  Fulton  county,  tel 
you  better  than  I  can  tell  you,  of  the  high  esteem  and  rega: 
in  which  you  are  held  by  those  who,  with  you,  are  battlii 
earnestly  for  the  rights  of  man  and  the  liberty  and  cnfra 
chisement  of  the  human  race.  I  have  faith  that  you  w 
take  no  step  backward,  that  you  will  stand  firmly  by  tl 
principles  of  freedom,  and  annually  carry  to  the  ballot-b< 
the  time-honored  Democratic-Republican  principle  embla 
oned  upon  the  folds  of  your  banner. 

To  you,  my  German  fellow-citizens,  the  Republic; 
party  is  under  deep  obligations  for  its  past  success.  To  y« 
it  looks  with  confidence  for  aid  in  the  great  battle  of  186 
With  gratitude  we  acknowledge  its  indebtedness  to  yo 
not  only  here  in  German  township,  but  all  over  the  counti 

Everywhere  the  freedom-loving  Germans  are  joining  o 
ranks,  and  if,  as  a  party,  we  are  faithful  to  the  constituti' 
and  the  Union,  and  true  to  the  doctrines  of  human  broths 
hood,  they  will  remain  with  us.  Had  it  not  been  for  t" 
charge  of  Know-Nothingism  which  has  been  so  persisteni 
and  falsely  made  against  us,  by  the  very  t)arty  which  from  t 


—  33  — 

first  has  had  nearly  all  the  pro-Slavery  Know-Nothing-  leaders 
secretly  in  its  ranks,  almostNCvery  German  elector  in  the  United 
States  would  have  been  with  tJ^  to-day.  As  it  is,  they  will  be 
with  us  in  1860,  and,  like  brothers  standing-  shoulder  to  shoulder 
on  the  Republican  platform,  will  r^Uy  around  the  banner  of 
liberty,  and  our  cause  shall  triumph.  Let  no  friend  of  hu- 
manity doubt  it,  for  the  principles  and  doctrines  of  the  Re- 
publican party  are  such  as  to  commend  them  to  the  judg-- 
ments  and  hearts  of  the  friends  of  liberty  and  justice  every- 
where, especially  tc  tbe  poor  of  every  nation,  who  are  seeking- 
homes  in  this  land  of  ours.  The  Republican  party  is  op- 
posed to  the  proscription  of  any  man,  whatever  his  nation- 
ality or  religion  ;  opposed  to  a  strong-  centralized  government 
in  the  hands  of  an  aristocratic  privileg-ed  class ;  opposed  to 
fraud  and  comiption  in  the  administration  of  the  govern- 
ment, to  an  irresponsible^^HDvernment  bank,  to  issuing  mil- 
lions of  shinplasters  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on  the  gov- 
ernment in  a  time  of  profound  peace,  to  borrowing  money 
every  year  for  the  ofi&ce-holders,  and  creating  a  national 
debt  for  posterity  to  pay ;  opposed  to  making  war  upon  weak 
and  defenseless  neighboring  nations  for  the  purpose  of 
robbing  them  of  their  territories  over  which  to  extend  the 
blight  of  human  slavery ;  opposed  to  the  fugitive  slave  bill, 
to  the  reopening  of  the  African  slave  trade,  or  to  permitting 
slavery  to  go  into  and  occupy  our  national  territories  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  the  laboring  white  man ;  opposed  to  selling  the  public 
lands  to  speculators,  or  permitting  them  to  go  into  the  hands 
of  any  person  but  actual  settlers ;  opposed  to  an  increase  of 
the  rates  of  letter  and  newspaper  postage ;  opposed,  as 
Washington  was,  to  a  large  standing  army  in  time  of  peace, 
believing  it  to  be  dangerous  to  the  liberties  of  a  free  peo- 
ple ;  opposed  to  importing  from  Europe  anything  which  we 
can  manufacture  as  well  and  as  cheapl}^  at  home  ;  opposed 
to  going  to  England  to  buy  rails  for  our  great  network  of 
western  railroads,  when  we  can  make  them  as  well  and 
better  from  the  iron  mountains  of  Pennsylvania,  where 
forges  and  furnaCes,  which  are  now  idle  and  still,  and  im- 
mense beds  of  coal  and  iron  ore  and  forests  of  timber,  await 
but   the  touch  of  the  American  artisan  and   American  la- 

3 
l 


—  34  — 

'borer  to  put  down  every  bar  of  railroad  iron  we  need  at  oi 
doors  ;  and  finally  opposed  to  the  passage  of  all  laws,  eith( 
by  the  legislatures  of  the  several  States,  or  by  Congres 
granting  privileges  to  the  few  which  are  denied  to  the  man; 
These  are  some  of  the  points  in  which,  as  a  party,  we  stan 
in  direct  antagonism  to  the  present  national  administratioi 
and  to  those  who  placed  it  in  power.  But  the  Republics 
party  is  not,  as  has  been  charged  by  our  opponents,  mere! 
a  party  of  negatives.  It  stands  forth  and  boldly  proclain 
to  the  world,  not  only  its  hostility  to  the  wrongs  and  co 
ruptions  of  the  slave  democracy,  but  in  the  language  « 
General   Jackson,   declares   that  it  is   in   favor  of  a  '*pi,A] 

AND  SIMPIvE:  GOVKRNMKNT,  DKVOID  OF  POMP,  PROTKCTlJi 
AI,I,   AND   GRANTING  SPKCIAI.   FAVORS   TO   NONF,"   and    that   i 

first  desire  is  to  see  the  government  so  administered  th; 
"Like  the  dews  of  heaven,  its  blessings  shall  fall  upon  tl 
rich  and  poor,  the  north  and  south  alike."  For  this  purpo 
was  the  Republican  party  organized,  and  on  this  platfor 
it  proposes  to  fight  every  battle ;  it  therefore  favors  fro 
necessity,  as  well  as  from  choice,  peace  with  all  nations  ai 
the  full  protection  not  only  of  the  American-born  citizen,  b 
of  the  rights  of  the  naturalized  citizen,  both  at  home  ai 
abroad  ;  favors  the  improvement  of  our  great  inland  seas  ai 
western  rivers  and  harbors,  to  protect  and  build  up  our  gro^ 
ing  commerce  ;  favors  the  readjustment  of  our  revenue  law 
so  that  money  enough  shall  be  collected  for  the  use  of  ; 
economical  administration  of  the  government,  without  iss 
ing  treasury  notes  or  borrowing  a  dollar,  and  at  the  sar 
time  adopt  such  a  scale  of  duties  as  shall  afford  ample  e 
couragement  to  our  manufacturing,  commercial  and  farmii 
interests,  thereby  restoring  confidence,  and  by  a  proper  di^ 
sion  of  labor  bringing  activity  to  every  forge  and  furnace  th 
is  now  lying  idle  and  still  in  the  coal  and  iron  districts 
Pennsylvania,  and  renewing  the  hum  of  the  spindle  and  shi 
tie  at  every  waterfall  among  the  cotton  and  woolen  factor: 
of  New  England  ;  thus  creating  a  home  demand  for  our  brec 
stuff  and  produce,  and  infusing  new  life  arid  new  energy  ic 
every  department  of  industry ;  keeping  our  gold  and  silver 
home,  instead  of  sending  it  to  Europe  as  now  to  buy  our  ir 
when  we  have   iron  mountains  at  our   doors,  to  buy  cott 


—  35  — 

g-oods  when  we  supply  the  world  with  raw  material,  to  buy 
our  cloth  and  woolen  goods,  when  we  can  g-row  wool  enough  to 
clothe  half  the  world.  It  also  favors  the  prohibition  of  slavery 
in  all  the  national  territories,  and  inore  stringent  laws  to 
suppress  not  only  the  African  slave  trade  but  the  enslavement 
of  Chinese  coolies,  or  any  other  race  of  men,  under  whatever 
form  of  pretense  the  attempt  may  be  made  ;  favors  the  repeal 
of  the  infamous  fugitive  slave  act,  and  leaves  the  rendition  of 
fugitives  from  Service  and  Justice  where  the  constitution 
leaves  it,  with  the  g-overnors  and  legislatures  of  the  several 
States ;  favors  the  withdrawal  of  the  public  lands  from  sale, 
and  dividing  themNinto  farms  of  160  acres  each  for  the  free 
use  of  actual  occupants;  favors  such  an  administration  of  the 
g-overnment  that  in  a  time  of  profound  peace  they  shall  keep 
their  expenditures  within  the  limits  of  the  money  raised  from 
the  duties  on  imports,  and  not  borrow  or  issue  millions  of 
paper  money,  as  this  administration  has  done,  to  carry  on  the 
government ;  favors  cheap  letter  and  newspaper  postage  so  as 
to  encourage  the  frequent  interchange  of  thought  and  intel- 
lig-ence  among  the  people ;  favors  the  election  of  all  officers 
(so  far  as  practicable)  by  the  people,  and  the  withdrawal 
from  the  President  of  the  dangerous  appointing  power  now  in 
his  hands  ;  favors  a  small  standing  army  and  navy  and  a  more 
rigid  economy  in  their  management ;  and  last,  though  not 
least,  it  is  for  a  Nationai.  Administration  Favorabi^e  to 
Nationai,  Freedom.  And  this  we  shall  have  in  1860,  if  as  a 
party  we  are  true  to  ourselves  and  our  principles. 

The  battle  just  fought  and  won  is  but  a  skirmish  on  the 
outposts.  The  great  battle  is  to  come,  when  we  are  to  meet 
and  dislodge  from  their  fortresses  a  well-trained  and  well-dis- 
ciplined army,  who  have  long-  been  in  possession  of  the  g-ov-  . 
ernment,  and  who  will  fight  desperately  to  maintain  it.  See 
to  it,  my  friends,  that  the  little  army  in  this  township,  which 
so  gloriously  triumphed  in  October,  shall,  have  no  traitor  or 
deserter  from  that  banner  and  its  principles  in  the  coming- 
contest.  Long  may  this  joyous  occasion  and  the  month  of 
October,  1859,  be  remembered,  as  it  should  be  remembered, 
with  gratitude  to  the  Giver  of  every  g-ood  ;  for  October  is  a 
glorious  month,  and  there  ought  always  to  be  joy  and  thanks- 
giving at  its  annual  return,  joy  for  its  fruits  and  golden  grain. 


36  — 


It  is  the  most  beautiful,  because  the  most  mature  month  oi 
all  the  twelvej-and  has  rig-htly  been  called  the  g-olden  month. 
It  comes  to  us  every  year  with  its  g"orgeous  robes  of  crimsor 
and  gold,  and  flying-  colors  of  russet-tinted  leaves  and  au- 
tumnal flowers  to  make  g"lad  the  heart  of  man,  and  we  who  an 
g-athered  here  on  this  occasion,,  and  all  who  sympathize  witl 
us,  have  added  to  our  joy  the  happiness  which  this  Octobei 
brings  to  the  people  of  Ohio,  because  of  the  verdict  we  hav( 
just  rendered  at  the  ballot-box  for  freedom  ;  and  not  only  ii 
Ohio  and  in  this  county  and  township,  but  all  over  the  coun 
try  the  month  of  October,  1859,  will  bring  hope  and  encour 
agement  to  those  who  are  struggling  for  their  rights,  anc 
make  it  an  ever-memorable  year  for  its  victories  in  favor  o 
the  principles  of  our  National  Independence. 

From  Pennsylvania  there  comes  greeting  to  us,  the  wel 
come  shoutings  of  her  sturdy  sons  for  the  triumph  they  hav' 
achieved  over  a  faithless  President  from  their  own  State 
From  Iowa  there  comes  back  the  echoing  response  of  anothe 
victory,  and  from  Minnesota,  the  young  *' North  Star  State, 
there  comes  also  the  rejoicing  of  a  free  people  for  their  firs 
undisputed  Republican  triumph.  Ohio  sends  back  the  greel 
ing  of  a  full  and  complete  victory,  and  gives  to  the  friends  c 
freedom  everywhere  the  assurance  that  she  is  well  prepare 
for  the  great  battle  of  1860.  On  her  banner  she  has  inscribe 
the  glorious  motto  of  "Liberty,  Union,  Justice,"  and  sh 
proposes  to  join  her  sister  States  in  carrying  it  to  the  capitc 
of  the  Republic,  believing  that  its  triumphant  entry  into  th 
capital  of  the  nation  will  give  an  impetus  to  freedom  an 
free  principles  wherever  a  slave  toils  beneath  the  lash  of 
taskmaster  or  a  tyrant  tramples  on  the  rights  of  a  fellow-mat 

"Right  onward,  oh,  speed  it.     Wherever  the  blood 
Of  the  wrong'd  and  the  sinless  is  crying  to  God, 
Wherever  a*  slave  in  his  fetters  is  pining. 
Wherever  the  lash  of  the  driver  is  twining, 
Wherever  from  kindred  torn  rudely  apart 
Comes  the  sorrowful  wail  of  the  broken  of  heart, 
Wherever  the  shackles  of  tyranny  bind 
In  silence  and  darkness  the  God-given  mind, 


-1-37  — 

There,  God  speed  it  onwird.      Its  truth  will  be  felt — 
The  bonds  shall  be  loose:  I'd — the  iron  shall  melt. 

**  And  you,  bold-hearted  yeomanry,  honest  and  true, 
Who,  haters  of  fraud,  g-ive  to  labor  its  due. 
Whose  fathers  of  old  sang-  in  concert  with  mine. 
On  the  banks  of  Swatera,  the  song-  of  the  Rhine ; 
The  pure  German  pilgrim,  who  first  dared  to  brave 
The  scorn  of  the  proud  in  the  cause  of  the  slave. 
Will  the  sons  of  jiuch  men  yield  the  lords  of  the  South 
One  brow  for  tli(e  band — for  the  padlock  one  mouth  ? 
You,  bow  down  to  tyrants — you  rivet  the  chain 
Which  your  f athers^smote  off   on  the  poor  slave  again  ? 

**  No,  Nkver  ;  one  voice  like  the  sound  in  the  cloud. 
When  the  roar  of  the  storm  waxes  loud  and  more  loud. 
Wherever  the  foot  of  a  freeman  hath  pressed. 
From  the  Delaware  marge  to  the  lakes  of  the  West, 
On  the  south-going  breezes  shall  deepen  and  g-row 
Till  the  land  that  it  sweeps  o'er  shall  tremble   below. 
The  voice  of  a  Pe:opi.k — uprisen — awake  ; 
Human   rights   for   their  watchword    when   freedom's  at 

stake. 
Thrilling   up   from    each  valley,    flung  down   from   each 

height. 
Our  Country  and  Liberty  ;  God  for  the  Right." 


ADDRESS 

DELIVERED  OCTOBER  14,  1860. 


The  following  is  the  address  of  Hon.  J.  M.  Ashley,  at 
the  Wig-warn  in  Toledo  last  nig-ht  [October  14,  1860] ,  on  the 
occasion  of  the  Republican  jollification  over  the  recent  vic- 
tories in  Ohio,  Pennsylvania  and  Indiana. 

FK1.1.OW-C1TIZKNS  :  With  pleasure  I  respond  to  your  call, 
and  announce  that  the  Republican  cause  has  again  tri- 
umphed in  this  county,  in  this  congressional  district,  and  in 
the  State.  [Cheers.]  It  is  fitting  and  proper  that  so  glorious 
a  victory  should  be  commemorated  by  blazing  bonfires,  torch- 
light processions  and  illuminations.  On  every  political  battle- 
field where  free  speech  and  a  free  press  are  tolerated,  and  our 
opponents  have  been  met,  they  are  vanquished  and  we  are 
triumphant.     [Applause.] 

From  the  pine-clad  hills  of  Maine  to  the  home  of  the 
gallant  Blair,  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  in  the  free-soil 
city  of  St.  Louis,  from  the  green  hills  of  Vermont  to  the  Ter- 
ritory of  Nebraska,  from  the  good  old  Keystone  State  (God 
bless  her  for  her  30,000  majority),  [Cheers  for  Pennsylvania] 
from  our  neighbor  Indiana,  just  redeemed  from  the  rule  of  a 
false  democracy  who  fastened  upon  the  country  bogus  United 
State  Senators,  and  from  all  over  our  own  broad  and  beloved 
commonwealth,  the  shouting  of  millions  of  freemen  greet 
us  to-night  with  the  welcome  tidings  of  glorious  victories 
won.  The  revolution  precipitated  upon  the  country  in  1854 
by  the  madness  of  our  opponents  will  be  complete  in  Novem- 
ber, and  we  shall  witness  the  realization  of  our  long-cherished 
hopes — the  inauguration  of  a  true  democracy  in  the  land  of 
Washington.  We  shall  see  the  national  government  in 
the  hands  of  men  pledged  to  administer  it  as  our  fathers 
administered  it,  so  that  in  every  State  and  Territory  within 

(38) 


—  39  — 

the  limits  of  the  Republic \  the  rig-hts  of  man  shall  be  re- 
spected and  protected  by  law\     [Cheers.] 

Since  the  organization  of  the  Republican  party  I  have 
contemplated  this  promised  day  with  rapture.  To  see  it  has 
been  my  hope  and  prayer.  That  hope  and  prayer  have  buoyed 
me  up  in  the  darkest  hours,  when  disaster  and  defeat  have 
overwhelmed  us,  and  when  the  battle  seemed  lost,  as  men  es- 
timate results  who  do  not  comprehend  the  great  truth  that  no 
power  can  make  oppression  just,  or  eradicate  from  the  heart 
of  man  the  love  of  liberty ;  that  wrong  cannot  be  made  right 
by  the  verdict  of  a  majority,  and  that  the  legally  constituted 
authority  of  no  government  on  earth  may  lawfully  take  away, 
from  any  race,  the  rights  with  which  their  Creator  invested 
them.  [Cheers.]  They  have  made  me  firm  and  unfaltering 
when  many  men  have  given  up  in  despair,  and  when  the 
doubting,  the  spoils-hunters  and  the  camp-followers  have 
found  shelter  (as  some  have  here)  in  the  ranks  of  the  enemy  ; 
when  we  have  been  betrayed  by  pretended  friends,  and  our 
most  generous  efforts  for  humanity  have  been  wilfully  mis- 
represented, and  the  characters  of  our  leaders  defamed  with 
unbecoming  mendacity  by  our  opponents. 

My  faith  has  grown  stronger  and  stronger  with  every 
contest,  for  I  have  always  believed  that  in  the  great  battle  of 
life  we  gained  new  strength  at  every  step  by  overcoming  ob- 
stacles that  beset  our  path.  I  believed  that  liberty  could  not 
be  crushed  out  in  this  age  and  country  ;  that  truth  and  all  the 
moral  forces  of  nature  were  ever  working  on  the  side  of  right, 
and  that  disasters  and  defeats  were  necessary  to  test  the  con- 
stancy and  courage  of  our  men.  And  I  now  know,  as  I  then 
believed,  that  all  the  trials  through  which  as  men  and  as  party 
we  have  passed,  have  been  for  the  best ;  for  our  ranks  are  more 
than  filled  up  with  good  men  and  true,  to  supply  the  desertions 
of  the  weak  and  the  venal,  and  to-night  the  voices  of  the 
timid  and  the  doubting  are  silenced  by  the  triumphant  shouts 
of  the  new  recruits,  who,  with  us,  are  pushing  on  to  victory. 
[Applause.] 

Fellow-citizens,  when  the  conspirators  who  abrogated 
tlie  Missouri  anti-slavery  restriction,  and  rejected  Kansas 
because  she  knocked  at  the  door  for  admission  into  the  Union 
as  a  free  State,  triumphed  over  the  people  in  1856,  many  good 


—  40  — 

men  g-ave  up.  Senator  Seward  said  the  other  day  in  Chicag"o, 
that  Horace  Mann,  one  of  the  noblest  and  best  of  men,  once 
said  to  him,  that  he  ' '  despaired  of  the  cause  of  humanity  after 
the  passag'e  of  the  slavery  laws  of  1850,"  and  I  know  from  a 
conversation  I  once  had  with  Mr.  Mann  on  that  subject  in 
this  city,  when  he  was  here  lecturing-  before  our  Young-  Men's 
Association,  that  that  was  the  principal  cause  of  his  retiring- 
from  public  life,  leaving-  Massachusetts  and  accepting-  the 
Presidency  of  Antioch  colleg-e,  at  Yellow  Springs,  in  this 
State.  I  confess  that  I  heard  this  declaration  from  so  g-reat 
a  man  with  sorrow,  but  I  never  despaired,  and  trust  I  never 
shall  despair,  of  the  cause  of  humanity  either  in  America  or 
Kurope.  [Cheers.]  Instead  of  despairing,  I  rejoiced  rather 
when  the  madness  of  the  slave  barons  drove  them  to  break 
down  the  Missouri  compromise,  and  to  attempt  to  force  slavery 
not  only  up-^n  Kansas,  but,  by  action  of  the  g-overnment,  and 
a  decree  of  the  Supreme  Court  to  make  it  national  throug-hout 
the  Republic,  because  I  believed  that  nothing-  would  more 
surely  arouse  the  people  to  the  dang-ers  that  threatened  them. 
Had  I  been  your  representative  in  Congress  then,  I  would 
not  only  have  voted  ag-ainst  these  measures,  but  protested 
against  them  also,  as  I  did  as  a  citizen  at  the  time  of  their 
enactment.  I  would  not  do  wrong-  that  g-ood  mig-ht  come ; 
but  I  believe  that  Providence  now  often  permits  bad  men  to 
scourg-e  a  nation  for  g-ood  and  wise  purposes,  as  He  permitted 
Pharaoh  of  old  to  harden  his  heart  so  that  he  refused  to  let 
the  oppressed  children  of  Israel  g-o. 

I  believe  that  these  crimes  of  the  so-called  Democratic 
party  were  necessary,  in  order  to  arouse  the  American  people 
from  their  supineness  and  lethargy.  But  for  those  crimes 
there  would  have  been  no  Republican  party  in  the  United  States 
to-day. 

Horace  Mann,  however,  was  not  the  only  leading  man 
who  has  despaired  of  our  cause.  I  could  name  more  than  a 
score.  Only  last  week,  one  of  the  best  and  truest  men  in  this 
district  said  to  me :  '  *  Ashley,  we  have  been  working  seven 
years  for  this  cause  with  so  little  success  that  I  am  becoming 
disheartened,  and  if  we  fail  to  elect  Lincoln  I  shall  quit."  I 
replied  that  I  regretted  to  hear  him  say  so,  and  reminded  him 
of  the' 4,000  opposition   majority  we  had  to  overcome  in  this 


—  41  — 

congressional  district,  thjat  the  National  and  State  g-overn- 
ments.  with  all  their  patronag-e,  and  every  county  here  in  the 
Northwest,  were  in  the  hands  of  our  political  opponents  in 
1853,  when  we  first  met  tog-ether  to  org-anize  a  new  party 
with  all  those  who,  in  the  old  Democratic  and  Whig-  and  Free 
Soil  parties,  would  unite  with  us  on  a  platform  such  as  the 
Republican  party  now  stands  upon.  I  reminded  him  of  the 
certainty  of  always  having-  in  every  party,  as  in  every  church, 
faithless  and  untrue  men,  and  the  misfortune  of  always  hav- 
ing- indiscreet  friends  also  ;  and  I  said  to  him,  as  I  say  to  you 
to-night,  that  I  g-row  more  hopeful  with  every  contest,  and 
that  as  a  party  we  are  far  strong-er  now  than  my  most  sang-uine 
hopes  led  me  to  believe  we  should  be  when,  seven  years  ag-o, 
we  commenced  the  battle,  for  then  I  thought  it  would  require 
a  strug-gle  of  ten  or  fifteen  years  before  we  should  be  as 
strong"  as  we  are  to-day. 

I  have  always  been  g-uided  in  my  political  action  by  a 
simple  rule,  a  rule  which  has  taught  me  to  confide  in  the  in- 
telligence of  the  people  and  their  innate  sense  of  justice. 
This,  with  a  firm  reliance  in  the  living  energy  of  truth,  has 
given  me  courage  when  success  seemed  far  off,  and  I  have 
worked  on  because  it  has  cheered  me  when  overwhelmed  by  dis- 
aster and  defeat.  Of  what  I  have  done  to  aid  in  organizing  the 
Republican  party  and  to  cause  its  success,  not  only  in  this 
district  and  State,  but  elsewhere,  I  will  not  speak.  I  leave 
that  for  others  who  will  do  it  more  impartially  for  me  when 
party  passions  shall  have  subsided  and  local  rivalries  shall 
have  been,  as  they  will  be,  forgotten.  I  am  and  always  have 
been  content  to  do  my  duty  and  to  forget  and  forgive  the  er- 
rors and  prejudices  of  the  hour. 

To  my  fellow-citizens,  not  only  here,  but  all  over  the  dis- 
trict, I  feel  grateful  for  their  generous  support,  and  the  re- 
newed expression  of  their  confidence  as  shown  by  the  increased 
majority  they  have  given  me,  and  I  trust  that  no  act  or  vote 
of  mine  will  ever  cause  any  man  to  regret  that  his  vote  was 
bestowed  upon  me. 

I  told  you  last  year  that  the  battle  we  were  then  fighting 
was  *'but  a  skirmish  on  the  outposts."  The  victories  just 
gained  leave  but  few  outposts  in  the  free  States  in  the  hands 


—  42  — 

of  the  enemy.  When  they  are  taken,  as  they  will  be,  the 
citadel  must  surrender.     [Cheers.] 

And  thoug-h  we  owe  much  for  our  past  and  present  suc- 
cess to  all  classes,  especially  to  our  German  and  adopted  citi- 
zens, to  no  organization  are  we  more  deeply  indebted  for  our 
present  triumph,  than  to  the  "Wide-awakes  all  over  the  land. 
Their  promptness,  their  fidelity  to  our  cause,  their  fine  mili- 
tary drill,  their  presence  at  all  our  meeting's,  has  lent  g-ood 
cheer  and  kindled  an  enthusiasm  in  the  hearts  of  old  and  young-, 
unlike  any  organization  that  has  preceded  it.  Wherever  I  have 
g-one,  I  have  met ' '  around  the  blazing-  camp-fires  "  of  the  Wide- 
awakes, and  found  fresh  cause  for  rejoicing  and  hope  in  the 
fact  that  the  young  men,  with  their  generous  and  noble  im- 
pulses, everywhere  swelled  our  ranks ;  these  with  other 
classes  of  citizens  make  an  army  for  freedom  which  you  see 
is   invincible.   [Cheers.] 

This  victorious  army,  pledged  to  the  defense  of  constitu- 
tional liberty  and  to  the  bringing  back  of  the  government  to 
the  principles  and  policy  of  its  founders,  is  advancing  with 
firm  and  steady  tread  to  take  possession  of  the  national 
capital,  and 

*' Beneath  thy  skies,  November, 
Th}^  skies  of  cold  and  rain. 
Around  our  blazing  camp-fires 
We'll  close  our  ranks  again. 

For,  God  be  praised.  New  England 

Takes  once  more  her  ancient  place ; 

Again  the  Pilgrim's  banner 

Leads  the  vanguard  of  the  race. 

Along  the  Susquehanna, 

A  shout  of  triumph  breaks — 
The  Keystone  State  is  speaking 

From  the  Ocean  to  the  Lakes. 

The  Northern  hills  are  blazing, 

The  Northern  skies  are  bright, 


—  43  — 

And  the  fair  young"  West  is  turning" 
Her  forehead  to  the  lig-ht. 

Then,  Brothers,  close  up  nearer, 
Press  hard  the  hostile  towers, 

For  another  Balaklava 

And  thb  Malakhoff  is  ours." 


■I 


SPEECH 

OF  HON.  JAMKS  M.  ASHLEY,  OF  OHIO. 


Dki^iv^red  in  th:^  U.  S.  Hous:^  of  Ri^prks^ntativks, 
May  29,  1860. 


The  House  being-  in  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the 
State  of  the  Union — 

Mr.  Ashley  said : 

Mr.  Chairman  :  Respect  for  legislative,  executive,  and 
judicial  authority  is  a  peculiar  characteristic  of  the  constit- 
uency I  have  the  honor  to  represent.  Indeed,  respect  for  all 
constitutional  obligations,  and  for  the  laws  passed  in  pursu- 
ance of  the  Constitution,  as  well  as  for  all  authoritative 
judicial  decisions,  may  with  propriety  be  said  to  be  a  leading 
trait  in  the  character  of  the  American  people.  Especially  is 
this  respect  habitual,  with  the  great  body  of  the  people  of  the 
free  States. 

Trained  in  the  school  of  loyalty,  taught  to  venerate  the 
teachings  of  the  fathers,  and  guided  in  their  daily  walk  and 
in  all  their  public  and  private  intercourse  with  their  fellow- 
Letter  from  Bishop  H.  M.  Turner,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Atlanta,  Ga. 
This  was  Mr.  Ashley's  first  speech  in  Cong-ress.  It  was  an  exhaustive  and  able 
appeal  for  the  unconditional  emancipation  of  the  negro.  In  this  speech  and  in  the  twc 
following-  speeches  his  arraignment  of  the  Supreme  Court  for  the  "  Dred  Scott' 
and  other  pro-slavery  decisions,  has  never  been  answered.  In  a  majority  of  Mr 
Ashley's  congressional  and  platform  speeches  will  be  found  arguments  for  an  idea: 
republic,  such  as  the  great  men  who  achieved  our  independence  contemplated,  wher 
they  organized  our  National  Government,  and  gave  us  a  written  Constitution.  Uni- 
formly there  is  blended  with  his  appeals,  the  historical  with  the  philosophical.  These 
speeches  are  all  characterized  for  their  frankness  and  fidelity  to  the  black  man,  anc 
for  their  fairness  to  the  Southern  people.  Every  reader  will  be  fascinated  with  theii 
sincerity  and  clearness  of  thought,  their  marvelous  political  knowledge,  and  bt 
charmed  with  their  simple  dignity  and  unaffected  eloquence.  H.  M.  Turner. 

(44) 


—  45- 

men,  by  th'e  stern  principles  of  that  wise  Christian  morality 
which  has  made  New  Eng-land  at  once  the  hope  and  g-lory  of 
our  country,  it  could  not  be  that  the  citizens  educated  within 
her  jurisdiction,  and  the  States  founded  by  her  wisdom  and 
enterprise,  should  be  Otherwise  than  loyal  to  the  Constitution 
and  the  Union.  Asl^ing-  for  themselves  nothing-  that  they 
would  not  concede  to  the  humblest,  they  make  the  community 
of  interests  identica^,  and  the  loyalty  of  every  inhabitant  of 
the  State  a  necessityl 

This  g-rand  consummation  has  been  practically  achieved 
in  eig-hteen  States  of  the  American  Union.  The  system  of 
g-overnment  adopted  by  them,  in  my  judg-ment,  is  the  best 
system  known  to  man.  It  is  the  best,  because  it  rests  upon 
labor,  and  is  created  and  controlled  by  the  free  and  untram- 
meled  will  of  the  laborer.  It  is  the  best,  because  experience 
has  demonstrated  that  it  is  the  only  foundation  upon  which 
States  and  g-overnments  can  safely  and  securely  rest.  In 
such  a  g*overnment,  the  laborers  must  not  only  be  free,  but 
they  must  be  citizens  ;  having-  rig-hts  which  the  g-overnment 
and  all  classes  of  citizens  are  bound  to  respect  and  defend — 
the  poorest  and  humblest  inhabitant  being  equal,  before  the 
law,  with  the  richest  and  most  powerful ;  sharing-  in  its 
burdens,  enjoying-  its  protection,  and  feeling-  individually 
responsible  for  its  g-ood  or  bad  manag-ement.  This  theory  is 
daily  growing-  strong-er  and  strong-er  among-  all  civilized 
nations  ;  and  the)  worIvD  is  beginning  to  understand  that 

INJURING  ONE  Cl^ASS  FOR  THE  IMMEDIATE  BENEFIT  OF  ANOTHER, 
IS  UI^TlMATElyY  INJURIOUS  TO  THAT  OTHER ;  AND  THAT,  TO 
SECURE  PROSPERITY  TO   A   COMMUNITY,  KLX,  INTERESTS  MUST  BE 

CONSULTED.  This  truly  Republican  idea  of  consulting-  the 
interests  and  obeying-  the  wishes  and  wants  of  the  people, 
livas  recently  acquiesced  in,  to  an  extent  before  unknown,  by 
the  leading-  Powers  of  Europe,  when  they  recog-nized  the 
rig"ht  of  the  people  of  the  Roman  States  to  declare,  by  bal- 
lot, whether  they  desired  separate  Governments,  or  a  united 
Italy,  with  Victor  Emanuel  as  their  chief.  The  state  of 
society  necessary  to  form  such  g-overnments,  as  we  have  in 
eig-hteen  States  of  this  Union,  can  only  be  secured  where  an 
untrammeled  press  and  free  speech  are  g-uaranteed,  and 
public  schools  and  a  free  church  are  secured  to  every  inhabitant 


—  46-- 

in  the  Commonwealth.  These  institutions  the  free  States 
have,  to  an  extent  unknown  to  any  g-overnment  or  people  on 
earth ;  and  to  them,  more  than  to  any  other  cause,  are  these 
States  indebted  for  their  unsurpassed  development,  and  for 
that  prosperity  and  growth  which  have  made  them  the  won- 
der and  admiration  of  the  world.  It  is  impossible  that  such  a 
people,  living-  under  such  governments,  as  are  secured  by  the 
laws  and  Constitutions  of  the  free  States,  no  matter  what  their 
former  nationality  may  have  been,  should  be  otherwise  than 
loyal  citizens,  or  that  they  should  be  otherwise  than  the 
firmest  defenders  of  the  principles  which  lie  at  the  founda- 
tion of  these  States,  and  the  jealous  guardians  of  that  Con- 
stitution and  Union  which  our  fathers  ordained,  to  secure 
and  perpetuate  these  blessings. 

In  fifteen  States  of  the  American  Union,  practically,  the 
reverse  of  all  this  is  true.  The  exceptions  are  only  in  a  few 
of  the  border  counties  of  slave  States,  adjoining  the  free 
States,  and  in  three  or  four  cities  whose  commercial  inter- 
course is  extensive  in  the  North.  In  all  these  fifteen  slave 
States,  a  class  is  dominant  which  fills  all  the  offices,  and  con- 
trols the  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial  departments  of 
the  government.  They  do  not  pretend  to  be  loyal  to  the 
national  Constitution,  or  obedient  to  the  laws  passed  in  pur- 
suance thereof,  but  claim  that  their  first  and  highest  alle- 
giance is  due  to  their  several  State  governments  and  their 
institution  of  human  slavery.  They  care  nothing  for  the 
Union,  except  so  far  as  it  subserves  their  purposes  of  build- 
ing up,  and  extending  their  peculiar  institution,  and  per- 
petuating their  own  political  power.  They  trample  upon  all 
treaties,  compacts,  and  compromises,  if  they  stand  in  their 
way  to  universal  domination  on  this  continent,  and  neither 
respect  nor  obey  any  law  or  judicial  decision  that  does  not 
sustain  their  imperious  demands  for  special  legislation  and 
protection. 

Trained  in  the  disunion  school  of  Calhoun,  they  reject 
not  only  the  teachings  of  the  fathers,  but  the  doctrines  of 
that  Christianity  which  enjoins  upon  all,  whether  as  indi- 
viduals, communities,  or  States,  the  duty  of  doing  unto  the 
least  and  weakest  as  they  would  that  others  should  do  unto 
them.     Hence  in  all  the  slave  States  the  constitutional  rights 


-47 


of  an  American  citizen  are  not  respected,  the  constitutional 
g-uaranty  for  free  speech  and  a  free  press  is  a  mockery,  free 
schools  and  an  enlightened  Christianity  an  impossibility. 
The  laws  to  suppress  the  slave  trade  are  openly  disregarded, 
and  violence  and  mob  f  aw  reig-n  supreme.  The  laborers  upon 
whose  toil  these  Staites  exist  are  slaves,  and  have  been 
declared  not  to  be  citizens,  though  born  upon  the  soil,  but 
simply  persons,  with  iio  moral,  social,  or  natural  rights,  that 
the  dominant  race  ar^  bound  to  respect,  if  the  mere  ipsej  dixit 
of  the  Supreme  Coiirt  is  to  be  regarded  as  law.  Their 
obedience  and  subjugation  are  secured  by  enactments  and 
usages  the  most  barbarous  and  tyrannical  ever  known  to 
man.  A  reign  of  terror  secures  the  obedience  and  co-opera- 
tion of  the  poor  whites ;  and  because  of  this  submission, 
they  are  claimed  as  loyal  friends  of  the  institution  of  slavery. 
But  their  loyalty  is,  in  fact,  a  humiliating  submission  to  the 
privileged  class — a  submission  as  abject  in  most  of  these 
fifteen  States,  as  is  the  submission  of  the  most  spirit-humbled 
slave.  The  guaranties  of  the  national  Constitution,  so  far 
as  they  affect  the  individual  rights  of  an  American  citizen, 
are  denied  alike  to  all  men  who  are  not  of  this  privileged 
class  or  their  open  allies ;  and  to  be  an  American  citizen 
secures  no  protection  from  insult  and  outrage,  unjust  im- 
prisonment and  terrible  punishments,  or  even  death.  So 
complete  is  this  reign  of  terror,  that  no  man  can  print,  or 
speak,  or  preach,  or  pray,  unless  he  does  it  in  the  manner 
prescribed  by  this  privileged  class.  These  two  forms  of 
government  and  society  are  the  antipodes  of  each  other,  and 
cannot  coexist  and  peacefully  endure.  There  must,  of  neces- 
sity, be  serious  conflicts  and  constant  struggles  for  the 
ascendency ;  and,  eventually,  the  one  must  give  way  to  the 
other.  There  is,  then,  an  *'irrkprkssibi,k  confi^ict,"  as  the 
distinguished  Senator  from  New  York  has  said,  between  the 
two  forces  or  forms  of  government  and  society ;  and  it  will 
continue  until  freedom  or  slavery  shall  have  complete 
dominion  in  every  department  of  the  government. 

This  privileged  class,  with  Calhoun  and  his  political 
disciples,  have  had,  with  the  exception  of  one  or  two  short 
intervals,  almost  complete  possession  of  every  department  of 
the  national  government  for  the  past  twenty  years.     Taking 


48  — 


advantag-e  of  the  well-known  lo^^alty  of  the  people  of  the 
free  States  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union,  and  their 
habitual  respect  for  all  laws  and  decisions  of  the  Judicial 
department  of  the  National  and  State  Governments,  they  have, 
by  threatening-  to  dissolve  the  Union,  and  by  appeals  made 
in  the  sacred  name  of  Democracy,  secured  the  co-operation 
and  aid  of  thousands  of  patriotic  citizens  in  the  free  States 
who  are  conscientiously  opposed  to  the  institution  of  slavery. 
They  have  thus  been  enabled  to  obtain  and  keep  possession 
of  every  department  of  the  g^overnment,  and  so  to  shape  its 
legislative,  executive,  and  judicial  action,  as  to  foster,  build 
up,  and  extend,  this  monstrous  wrong-  of  human  slavery,  and 
make  it  a  National  instead  of  a  State  and  local  institution,  if 
the  Dred  Scott  decision  is  to  be  taken  and  held,  as  the  Presi- 
dent and  his  party  declare  it  is,  the  correct  interpretation  oi 
the  Constitution. 

I  propose,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  show  the  House  and  country 
how  one  department  of  the  g-overnment  has  been  taken 
possession  of  by  this  privileg-ed  class  — I  mean  the  Supreme 
Judiciary.  I  propose  to  show  that,  while  they  have  been 
preaching-  concessions  and  compromises  to  us,  they  have  foi 
years  been  secretly  and  cautiously  at  work  to  obtain  complete 
control  of  this  important,  as  well  as  most  dang-erous,  depart- 
ment of  the  National  Government.  That  this  department  oi 
the  government  is  dangerous,  I  think  the  history  of  ite 
usurpations  since  its  organization  will  show. 

.  The  opinions  of  some  of  the  ablest  men  of  the  Revolu 
tion — many  of  whom  opposed  the  organization  of  this  cour 
with  the  powers  granted  to  it,  and  predicted  with  singula] 
foresight  the  dangers  to  which  the  rights  of  citizens  am 
States  would  be  exposed. if  it  was  established  —  have  beei 
more  than  realized.  It  would  have  been  well  for  the  presen 
and  future  of  our  country  if  the  admonitions  of  those  wh( 
opposed  the  organization  of  this  department  of  the  govern 
ment  with  its  immense  power  had  been  regarded  witl 
more  favor.  It  were  well  even  now  for  our  future  peace  if  th 
warnings  of  Jefferson,  Mason,  Henry,  Franklin,  Grayson 
and  other  distinguished  men  would  be  heeded.  But,  alas  fo 
freedom!  their  admonitions  and  warnings  have  not  onl; 
been  unheeded,  but  the  scheme  of  a  sectional  and  privilege< 


—  49 


class,  aided  by  Nortlierti  Representatives,  has  been  accom- 
plished so  far  as  to  secure  complete  control  of  this  depart- 
ment of  the  g-overnment ;  and  they  now  demand  of  the  party, 
whose  every  movemeni  they  imperiously  dictate,  a  chang"e 
in  their  action  and  tone  towards  this  Judicial  department. 
In  compliance  with  this  demand,  we  find  that  the  party  to- 
day, which  for  years  $o  vehemently  denounced  the  usurpa- 
tions of  this  court  and  opposed  and  disregarded  its  decisions, 
have  come  to  reg-ard  iii  (if  the  declaration  of  their  Presidents 
and  Representatives  and  party  conventions  are  to  be  credited) 
as  the  most  "august  tribunal"  in  the  world — a  tribunal 
whose  opinions  are  infallible,  from  whose  judgment  there 
is  no  appeal,  and  before  whose  decisions  and  political  decrees, 
citizens  and  parties,  and  even  free  States,  are  required  to 
bow.  On  failure  to  acquiesce  in  this  claim  of  prerogative, 
the  Representatives  of  free  States  are  denounced  on  this  floor 
by  the  leaders  of  this  privileged  class  as  traitors  to  the  gov- 
ernment, and  as  perjurers,  who  have  sworn  to  support  a  Con- 
stitution they  intend  to  violate. 

And  here  let  me  ask  what  there  is  in  this  tribunal,  com- 
posed as  it  is  of  but  nine  men,  that  should  entitle  it,  as  a 
political  authority,  to  the  veneration  and  unquestioned  obedi- 
ence claimed  for  it  by  the  present  Administration  party,  any 
more  than  the  same  number  of  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives that  might  with  ease  be  selected  as  gentlemen  possess- 
ing at  least  equal,  if  not  superior,  legal  and  natural  abilities? 
Is  there  anything  in  the  character  of  these  judges,  in  their 
services  to  the  country,  in  their  learning  or  qualifications  as 
lawyers,  that  should  entitle  them  to  the  appellation  of  an 
*'  august  tribunal?"  Is  it  not  a  fact  well  known  to  everyone, 
that  so  far  from  this  court  being  composed  of  men  of 
superior  abilities,  or  of  the  ablest  lawyers  in  the  country,  a 
majority  of  them  were  partisans,  and  that  they  were  selected 
because  of  their  partisanship  when  placed  upon  the  bench? 
It  is  certainly  a  fact  not  unknown  to  the  House  and  the  coun- 
try, that  men  of  greater  legal  abilities,  whose  nomination  had 
been  submitted  to  the  Senate  for  confirmation,  have  been  re- 
jected. The  Committee  on  the  Judiciary  (a  majority  of  which 
has  been  pro-slavery  for  the  past  twenty  years),  to  which  said 


I 


50  — 


nominations  are  always  referred,  have,  by  some  means 
unknown  to  the  public,  succeeded  in  prevailing-  on  the  acting 
President,  whoever  he  may  have  been,  to  withdraw  objec- 
tionable nominations,  and  substitute  others  more  acceptable 
for  the  purposes  contemplated  by  them,  while  some  of  the 
present  partisans  of  this  court  were  confirmed,  instead  oi 
those  whose  names  were  thus  withdrawn  or  rejected.  Before 
I  take  my  seat,  I  expect  to  show  that  a  purpose  was  to  be 
accomplished  by  those  who  secured  the  rejection,  on  a  direci 
vote  for  confirmation  in  the  Senate,  of  men  of  spotless 
characters,  of  g-reat  learning-,  and  eminent  judicial  abilities, 
or  their  defeat  by  the  withdrawal  of  their  names  by  the 
President,  at  the  dictation  of  this  class  interest.  Debate 
was  sought  to  be  avoided  on  this  delicate  point,  that  theii 
ulterior  purposes  might  thus  remain  undiscovered,  even  in 
the  secret  archives  of  the  United  States  Senate.  Sir,  if  the 
country  could  understand  how  a  majority  of  these  judges 
were  placed  upon  the  bench,  and  the  schemes  resorted  to  b} 
this  class  interest  to  secure  men  to  represent  their  views  anc 
interests,  the  people  would  scorn  their  political  decrees,  and 
treat  their  usurpations  as  they  deserve. 

Sir,  I  expect  to  show  that  no  men  whose  nominations  have 
been  submitted  to  the  Senate  for  confirmation  as  judges  o' 
this  court  were  rejected  for  want  of  learning,  character,  oi 
ability  as  lawyers,  but  solely  because  of  their  known  or  sup- 
posed unsoundness  on  the  question  of  slavery;  all  men  knowr 
to  entertain  liberal  views  on  that  question  were  rejected,  anc 
partisans  destitute  of  eminence  or  fitness  confirmed  it 
their  stead,  because  of  their  known  or  supposed  reliability  ir 
sustaining  the  claims  of  the  slave  barons  in  their  judicia 
decisions.  Such  is  the  extent  to  which  this  scheme  has  beei 
carried — and,  I  regret  to  say,  successfully  carried  —  by  th( 
carelessness,  or  incompetency,  or  criminal  complicity,  o: 
Northern  Senators,  some  of  whom  have  had  Southern  planta- 
tions well  stocked  with  slaves,  while  claiming  to  represent  < 
free  people.  I  say,  but  for  the  indifference  or  inability  o 
Northern  Senators  to  defend  and  guard  the  interests  of  thost 
they  were  commissioned  to  represent,  or  their  criminal  com 
plicity,  this  scheme  never  could  have  been  accomplished  as  r 
has  been ;  for  it  required  the  votes  of  Northern  Senators  U 


51  - 


do  it,  and  by  their  action  or  indifference  this  court,  which  in 
former  years  stood  so  hig-h  in  the  estimation  of  the  Ameri- 
can people,  is  now  looked  upon  by  the  great  body  of  citizens 
with  distrust,  and  reg-4rded  by  many  of  the  best  men  of  the 
nation  as  little  else  than  a  partisan  political  tribunal. 

Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  no  pleasant  task  for  an  American 
Representative  to  decljare  on  this  floor,  and  to  the  country, 
as  I  now  do,  and  as  c^andor  compels  me  to  do,  that  I  have 
lost  all  confidence  in,  and  veneration  for,  this  Supreme 
Court ;  and  I  could  wish  that  even  before  the  expiration  of 
the  next  Presidential  term  I  could  see  this  Supreme  Court 
reorg-anized.  I  wish  I  could  see  all  laws  repealed  creating" 
inferior  United  States  District  Courts,  so  that  we  mig-ht  be 
able  to  g-et  rid  of  the  whole  batch  of  these  United  States 
judicial  officials  as  summarily  as  the  Republican  party  under 
Jefferson  g-ot  rid  of  the  swarm  of  district  judg-es  created  by 
what  is  familiarly  known  as  the  midnig-ht  judiciary  act, 
passed  on  the  nig-ht  of  the  3d  of  March,  1801.  For  while  we 
cannot  deprive  .these  officials  of  their  life  tenures  or  titles  by 
removal,  it  is  an  established  principle  in  the  National  as  well 
as  in  the  State  Governments  —  and  the  act  under  Jefferson  to 
which  I  have  referred  is  one  of  the  earliest  precedents  on  record 
establishing-  the  right  of  the  power  that  created  and  pre- 
scribed the  duties  of  these  courts  ~— to  repeal  the  law,  and 
thus  legislate  these  judges  and  clerks  out  of  office  by  the 
power  that  breathed  into  them  the  breath  of  life.  After  a 
full  investigation  of  this  subject,  I  believe  the  only  practical 
way,  without  a  change  in  the  Constitution,  to  reform  the 
gross  abuses,  not  only  of  the  Supreme  Court,  but  of  the 
United  States  District  Courts,  is :  First,  to  reorganize  the 
Supreme  Court,  and  either  create  additional  judges,  or 
redistrict  the  circuits  in  such  a  manner  as  to  equalize  the 
business,  and  require  the  judges  to  be  residents  of  the  dis- 
tricts for  which  they  were  respectively  appointed,  or  in  which, 
by  law,  they  are  required  to  attend  courts ;  and,  second,  to 
repeal  the  laws  creating  district  courts  and  defining  their 
jurisdiction  and  duties ;  thus  legislating  your  Judge  Kanes, 
Magraths,  and  Joneses,  out  of  office. 

If  new  district  courts  are  indispensable,  let  them  be 
carefully  organized,  and  the  judges  be  clothed  with  just  as 


—  52  — 

little  power  and  as  limited  a  jurisdiction  as  possible.  We 
should  make  business  and  the  wants  of  the  country  the  only 
basis  for  creating-  districts  ;  and  not  create  districts  and 
offices  for  broken-down  politicians,  as  has  been  done  to  an 
extent  that  would  astonish  the  country,  could  it  be  known. 
As  an  evidence  of  this  fact,  look  at  the  State  of  Florida ; 
with  less  than  half  the  population  of  my  Cong-rQssional  dis- 
trict, she  has  two  United  States  District  Courts,  and,  of  course, 
two  judges  ;  Tennessee,  three  ;  Missouri,  two  ;  and  so  on  to  the 
end  of  the  list.  Sir,  unless  a  man  has  carefully  examined 
this  subject,  he  cannot  conceive,  and  even  after  an  examina- 
tion will  be  reluctant  to  come  to  the  conclusions  which  I 
confess  I  have,  to  wit,  that  this  Supreme  Court  is,  as  Jeffer- 
son declared  it  to  be,  **A  subtii.e)  corps  of  sappers  and 

MINERS,  CONSTANTLY  WORKING  UNDER  GROUND  TO  UNDERMINE 
ITS  FOUNDATION."  **ThEY  ARE  CONSTRUING  OUR  CONSTITU- 
TION," HE  ADDED,  **FROM  A  COORDINATION  OF  A  GENERAL 
AND  SPECIAL    GOVERNMENT  TO   A   GENERAL  AND  SUPREME  ONE 

ALONE."  I  feel  confident,  that  if  the  usurpations  of  this 
court  be  not  speedily  checked,  that  the  liberties  of  the  peo- 
ple and  the  rights  of  the  States  will  be  endang-ered  ;  and  the 
dang"er  is  the  more  imminent,  from  the  fact  that  a  class 
interest  has  secured  absolute  control  of  this  court ;  and 
having-  secured  it,  now  demands  that  the  party  which  it 
also  controls,  shall  proclaim  through  their  Presidents,  and 
party  conventions,  and  party  press,  the  doctrine  that  the 
political  decisions  of  a  majority  of  these  nine  men  are  in- 
fallible, and  binding"  upon  the  party,  without  the  right  of 
an  appeal  to  the  people.  The  extraordinary  spectacle  is 
presented  to  the  world,  of  a  once  g-reat  party,  which  cherished 
and  defended  the  rig-hts  of  the  masses,  having-  been  taken 
possession  of  by  an  olig-archy,  and  the  doctrine  proclaimed 
that  there  must  be  an  uncontrolled  absolute  power  in  the 
government  somewhere,  from  which  there  can  be  no  appeal : 
and  that  power  they  claim  to-day  must  be  vested,  not  ir 
Congress,  or  in  the  people,  or  in  the  States,  but  in  a  majority 
of  the  nine  men,  who  constitute  this  Supreme  Court. 

Sir,  the  Republican  theory  is,  that  the  government  is 
not  the  master,  but  the  servant.  Bvery  department  was 
created  by   the   people,    not  for  the  benefit   of    any   class 


—  S3  — 

interest,  but  for  the  safety  and  happiness  of  the  whole,  and 
every  department  is  subordinate  to  their  will.  Government 
is  but  a  means  to  an  ejid  ;  and  whenever  it  ceases  to  answer 
the  purposes  for  which  it  was  created,  the  people  can  alter 
or  abolish  it. 

Sir,  neither  the  executive,  nor  judicial,  nor  law-making- 
power  is  supreme.  The  Constitution  is  above  them  ;  and  the 
people,  who  made  the  Constitution,  and  vested  temporarily 
the  authority  of  enacting",  executing",  and  adjudicating*  the 
laws,  are  above  and  superior  to  all.  This  absolute  power, 
therefore,  claimed  for  the  Supreme  Court  by  the  Administra- 
tion party,  must  be  resisted,  because  there  cannot  with  safety 
be  any  department  of  a  republican  government  from  which 
an  appeal  to  the  people  cannot  be  taken.  If  there  is  an  abso- 
lute power  in  any  g-overnment,  above  and  superior  to 
the  people,  it  is  a  despotism.  In  an  oration  delivered  by  John 
Quincy  Adams,  July  4,  1831,  and  cited  by  Judge  Story  in  a 
note  to  section  208  of  his  Commentaries,  he  says,  in  referring 
to  this  subject : 

**  It  is  not  true,  that  there  must  reside  in  all  governments 
an  absolute,  uncontrollable,  irresistible,  and  despotic  power  ; 
nor  is  such  power  in  any  manner  essential  to  sovereignty. 
Uncontrollable  power  exists  in  no  government  on  earth.  The 
sternest  despotisms  in  any  region,  and  in  every  age  of  the 
world,  are  and  have  been  under  perpetual  control.  Unlimited 
power  belongs  not  to  man  ;  and  rotten  will  be  the  foundation 
of  every  government  leaning  upon  such  a  maxim  for  its  sup- 
port. Least  of  all  can  it  be  predicated  of  a  government  pro- 
fessing to  be  founded  upon  an  original  compact.  The  pre- 
tense of  an  absolute,  irresistible,  despotic  power,  existing  in 
every  government  somewhere,  is  incompatible  with  the  first 
principles  of  natural  right." 

Sir,  these  well-considered  reflections,  made  by  one  of  the 
wisest  and  best  statesmen  who  since  the  days  of  Washington 
have  adorned  and  dignified  the  Presidential  office,  are  well 
worthy  of  the  serious  consideration  of  the  people  at  this 
important  crisis  in  the  history  of  our  country ;  when  a  great 
party,  which  for  years  has  had  possession  of  the  govern- 
ment, has  declared  through  its  present  Chief  Executive  that 
there  is  a  power  in  the  government  to  which  every  depart- 


54  — 


ment  must  yield,  and  to  wxiose  opinions  the  members  of  all 
political  parties  must  give  implicit  obedience. 

This  anti-Democratic  doctrine  was  broadly  announced 
by  Mr.  Buchanan  in  that  most  remarkable  passage  in  his  late 
annual  message  to  Congress,  in  which  he  said : 

**I  cordially  congratulate  you  upon  the  final  settlement, 
by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  of  the  question 
of  slavery  in  the  Territories,"  etc. 

And,  strange  to  say,  this  dangerous  anti-Republican, 
anti-Democratic  doctrine,  receives  the  support  of  the  great 
body  of  Representatives  on  this  floor  claiming  to  be  Demo- 
crats. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Calhoun  to  enlist  all 
the  Southern  States  in  his  disunion  movement  of  1832-3,  under 
color  of  opposition  to  the  tariff  act  of  1828,  having  failed, 
and  the  scheme  exposed  and  effectually  crushed  out  by  the 
boldness  and  decision  of  General  Jackson,  and  this  desperate 
faction  and  their  leader  excluded  from  the  Democratic  party 
during  the  administration  of  that  old  hero,  other  expedients 
were  resorted  to  by  Mr.  Calhoun  to  secure  the  accomplish- 
ment of  his  cherished  purpose  —  namely,  either  a  dissolution 
of  the  Union  and  the  organization  of  a  Southern  slavehold- 
ing  confederacy,  or  the  recognition  by  the  present  govern- 
ment of  his  theory,  that  slavery  is  recognized  by  the  Consti- 
tution, and  that  Congress  had  no  power  to  abolish  or  exclude 
it  from  the  Territories  or  the  District  of  Columbia. 

After  the  election  of  Van  Buren  to  the  Presidency,  Mr. 
Calhoun  and  his  followers  were  again  received  into  a  kind  of 
QUASI  fellowship  with  the  Democratic  party,  and  supported 
the  leading  measures  of  that  Administration.  The  express 
ground  upon  which  his  support  was  given,  was  the  alleged 
fact  that  Mr.  Van  Buren  was  disposed  to  favor  Mr.  Calhoun's 
theory  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  recognized 
property  in  man.  Whether  such  were  Mr.  Van  Buren's 
views,  or  not,  I  am  unable  to  say ;  but  certain  it  is,  that  he 
pledged  himself  in  his  inaugural  address,  unasked  by  the 
Democratic  party,  to  veto  any  law  which  Congress  might 
pass,  abolishing  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia ;  and 
before  he  had  been  one  year  in  the  Presidential  office,  he 


—  55 


acquired,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  g-overnment, 
the  unenviable  appellation  of  a  **  Northern  man  with 
Southern  principi.es. '*■  \ 

Failing-,  however,  toj  secure  the  open  endorsement  by  the 
Democratic  party  of  that  day  of  the  favorite  theory  of  the 
slave  power,  Mr.  Calhoun  hit  upon  the  plan  o.f  g-etting-  pos- 
session of  the  Supreme  Court,  because  it  is  a  power  the  fur- 
thest removed  from  the  people,  is  held  in  great  esteem  by 
them,  and  such  acts  of  ag-g-ression  as  Mr.  Calhoun  contem- 
plated, if  committed  by  the  Supreme  Court,  he  knew  would 
be  so  quietly  done  as  to  excite  no  alarm,  and  pass  almost 
unnoticed. 

In  this  scheme,  as  the  history  of  the  country  will  show, 
Mr.  Calhoun  was  successful. 

Let  us  look  at  this  point  for  a  few  moments. 

The  Supreme  Court  was  org-anized  by  an  act  of  Con- 
g-ress  passed  on  the  24th  of  September,  1789,  by  which  act 
the  court  was  made  to  consist  of  one  Chief  Justice  and  five 
Associates. 

By  act  of  April  29,  1802,  districts  (each  State  being- 
then  called  a  district)  were  formed  into  circuits,  as  follows : 

**The  districts  of  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  and 
Rhode  Island,  shall  constitute  the  first  circuit. 

* '  The  districts  of  Connecticut,  New  York,  and  Vermont, 
shall  constitute  the  second  circuit. 

"The  districts  of  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  shall 
constitute  the  third  circuit. 

**The  districts  of  Maryland  and  Delaware  shall  consti- 
tute the  fourth  circuit. 

*'The  districts  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  shall 
constitute  the  fifth  circuit. 

**The  districts  of  South  Carolina  and  Georg"ia  shall  con- 
stitute the  sixth  circuit." 

It  will  be  noticed  that  this  law  g-ave  the  North  and 
South  each  three  judges  and  three  circuits. 

By  the  act  of  February  24,  1807,  the  Supreme  Court  was 
made  to  consist  of  seven  judg-es ;  and  the  seventh  circuit 
comprised  the  States  of  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  and  Ohio. 

By  act  of  3d  of  March,  1837,  two  additional  judges  and 
Southern  circuits  were  created,  and  the  district  of  Ohio 
detached,  from  the  circuit  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  and 


—  56  — 

the  seventh  circuit  made  to  consist  of  the  States  of  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Michigan.  In  this  act  it  was  declared 
that  **  the  districts  of  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  Missouri, 
shall  form  and  be  called  the  eig-hth  circuit;"  and  *' the  dis- 
tricts of  Alabama,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  and  Arkansas, 
shall  form  and  be  called  the  ninth  circuit." 

By  the  creation  of  the  eighth  and  ninth  circuits,  the 
South,  with  less  than  half  the  population,  and  not  more  than 
one-fourth  of  the  business  in  the  Supreme  Court,  obtained  a 
majority  of  the  judges.  Since  the  organization  of  the  eighth 
and  ninth  circuits,  the  free  States  of  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  Cali- 
fornia, Minnesota,  and  Oregon,  have  been  admitted  into  the 
Union ;  and  although  these  States  contain  a  population  and 
have  an  amount  of  judicial  business  equal  at  least  to  one- 
third  of  those  of  the  entire  fifteen  slave  States,  they  have 
not  been  erected  into  or  attached  to  judicial  circuits,  and 
have  no  representative  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court. 
The  reason  for  refusing  or  neglecting  to  place  these  States 
upon  an  equal  footing  with  the  new  Southwestern  States 
whose  populations  are  far  less,  will  be  manifest,  I  trust, 
before  I  get  through. 

When  Mr.  Tyler,  by  the  death  of  General  Harrison 
became  President,  and  betrayed  the  party  which  elected  him 
by  throwing  himself  into  the  arms  of  the  disunion  wing  o 
the  Democratic  party,  and  placing  Mr.  Calhoun  in  the  offic< 
of  Secretary  of  State,  for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  Texas,  j 
point  was  gained  by  this  faction,  which  they  have  not  onl^ 
never  lost,  but  having  secured  the  control  of  the  succeeding 
administration  of  Mr.  Polk,  they  have  advanced  with  rapic 
strides  from  a  small  and  once  powerless  minority,  as  the; 
were  when  treated  as  General  Jackson  treated  them,  unti 
they  have  for  years  completely  controlled  the  Democrati 
organization,  and  changed  its  fundamental  principles. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  government 
under  Mr.  Tyler*s  administration,  the  opinions  of  me 
selected  for  the  Supreme  Court  on  the  question  of  slaver 
were  made  a  test  of  their  promotion  to  that  exalted  positior 
No  man  who  was  known  to  entertain  views  hostile  to  th 
interest  and  political  opinions  of  the  privileged  class  reprc 


—  57 


sented  by  Mr.  Calhoun  could  be  nominated,  or,  if  nominated, 
confirmed  to  a  seat  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court.  And 
one  of  the  present  judges — Justice  Nelson,  of  the  State  of 
New  York  —  was  selected  by  President  Tyler,  with  the  ap- 
proval of  Mr.  Calhoun,  because  of  his  reputed  fidelity  to  this 
class  interest.  Having-  secured  by  the  death  of  President  Har- 
rison the  executive  branch  of  the  government,  their  next  step 
was  to  obtain  the  control  of  the  Senate  committees,  especially 
the  Judiciary  Committee,  to  which  all  nominations  for  the 
Supreme  Court  are  referred  ;  and,  as  a  result  of  this  policy,  the 
Judiciary  Committee  for  the  last  twenty  years  has  been  com- 
pletely in  the  hands  of  this  faction.  The  following  Senators 
were  members  of  the  Judiciary  Committee  at  the  time  of  which 
I  am  speaking  :  Ashley  of  Arkansas,  chairman  ;  Breese  of 
Illinois,  Berrien  of  Georgia,  Westcott  of  Florida,  and  Web- 
ster of  Massachusetts.  They  recommended  the  confirmation 
of  Robert  C.  Grier,  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  rejection  or 
withdrawal  by  the  President,  if  not  of  each  of  the  following 
names,  at  least  of  such  men  as  John  M.  Read,  Edward  King 
and  George  W.  Woodward,  of  Pennsylvania,  who  were 
severally  nominated,  and  rejected  or  withdrawn  because  of 
their  known  opposition  to  slavery,  and  their  belief  that 
Congress  had  the  power,  under  the  Constitution,  and  that  it 
was  their  duty,  to  abolish  and  prohibit  slavery  in  all  national 
Territories. 

During  Mr.  Fillmore's  administration,  the  Judiciary 
Committee  recommended  the  rejection,  or  postponement,  or 
withdrawal  of  the  nomination  of  K.  A.  Bradford,  of 
Louisiana,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  lawyers  of  that 
State,  and  also  the  indefinite  postponement  of  the  nomina- 
tion of  William  Co  Micou,  of  the  same  State,  on  thk  same 

DAY  THE  NOMINATION  WAS  SENT  TO   THE  SENATE.      Mr.  MicOU 

was  at  that  time  a  law  partner  of  Senator  Benjamin,  of 
Louisiana,  and  a  distinguished  member  of  the  bar.  This 
was  disposing  of  a  man  summarily.  These  nominations 
were  made  by  Mr.  Fillmore,  as  was  also  the  nomination  of 
Hon.  George  K.  Badger,  of  North  Carolina,  whose  confirma- 
tion was  refused,  and  the  consideration  of  it  postponed  on 
the  recommendation  of  this  committee  by  a  test  vote  of  26 


b 


—  58  — 

to  25,  simply  because  he  believed,  with  Henry  Clay,  thai 
Congress  had  the  power  to  exclude  slavery  from  the  Terri- 
tories. So  close  was  this  vote,  that  the  slave  interest  wen 
compelled  to  teleg-raph  to  Alabama  for  Senator  Fitzpatricli 
to  come  on  and  aid  in  his  defeat  by  postponing-  the  con- 
sideration of  the  subject  until  the  inaug-uration  of  Mr.  Pierce 
who  at  that  time  was  elected.  After  Mr.  Pierce  came  intc 
office,  he  submitted  the  name  of  John  A.  Campbell,  of  Ala 
bam  a,  and  he  was  confirmed.  This  committee  were  :  Butle: 
of  South  Carolina,  chairman ;  Downs  of  Louisiana,  Bradbun 
of  Maine,  Geyer  of  Missouri,  and  Badg-er  of  North  Carolina 
It  will  be  observed  that  on  this  important  committee  but  on( 
member  was  from  the  free  States,  and  he  a  supporter  of  th« 
Administration. 

How  many  of  the  best  and  most  disting-uished  men  hav< 
been  rejected  during-  the  past  twenty  years,  after  having 
been  nominated  for  seats  on  the  Supreme  Bench,  the  publi* 
have  no  means  of  determining-,  as  the  official  action  of  th« 
Senate  is  locked  up  in  its   secret  archives,   into  which  th« 
people  are  never  permitted  to  look  by  the  leaders  of  the  Democ 
racy,  who   fear  being-  called   to   an  account  for  their  bas' 
betrayal  of  the  interests  and  wishes  of  their  constituents 
Many  thing's  have  been  said  and  done  in  the  secret  session 
of  the  United  States  Senate,  which,  if  made  public  at  th 
time,  would  have  consig-ned  the  utterer  to  the  shades  of  pri 
vate  life,  and  the  party  to  a  hopeless  minority.     This  prac 
tice  of  holding-  secret  sessions  of  the  Senate  is  a  feature  i] 
our  system  of   g-overnment  for  which  I  have  no  partiality 
and  for  which  there  is,   in  my  judg-ment,    no  justification 
except,  perhaps,  when  the  country  is  eng-ag-ed  in  a  foreig-; 
war,  or  discussing-  the  proposed  ratification  of  a  treaty.     N 
business  touching-  or  affecting-  the  interest  of  the  country  a 
home  should  be  done  in  secret,  and  kept  from  the  peopk 
The  following-  are  some  of  the  names  which  I  remembei 
although  there  are  doubtless  more  persons  who  have  bee 
nominated   for   places   on   the  Supreme   Bench,    and   eithe 
rejected   or  their  names  withdrawn :     John  C.   Spencer,  c 
New  York ;  Reuben  H.  Walworth,  for  many  years  chancellc 
of  the  State  of  New  York  ;  Edward  King-,  George  W.  Wooc 


—  59  — 

ward,  and  John  M.  React,  of  Pennsylvania ;  E.  A.  Bradford 
and  William  C.  Micou,  of  Louisiana ;  Georg-e  K.  Badg-er,  of 
North  Carolina ;  and  others,  whose  names  I  cannot  now 
recall. 

And  in  the  places  of  such  distinguished  jurists  and  most 
worthy  and  learned  citizens,  we  have  to-day,  as  the  result 
and  success  of  the  Calhoun  conspiracy,  Nelson  of  New  York, 
Grier  of  Pennsylvania,  Campbell  of  Alabama,  Daniel*  of 
Virg-inia,  and  Clifford  of  Maine;  some  of  whom  certainly 
would  never  have  been  thoug-ht  of  for  a  seat  on  the  Supreme 
Bench,  but  for. their  loyalty  and  devotion  to  the  interest  and 
wishes  of  the  slave  power.  To  the  political  opinions  of  a 
court  thus  constituted,  the  people  of  the  United  States  are 
called  upon  by  the  President,  and  the  so-called  Democratic 
party,  to  bow  in  submission ;  and  are  denounced  as  traitors 
to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union,  unless  they  yield  up  their 
political  views,  and  embrace  those  of  a  majority  of  this 
packed  and  irresponsible  tribunal. 

If  the  neg-lect  to  org-anize  the  five  free  States  I  have 
named  into  circuits,  and  give  them  representatives  on  the 
bench,  and  the  unfair  manner  in  which  the  present  nine  cir- 
cuits are  constituted,  in  order,  as  must  be  apparent  to  every 
one,  to  secure  a  majority  of  the  Supreme  Court  judg-es  to  the 
South,  is  not,  of  itself,  sufficient  to  satisfy  any  impartial 
mind  of  the  covert  desig*ns  of  those  who  control  and  dictate 
the  policy  of  the  Democratic  party,  a  g-lance  at  the  popula- 
tion of  one  or  two  of  the  judicial  circuits,  and  the  business 
before  the  court,  will  satisfy  the  most  skeptical  that  this 
inequality  is  not  the  result  of  mere  accident,  but  of  a  deliber- 
ate, well-laid,  persistently-pursued  scheme. 

Take  the  population  of  the  ninth  circuit,  composed  of 
the  States  of  Arkansas  and  Mississippi,  and  compare  it  with 
the  seventh,  Judg-e  McLean's  circuit,  which  comprises  the 
States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Michig^an.  The  ninth 
circuit,  Justice  Daniel's,  contains  little,  if  any,  over  half  a 
million  of  white  inhabitants  ;  while  Justice  McLean's  contains 
over  six  millions.  The  second  circuit.  Justice  Nelson's,  com- 
posed of  the  States  of  New  York,  Connecticut,  and  Vermont, 


♦Deceased  since  the  delivery  of  this  speech. 


60  — 


contains  over  five  millions  o.f  freemen ;  while  the  fifth  cir 
cuit,  Justice  Campbell's,  composed  of  the  States  of  Louis 
iana  and  Alabama,  has  but  little  over  a  million  white  inhabi 
tants. 

But,  if  the  inequality  of  population  is  g-reat  in  thes 
circuits,  the  inequality  of  labor  and  business  disposed  of  b 
each  of  the  judg-es  of  these  circuits  is  far  g-reater.  I  hav 
taken  the  trouble,  since  I  have  had  the  honor  of  a  seat  here 
to  examine  into  this  matter,  and  have  obtained  the  followin; 
accurate  statement  of  the  business  of  the  five  Southern  circuits 
and  the  circuit  of  Judg-e  McLean,  from  the  1st  of  Januarj 
1856,  to  the  1st  of  January,  1857,  to  which  I  invite  the  specia 
attention  of  the  House,  as  demonstrating*,  more  forcibly  tha 
any  arg-ument  of  mine,  the  deliberate  purpose  of  the  reprc 
sentatives  of  the  so-called  Democratic  party  to  secure  to  thi 
Southern  privileg-ed  class,  who  are  but  a  small  minority  c 
the  people,  the  absolute  control  of  this  important  and  dar 
g-erous  department  of  the  g-overnment. 

This  statement  will  show  the  number  of  cases  on  th 
docket  in  £ve  of  the  Southern  circuits,  also  Judg-e  McLean- 
circuit,  on  the  1st  of  January,  1856,  and  the  number  adde 
during-  the  year  1856,  the  number  tried  and  disposed  of  tha 
year,  and  the  number  remaining-  undisposed  of,  Januar 
1,  1857. 


—  61  — 


0 

bo 

e 

, 

a 

o 

n 
»a 

1:. 

CIRCUITS. 

digs 

•Bg 

1^ 

n  og 

0 

d 

For  the  fourtli  circuit,  composed 

of    the    States    of    Delaware, 

Maryland,  and  Virginia,  Chief 

Justice   Taney  presiding",    the 

returns  show 

444 

328 

388 

384 

For  the  fifth  circuit,  composed  of 

the   States    of    Louisiana  and 

Alabama,  Judge  Campbell  pre- 

^  siding,  the  returns  show 

350 

379 

412 

317 

For  the  sixth  circuit,    composed 

of  the  States  of  Georgia,  South 

Carolina,  and  North  Carolina, 

Judge    Wayne    presiding,   the 

returns  show 

133 

289 

311 

111 

For  the  eighth  circuit,  composed 

of  the  States  of  Missouri,  Ten- 

nessee,   and  Kentucky,   Judge 

Catron  presiding,   the  returns 

show 

316 

257 

316 

257 

For  the  ninth  circuit,  composed 

of  the  States  of  Arkansas  and 

Mississippi,  Judge  Daniel  pre- 

siding, the  returns  show 

Total  for  ^ve  Southern  circuits 
For  the  seventh  (Judge  McLean's) 

333 

170 

294 

210 

1,576 

1,423 

1,721 

1,279 

circuit,  composed  of  the  States 

of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and 

Michigan,    the   returns    show 

more  business  than  all  the  five 

Southern  circuits . . 



1,481 

2,037 

1,782 

1,736 

L 


—  62  — 

It  will  be  seen  by  this  statement  that  Judg-e  McLean  ha; 
more  business  in  his  sing-le  circuit  than  all  the  five  Southen 
judges  in  their  five  Southern  circuits.  That  the  number  o 
cases  docketed  in  the  course  of  the  year  was  greater ;  th 
number  disposed  of  g-reater  ;  and  the  number  remaining-  undis 
posed  of  on  the  1st  of  January,  1857,  was  g-reater. 

"What  justification,  excuse,  or  apolog-y,  can  the  member 
of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  North  g-ive  for  this  shamef ti 
neg-lect  or  betrayal  of  the  interest  of  their  constituents? 

Let  any  impartial  man  look  over  this  table,  and  answe 
the  question,  **  how  oug-ht  these  circuits  to  be  constituted? 
and  he  will  answer  you,  *'in  proportion  to  the)  amount  o 

BUSINESS  DONE  BY  KACH  JUDGE  OF  THE  SEVERAI.  CIRCUITS."      ] 

this  just  principle  should  be  adopted,  as  it  ought  to  be,  an 
will  be  some  day  adopted,  and  the  average  business  of  th 
present  £ye  Southern  circuits  should  constitute  the  basis  fc 
creating  new  judicial  circuits  and  judges  of  the  Suprem 
Court,  the  North  would  be  entitled  to  at  least  fourteen  or  fi^ 
teen  more  circuits  and  judges,  without  including  the  State 
of  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  California,  Minnesota,  and  Oregot 
which  I  have  not  included  in  the  above  calculations. 

Why  is  it  that  this  inequality  is  permitted  to  continue 
Why  is  it  that  the  Representatives  of  the  so-called  Dem( 
cratic  party  from  the  North  have  not  long  ago  moved  i 
equalize  this  department  of  the  government,  and  obtain  f c 
their  constituents  a  representation  on  the  bench  equal  1 
their  numbers,  business,  and  wealth? 

To  say  that  all  this  is  the  result  of  accident,  and  tt 
unexpected  increase  of  population  in  the  North,  is  a  mocker 
I  tell  you,  as  all  reflecting  and  observing  men  who  are  m 
partisans  will  tell  you,  that  it  is  but  one  of  the  man 
schemes  to  which  the  Democratic  party,  since  its  surrender  1 
the  Calhoun  faction,  has  lent  the  use  of  its  great  name  ar 
influence  to  establish  and  make  permanent  and  universal  tl 
institution  of  human  slavery  in  all  the  States  and  Territoric 
of  this  Republic. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  time  was,  and  that,  too,  within  tl 
memory  of  many  members  on  this  floor,  when  slavery  wz 
regarded  and  admitted  by  the  great  majority  of  the  Amer 


—  63— 

can  people,  by  men  of  all  parties  and  all  religious  creeds,  to 
be  a  moral,  social,  and  political  evil,  from  wliicli  it  was  the 
duty  of  the  States^to  free  themselves  as  speedily  as  possi- 
ble, and  fot^the  existence  and  continuance  of  which  the 
National  Government  should  in  no  way  be  held  responsible 
before  the  world.  Now  all  this  is  chang-ed;  and  a  g-reat 
party  to-day,  throug-h  its  Representatives  in  this  Hall,  with 
here  and  there  an  exception,  claim  that  slavery  is  a  moral, 
a  Christian,  and  desirable  political  institution,  established  by 
the  Great  Supreme,  for  the  happiness  alike  of  the  white  and 
black  races.  And  not  only  this,  but  they  claim  that  the 
National  Constitution,  which  our  fathers  declared  they 
ordained  to  secure  the  blessing's  of  liberty,  carries,  sustains, 
and  protects,  of  its  own  force,  the  rig-ht  of  the  master  to  the 
person  and  service  of  his  slave  on  every  foot  of  soil,  and 
wherever  floats  the  national  ensig-n,  save  only  in  States 
where,  by  positive  enactments,  its  existence  is  prohibited ; 
in  other  words,  that  slavery  is  a  natural,  leg-al,  and 
universal  relation,  and  freedom  unnatural,  exceptional,  and 
local,  and  only  made  exceptional  by  the  exercise  of  the  arbi- 
trary will  of  the  electors  of  theS  tates,  expressed  in  the  form 
of  positive  leg-islative  inhibition.  Even  this  pretended  rig-ht, 
unsustained  as  it  was  by  any  respectable  number  of  men 
from  the  org-anization  of  the  g-overnment  until  the  birth  of 
the  Calhoun  party,  in  1844,  has  become  the  cardinal  point  in 
the  Democratic  creed. 

This  desperate  faction  was  unfortunately  recognized  and 
leg-otiated  with  at  that  time,  and  its  leaders  succeeded  in 
naking"  a  secret  treaty  with  the  recog'nized  chief  of  the 
Democratic  party,  from  the  bad  effects  of  which  the  party 
lever  recovered.  Since  that  time  (1844),  this  mere  faction — 
I  clique  that  twenty  years  ag-o  could  be  easily  numbered  — 
lave  been  constantly  g-aining*  in  power  and  streng-th,  until  at 
ast  they  have  been  able  to  force  from  the  party  an  authori- 
ative  recog-nition  of  their  doctrines.  They  have  baptized 
hem  in  the  name  of  Democracy;  and  from  this  time  forward, 
lot  only  are  the  living*  principles  of  the  old  Democratic 
»arty  to  be  abandonedo  but  the  doctrine  is  to  be  maintained 
hat  the  Dred  Scott  decision  is  the  true  interpretation  of  the 


—  64  — 

CorLstitution ;  that  the  log-ical  result  of  that  decision  prevents 
the  people  of  any  State  from  excluding-  slavery. 

On  the  17th  of  November,  1857,  the  Washing-ton  Union, 
the  organ  of  the  Administration,  and  the  special  mouth- 
piece of  the  President,  in  speaking-  of  this  subject,  said : 

**ThK  constitution   DKCI.ARKS    THAT   *  THE)  CITIZEJNS   OI 

E5ACH  State)  shaliv  bk  entiti^kd  to  ali,  th:^  privii^kges  ani 

IMMUNITIES   OP    CITIZENS    IN    THE    SEVERAI.    STATES.'      KveT} 

citizen  of  one  State  coming"  into  another  State  has  therefore 
a  right  to  the  protection  of  his  person,  and  that  propert} 
which  is  recognized  as  such  by  the  Constitution  of  th( 
United  States,  any  law  of  a  State  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing. So  far  from  any  State  havin'g  a  right  to  deprive 
him  of  this  property,  it  is  its  boundeil  duty  to  protect  him  it 
its  possession. 

*'If  these  views  are  correct — and  we  believe  it  woulc 
be  difficult  to  invalidate  them  —  it  follows  that  all  State  laws 
whether  organic  or  otherwise,  which  prohibit  a  citizen  o 
one  State  from  setti^ing  in  another,  and  bringing  his  si^av] 
PROPERTY  WITH  HIM,  and  most  especially  declaring  it  for 
feited,  are  direct  violations  of  the  original  intention  of  ; 
government  which,  as  before  stated,  is  the  protection  o 
person  and  property,  and  of  the  Constitution  of  the  Unite 
States,  which  recognizes  property  in  slaves,  and  declare 
that  *  the  citizens  of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  th 
privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in  the  several  States 
among  the  most  essential  of  which  is  the  protection  of  pei 
son  and  property." 

And,  in  my  judgment,  this  will  be  the  next  aggressiv 
step  made  by  the  present  Administration  party  upon  the  fre 
people  of  this  country.  Yes,  sir;  I  firmly  believe  that  w 
are  to  have  a  second  Dred  Scott  decision  by  the  preset 
Supreme  Court,  which  will  fully  sustain  this  monstrous  clai] 
now  openly  set  up  by  many  of  the  leaders  of  this  Calhou 
party,  provided,  always,  that  they  are  successful  in  the  con 
ing  Presidential  election,  and  the  Supreme  Court  can  there! 
have  the  assurance  it  had  when  Mr.  Buchanan  was  electee 
that  its  decrees  will  be  enforced  by  the  strong  arm  of  tl 
Executive  department  of  the  government,  with  the  army  at 
navy  and  purse  of  the  nation  at  its  command.  I  infer  th 
both  from  the  manner  in  which  the  members  of  this  cou 
have  been  selected,  and  from  the  history  of  the  first  Dn 


-65- 

Scott  case.  The  L/emmon  case,  as  it  is  familiarly  called,  but 
which  I  desig-nate  the  second  Dred  Scott  case,  has  been,  as 
g-entlemen  are  aware,  carried  up  on  appeal  by  the  authorities 
of  the  State  of  Virg-inia  from  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
State  of  Kew  York  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  and  presents  a  case  exactly  in  point;  and  I  doubt  not 
is  prosecuted  by  Virginia  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  obtain 
another  political  decision  from  this  court  to  sustain  their 
pro-slavery  interpretations  of  the  Constitution.  If  this  is 
not  the  case,  why  is  the  decision  of  the  New  York  court  to 
be  carried  up  for  revision,  as  the  State  of  Virg-inia  did  not 
own  the  slave  liberated  by  Judge  Payne ;  and  Mr.  Lemmon, 
I  believe,  was  paid  the  full  value  of  these  slaves  by  the  cot- 
ton merchants  of  New  York,  soon  after  their  liberation? 

There  can  be  but  one  motive  for  the  action  of  Virginia 
in  the  premises;  and  that  is,   to  secure  another  pro-slavery 
opinion  from  the  Supreme  Court,  sustaining  their  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Constitution  —  an  interpretation  which  even  Mr. 
Calhoun  never  openly  claimed,  but  which  his  disciples,  em- 
boldened by  their  success,  now  claim  to  be  the  true  one  — 
namely,  that  slaveholders  have  the  right,  under  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United   States,  to   go,  not  only  into  all  the 
organized  Territories,  but  into  any  or  all  the  organized  North- 
ern States,  with  their  slaves,  and  there  have  them  protected 
Dy  the  National  Government,  in  defiance  of  the  local  laws  of 
:he  State.     It  is  my  solemn,  deliberate  conviction,  that  this 
•learly    unconstitutional    claim   will    be    sustained    by  the 
supreme  Court,  if  a  President  is  elected  this  year  by  the  pro- 
lavery  party  of  the  country.     And  let  me  ask,  gentlemen,  if 
uch  a  decision  is  any  more  unlikely  to  happen  than  the  first 
)red  Scott  decision?    And  does  it  not  necessarily  follow,  if 
he  Dred  Scott  decision  is  correct,  that  the  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  New  York,  in  the  L/emmon 
ase,  is  wrong? 

Let  us  look  at  this  point  a  moment.  The  Kansas- 
lebraska  bills  contained  the  germ  from  which  both  these 
ro-slavery  questions  were  dug  up.     Both  bills  declared  — 

**That  it  is  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  this  act,  not 
:>  legislate  slavery  into  any  Territory  or  State,  nor  to  exclude 


66  — 


it  therefrom,  but  to  leave  the  people  thereof  perfectly  free  1 
form  and  reg-ulate  their  own  domestic  institutions  in  the 
own  way,  subject  only  to  the  Constitution  of  the  Unite 
States." 

At  the  time  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bills  were  under  di 
cussion,  no  person  was  able  to  discover  why  the  clause  ' '  nc 

TO  IvKGISI^AT:^  SI.AVKRY  INTO  ANY  TERRITORY  OR  StATK,  NC 

TO  EXCLUDE  IT  THEREFROM,"  was  inserted  in  said  acts ;  ar 
their  disting-uished  author,  from  that  day  to  this,  has  nev< 
enlig-htened  the  country  on  this  point,  althoug-h  frequent' 
and  urg-ently  pressed  to  do  so.  The  concluding"  line  of  th 
extraordinary  section,  ''subject  only  to  the  Constitutic 
OP  THE  United  States,"  was  understood  and  denounced  : 
the  time  as  a  cunningly-devised  scheme  for  g-etting*  the  polil 
cal  question  of  the  power  of  Cong-ress  over  the  subject  < 
slavery  in  the  Territories  before  the  Supreme  Court,  whic 
was  now,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  g-overnmen 
regarded  as  a  partisan  tribunal,  completely  in  the  hands  • 
the  pro-slavery  party,  who  had  selected  a  majority  of  tl 
judges  for  their  well-known  sympathy  with  the  privileg( 
class  and  their  fidelity  to  the  interest  of  slavery. 

The  meaning  of  the  words,  **  not  to  legislate  slavei 
INTO  ANY  Territory  or  State,  nor  to  exclude  it  ther 
FROM,"  was  soon  comprehended  after  the  Presidential  ele 
tion  of  1856,  from  the  authoritative  interpretation  given  1 
the  President  and  his  party  to  this  apparently  harmle 
declaration,  and  the  subsequent  action  of  the  Supreme  Cot 
in  the  Dred  Scott  case.  About  a  year  after  the  passage 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  act,  the  Dred  Scott  case  is  first  hea 
of  by  the  people,  and  an  unpleasant  apprehension  imn 
diately  took  possession  of  the  public  mind.  Arguments  w€ 
made  by  counsel  in  t'ae  winter  of  1855  and  1856,  but  t 
decision  was  reserved.  The  Presidential  election  was  a 
proaching,  and  this  "  august  Tribunal"  thought  it  prude 
to  defer  their  decision,  and  not  submit  it  to  that  high* 
better,  and  safer  court  of  appeals,  the  people,  so  soon  af 
its  delivery.  They  therefore  reserved  their  opinions,  a 
ordered  the  case  to  be  reargued ;  and  thus  a  year's  time  w 
gained,  which  carried  them  over  the  Presidential  election 


—  67  — 

1856,  and  enabled  the  court  to  know  positively  whether  they 
could  rely  upon  the  executive  and  legislative  departments 
of  the  government  to  sustain  and  enforce  their  contemplated 
usurpation. 

The^  Cincinnati  convention  in  the  mean  time  had  been 
held,  and  reconstructed  the  creed  of  the  party,  and  nominated 
Mr.  Buchanan.  In  this  platform,  the  Southern  members  of 
the  party,  understanding  what  would  be  the  probable  action 
of  the  court  in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  determined  to  aid  the 
court  in  their  contemplated  decision,  by  giving  two  interpre- 
tations to  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act,  while  claiming,  authori- 
tatively, to  give  but  one.  The  manner  in  which  they  did 
this,  was  by  resolving  that  the  people  of  Kansas  might  deter- 
mine for  themselves  whether  they  would  have  slavery  or  not, 
"whenever  the  number  of  inhabitants  justified  it." 
This  was  a  cunning  play  upon  words,  and  intended  to  deceive 
the  people,  by  permitting  one  interpretation  in  the  North  and 
quite  a  different  one  in  the  South,  for  the  double  purpose  of 
political  effect  during  the  Presidential  campaign.  After  the 
election,  if  successful,  they  were  to  make  a  new  definition, 
which  was  necessary,  in  order  to  harmonize  the  conflicting 
views  of  the  party  leaders,  and  in  order  the  more  effectually 
to  aid  in  the  pretended  settlement  of  this  *' vexed  question." 
The  public  pledge  of  the  party  was  everywhere  cautiously 
secured  in  advance,  through  all  the  appliances  known  to  this 
wonderful  party  organization,  to  abide  by  and  sustain,  as  a 
final  settlement,  the  interpretation,  whatever  it  might  be, 
-hat  the  Supreme  Court  would  give  to  this  plank  in  the  Cin- 
:innati  platform.*    With  this  arrangement,  the  slave  barons 

^Senator  Benjamin,  of  Louisiana,  in  a  late  speech  which  I  reg-ard  as  one  of  the 
i|>lest  and  most  forcible  yet  made  ag'ainst  the  position  and  consistency  of  Mr.^Doug-las, 
rankly  declared,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  that  the  above  charg-es  of  a  secret  con- 
piracy  were  true  ;  and  though  this  fact  was  well  known  to  many,  it  had  never  before 
■een  admitted  by  any  leading  member  of  the  Democratic  party, 

Mr.  Benjamin  said,  substantially,  that  — 
'     "Both  wings  of  the  Democracy  agreed,  in  a  caucus  of  the  Senate,  in  1854,  that 
each  should  maintain  its  particular  theory  before  the  public  —  one  side  sustaining 
Squatter  Sovereignty,  and  the  other  protection  to  slavery  in  the  Terri- 
tories,  BUT   PLEDGING  THEMSELVES  TO   ABIDE   BY   THE  DECISION  OF  THE   SUPREMB 

Court,  whatever  it  might  be." 

This  was  the  secret  bargain  which  Mr.  Benjamin  charged  Mr.  Douglas  with  vio- 
iting,  declaring  that  he  (Douglas)  had  failed  to  keep  g'ood  his  pledge. 

In  this  manner,  the  people  of  the  free  States  were  deceived  into  the  support  of  Mr. 
ttchanan,  in  1856.  Let  the  freemen  of  the  North  see  to  it  that  they  are  not  again 
aceivedby  secret  bargains  in  1860. 


—  68- 


felt  safe  and  confident,  after  having"  secured  the  election  of 
Mr.  Buchanan,  and  as  soon  thereafter  as  they  thoug-ht  it 
expedient,  they  openly,  throug-h  the  outg-oing-  and  incoming* 
Executives,  and  in  the  Halls  of  this  Capitol,  claimed  the 
extreme  Southern  interpretation  to  be  the  true  one. 

The  true  interpretation  having*  been  thus  authoritatively 
established  by  the  court,  and  declared  to  be,  that  *  *  the)  peo- 
PI.E  OF  THE  Territories  shoui^d  never  have  the  power, 
WHii,E  IN  A  Territorial  condition,  to  abolish  or  exclude 
SLAVERY,"  the  abandonment  of  the  deceptive  and  alluring" 
catch-words  of  "popular  sovereignty"  became  a  necessity 
with  all  who  were  members  of  the  party,  except  a  few  who 
were  denominated  '*  rebels,"  or  the  undisg-uised  demag"og"ues 
who  still  remain  with  the  party.  Mr.  Buchanan,  in  his  in- 
augural, openly  sustained  Calhoun's  theory  on  this  question, 
and,  in  the  Silliman  letter,  declared  that  slavery,  by  virtue 
of  the  Constitution,  not  only  existed  in  all  the  Territories  of 
the  Union,  but  that** it  existed  in  Kansas  as  completely 
as  in  Georgia  or  South  Carolina;"  and  he  adds,  in  his  last 
annual  message,  to  complete  the  record,  and  sustain  in  ad- 
vance the  well-known  forthcoming  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  in  this  second  Dred  Scott  case,  to  which  I  have  alluded, 
"that  neither  Congress  nor  the  Territorial  Legisla- 
ture, NOR  ANY  Human  Power,  has  any  authority  to  annul 
or  impair  this  vested  right,"  claiming  that  the  Supreme 
Court  has  finally  established  the  right  of  every  citizen  to 
"take  his  slave  property  into  the  Territories,  and 
have  it  protected  there  under  the  Constitution."  He 
would  thus  irrevocably  ^x  the  status  of  all  national  Terri- 
tories as  slave  Territories,  and  deprive  the  people  of  the 
power  to  alter  or  change  it ;  and,  as  if  to  extinguish  the  last 
vestige  of  "popular  sovereignty,"  the  President  declares 
that,  if  it  "had  been  decided  that  either  Congress  or  a 
Territorial  Legislature  possessed  the  power  to  impair 
this  right  of  property  in  slaves,  the  evil  would  have 
BEEN  INTOLERABLE."  He  claims  that  the  Supreme  Court  have 
the  power,  and  should  protect  this  class  interest  against  the 
will  of  the  people;  and  that  Congress,  if  necessary,  "must 


mertt  on  such  a  political  record  is  unnecessary. 


4 


—  69 


During-  the  Presidential  contest  of  1856,  the  Supreme 
Court  and  slave  barons  held  their  breath,  and  only  breathed 
freely  again  after  the  smoke  of  the  battle  had  cleared  away, 
and  they  found  that  they  had  secured  another  four  years' 
lease  of  power  by  the  election  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  That  result 
could  only  have  happened  then,  and  can  only  be  repeated 
now,  by  the  folly  and  division  of  their  opponents,  who  were 
then,  and  are  to-day,  a  larg-e  majority  of  the  people. 

About  the  time  of  the  inaug-uration  of  Mr.  Buchanan, 
the  Dred  Scott  case  was  reargued,  as  ordered,  and  the  court 
were  now  prepared  to  take  the  course  so  long"  and  cautiously 
contemplated ;  when  all  the  precedents  of  this  tribunal,  even 
their  own  decisions,  and  the  adjudications  of  such  men  as 
Jay  and  Story  and  Marshall  were  to  be  overruled,  and  the 
doctrine  officially  proclaimed  to  the  world,  **that  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  recognized  property  in  man." 

In  order  that  the  nation  might  be  prepared  to  submit  to 
almost  any  new  aggression  of  the  slave  barons,  the  leaders  of 
this  class  interest,  who  always  rule  with  an  unrelenting- 
despotism,  saw  to  it  that  the  outg-oing"  President  of  the 
.  United  States  should  prepare  the  party,  and  especially  all  the 
hungry  swarm  of  applicants  for  official  favor  under  the  incom- 
ing- Administration,  to  defend,  in  advance,  the  decision  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  whatever  it  might  be. 

In  accordance  with  this  cunningly-devised  programme, 
President  Pierce,  in  his  last  annual  message,  claimed  that 
the  people,  in  the  election  of  Mr.  Buchanan  (althoug-h  all 
knew  he  was  elected  by  a  minority  of  the  votes),  endorsed 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  act ;  and  apprised  them  of  the  fact  that 
this  Dred  Scott  decision,  although  not  at  that  time  officially 
announced  from  the  bench,  had  been  ag-reed  upon,  and  that 
the  court  **had  finally  determined  this  point,  to  wit :  that 
Congress  had  no  power  to  kxci^ude  si^avkry  from  States 
OR  Territories,  in  every  form  in  which  the  question 
couivD  ARISE."  He  thus  advised,  in  advance,  all  the  aspirants 
and  politicians  of  the  country,  who  desired  favors  or  promo- 
tion at  the  hands  of  the  slave  barons,  under  the  incoming- 
administration  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  the  course  necessary  for 
them  to  pursue,  in  order  the  more  effectually  to  secure  a 
recognition  of  their  claims.     The  following-  extract  from  the 


70  — 


messag-e  referred  to,  though  expressed  in  ambig-uous  and 
carefully  selected  lang-uag-e,  applies  to,  and  was  intended  to 
apply  to,  the  Dred  Scott  case.  The  use  of  the  words,  "  in  a 
i,ONG  SERIES  OF  DECISIONS,"  was  intended  to  mislead  and 
deceive  the  masses  of  the  people,  for  the  court  had  never 
established  any  such  doctrine  as  claimed  by  "  a  long  series 
OF  DECISIONS,"  but  had  uniformly  decided  directly  the  reverse, 
so  far  as  regards  the  power  of  Congress  to  exclude  slavery 
from  the  Territories. 

The  manner  in  which  the  author  of  this  part  of  the  mes- 
sage (whom  Colonel  Benton  alleges  was  Caleb  Cushing,  then 
Attorney  General)  couples  the  terms  **  private  rights," 
*' NAVIGATION,"  **  RELIGION,"  and  SERVITUDE,"  Cannot  fail  to 
attract  the  attention  of  the  careful  reader.  What  rights  of 
**  religion"  were  affected  or  secured  b}^  this  decision,  in  either 
States  or  Territories,  has  not  transpired.  The  President 
says : 

**  Thereupon  this  enactment  [the  Missouri  compromise] 
ceased  to  have  binding  virtue  in  any  sense,  whether  as  re- 
spects the  North  or  the  South  [because  the  North  would 
NOT  AGREE  TO  EXTEND  IT  TO  THE  Pacific]  ,  and  SO  in  effect  it 
was  treated  on  the  occasion  of  the  admission  of  the  State  of 
California,  and  the  organization  of  the  Territories  of  New 
Mexico,  Utah,  and  Washington. 

* '  Such  was  the  state  of  the  question  when  the  time 
arrived  for  the  organization  of  the  Territories  of  Kansas  and 
Nebraska.  In  the  progress  of  constitutional  inquiry  and 
reflection,  it  had  now  at  length  come  to  be  seen  clearly  that 
Congress  does  not  possess  constitutional  power  to  impose 
restrictions  of  this  character  [the  exclusion  of  slavery]  upon 
any  present  or  future  State  of  the  Union.  In  a  long  series 
OF  decisions,  on  the  fullest  argument,  and  after  the  most 
deliberate  consideration,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  had  finally  determined  this  point,  in  every  form  in 
which  THE  question  COULD  ARISE,  whether  as  affecting  pub- 
lic or  private  rights  in  the  questions  of  public  domain,  of 

RELIGION,  OF  NAVIGATION,  and  of  SERVITUDE. " 

Colonel  Benton  characterizes,  and  very  justly,  that  part 
of  the  message  from  which  the  above  extract  is  taken,  as 
follows  : 

'*The  last  annual  message  of  Mr.  Pierce  was  the  last 
opportunity  for  this  defensive  pleading  (declaring  the  Mis- 


-71  — 

souri  compromise  unconstitutional,  and  sustaining"  the  court), 
and  being"  the  last,  it  was  carefully  seized  on  and  vigorously 
improved  to  the  best  advantage.  The  message  was  big"  with 
it.  It  was  a  large  plea  and  a  bold  one,  and  conspicuously 
presented.  In  quantity,  it  filled  eleven  octavo  pages  (leav- 
ing* but  seventeen  for  all  the  appropriate  subjects  which 
belong"  to  that  ofi&cial  paper);  in  boldness  it  inaugurated  a 
new  era  in  our  Presidential  messages — the  era  of  historical 
falsification  in  these  high  papers  —  heretofore  considered  the 
sacred  receptacle  of  veracious  history  ;  in  conspicuity,  being" 
thrust  in  front  of  the  message,  instead  of  being-  relegated  to 
its  fag"-end,  where  such  low  matter  should  g"o,  if,  indeed, 
allowed  to  enter  a  message  at  all,  which  it  never  was  before. 
Veracious  history  must  rebuke  this  first  attempt  to  make  the 
Presidential  annual  message  a  vehicle  of  historical  falsifica- 
tion; and  the  work  is  easily  done,  all  the  facts  necessary  to 
the  correction  of  the  fallacious  statements  being  of  record  in 
the  debates  and  Journals  of  Congress,  and  other  authentic 
public  evidence." 

Mr.  Buchanan,  in  his  inaug"ural  address,  referred  to  the 
forthcoming  decision  in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  and  with  appar- 
ently great  regard  for  this  **  august  tribunaIv,"  which  in 
former  years,  and  before  it  was  regarded  as  partisan,  he  and 
the  whole  Democratic  party,  had  denounced  as  an  unsafe 
depository  of  power,  says  : 

*'To  their  decision,  in  common  with  all  good  citizens,  I 
shall  cheerfully  submit,  whatever  this  may  be." 

In  reference  to  the  differences  of  opinion  that  had  arisen 
as  to  the  point  of  time  when  the  people  of  a  Territory  should 
have  power  to  exclude  slavery,  he  says  : 

**This  is  happily  a  matter  of  but  little  practical  impor- 
tance. Besides,  it  is  a  judicial  question^" — when,  or  why,  or 
on  whose  authority,  this  became  a  judicial  question,  he  does 
not  inform  the  country — *' which  legitimately  belongs  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  before  whom  it  is 
now  pending,  and  will,  it  is  understood,  be  speedily  and 
finally  settled.  To  their  decision,  in  common  with  all  good 
citizens,  I  shall  cheerfully  submit,  whatever  this  may  be." 

These  declarations  of  the  outgoing  and  incoming  Presi- 
dents simply  meant  that  the  politicians  and  applicants  for 
official  favor  should  not  only  endorse  this  decision  themselves, 
but  that  they  should  prepare  the  minds  of  the  people,  so  far  as 


72  — 


possible,  but  especially  the  Democratic  party,  for  one  of  the 
most  startling-  decisions  ever  announced  by  any  judicial 
tribunal  in  the  world;  and  so  successfully  did  this  well-laid  plot 
work,  that  partisans  and  place-hunters  in  many  of  the  free 
States  succeeded  in  having-  the  decision  of  this  court  endorsed 
by  their  party  conventions,  with  apparent  enthusiasm,  imme- 
diately after  its  delivery.  If  there  had  not  been  something- 
unusual  and  alarming-  at  the  bottom  of  this  forthcoming- 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  in  a  case  which  only  involved 
the  title  to  an  old  superannuated  black  man,  whose  value  was 
not  one  hundred  dollars  in  any  slave  market  in  the  world, 
and  who,  I  believe,  died  within  a  year  after  this  decision  was 
made,  would  there  have  been  any  such  anxiety  about  this 
case  as  was  manifested  by  the  slave  barons?  Can  any  gentle- 
man on  the  administration  side  of  the  House  answer  the 
question?  No,  sir,  he  cannot;  and  it  will  not  be  attempted. 
This  court  has  decided  cases,  time  and  ag-ain,  involving-  the 
title  to  millions  of  property,  and  yet  no  President  and  no 
party  conventions,  or  party  press,  ever  in  advance  called 
upon  or  appealed  to  the  litigants,  much  less  a  party,  or  the 
people  at  large,  to  submit  to  a  forthcoming  decision  of  this 
tribunal. 

After  all  this  skilful  preparation,  comes  the  1  ng-delayed 
decision  of  the  court,  which  substantially  declared,  that  as 
black  men  had  no  natural  or  political  rights,  and  were  not 
citizens,  that  they  could  not  maintain  a  suit  for  their  free- 
dom, or  have  a  hearing  for  any  purpose  in  the  courts  of  the 
United  States.  Had  the  court  stopped  right  here,  and  con- 
tented, themselves  simply  with  deciding  all  the  points  there 
were  in  the  case,  as  I  understand  it,  there  would  have  been  no 
such  extraordinary  *  effort  on  the  part  of  the  slave  barons, 
through  the  official  influence  and  patronage  of  two  Presi- 
dents, to  induce  the  party  and  people  of  the  Northern  States 
to  submit  to  this  decision.  For  though  I  regard  the  declara- 
tion of  the  court  that  a  black  man,  the  descendant  of  Afri- 
cans who  were  stolen  from  Africa  and  enslaved  by  pirates, 
has  no  claims  either  to  a  hearing  or  protection  to  life  and 
liberty  from  this  department  of  the  government  as  mon- 
strous, and  contrary  to  the  spirit  and  genius  of  our  institu- 
tions, which  should  protect  and  defend  the  rights  of  every 


—  73- 

human  being-,  however  humble,  within  our  jurisdiction,  yet  I 
say,  if  this  had  been  all  of  the  case,  and  the  court  had  not 
traveled  out  of  the  record  in  its  attempt  to  get  hold  of,  and 
pass  upon,  political  questions,  which  were  not  and  could  not 
properly  be  before  it,  there  would  have  been  no  anxiety  or 
alarm  on  the  part  of  the  slave  barons  as  to  the  probable  sub- 
mission of  the  g-reat  mass  of  the  people  to  this  decision, 
especially  of  their  Northern  allies. 

On  this  point,  the  late  Colonel  Benton,  in  his  examina- 
tion of  the  Dred  Scott  case  (pag-e  5),  justly  remarks: 

''The  court,  in  repulsing- jurisdiction  of  the  orig-inal  case, 
and  dismissing-  it  for  the  want  of  the  right  to  try  it  [after 
dismissing-  it] ,  found  g-reat  difficulty  in  g-etting-  at  its  merits 
—  at  the  merits  of  the  dismissed  case  itself;  and  certainly,  still 
g-reater  difficulty  in  g-etting-  at  the  merits  of  two  g-reat  politi- 
cal questions,  which  lie  so  far  behind  it.  The  court  evidently 
felt  this  difficulty,  and  worked  sedulously  to  avoid  it — sedu- 
lously at  building-  a  bridge  long-  and  slender,  upon  which  a 
majority  of  these  judg-es  crossed  the  wide  and  deep  g-ulf 
which  separated  the  personal  rights  of  Dred  Scott  and  his 
family  from  the  political  institutions  and  the  political  rights 
of  the  whole  body  of  the  American  people.'* 

Mr.  Justice  Wayne,  in  constructing  one  of  the  spans  of 
this  shaky  and  unsubstantial  judicial  bridge,  on  which  a 
majority  of  the  court  crossed  the  deep  gulf  referred  to  by 
Colonel  Benton,  assigned  as  a  reason  for  traveling  out  of  the 
record,  and  passing  upon  the  constitutionality  of  the  Mis- 
souri compromise,  its  necessity,  in  order  to  give  peace  to  the 
country.     He  said : 

''The  case  involves  private  rights  of  great  value,  and 
constitutional  principles  of  the  highest  importance,  about 
which  there  had  become  such  a  difference  of  opinion,  that 
the  peace  and  harmony  of  the  country  required  the  settle- 
ment of  them  by  judicial  decision." 

From  whence  the  Supreme  Court  derived  their  authority 
to  settle  political  questions,  in  order,  as  Mr.  Justice  Wayne 
says,  to  secure  "  peack  and  harmony"  between  contending 
political  parties,  neither  he,  nor  either  of  the  judges  concur- 
ring in  this  opinion,  have  seen  proper  to  inform  the  public. 

When  the  court  thus  traveled  out  of  the  record,  and 
assumed  to  pass  upon  the  power  of  Congress  and  the  Terri- 


—  74  — 

torial  Leg-islatures  to  prohibit  and  exclude  slavery  in  the 
Territories  of  the  nation,  and  declare,  as  it  did  in  this  case, 
that  neither  Congress  nor  a  Territorial  Legislature  possessed 
the  power,  notwithstanding  the  uniform  practice  of  the 
government  for  seventy  years  had  been  to  exclude  and  pro- 
hibit slavery  by  Congressional  enactment,  there  was  fear, 
and  just  cause  for  fear,  on  the  part  of  the  slave  barons,  the 
President,  and  the  court  itself,  that  the  people  would  not  sub- 
mit to  a  decision  that  virtually  changed  their  Constitution. 
Hence  the  great  anxiety  of  the  privileged  class  —  for  whose 
sole  benefit  this  decision  was  made  —  to  secure  acquiescence 
in  the  endorsement  by  the  people  of  this  usurpation  of  the 
Supreme  Court. 

To  secure  this,  the  first  necessary  step  was  to  compel  the 
President  to  proscribe  all  the  leading  men  in  the  party,  and 
all  applicants  for  office,  who  did  not  submit  to,  and  accept 
with  alacrity,  the  decision  of  the  court  as  "final."  These 
were  required  to  join  the  government  in  the  use  of  all  the 
power  and  patronage  at  its  command,  and  the  unscrupulous 
use  of  all  party  appliances,  to  secure  the  most  unqualified 
endorsement  of  this  decision  by  every  State  convention  of 
the  party  in  the  North,  thus  making  a  judicial  decision  a 
party  question;  and,  so  far  from  settling  the  points  assumed 
to  be  adjudicated  by  the  court,  making  the  opinion  of  the 
court   itself  a  new   and   a  test   question   of  party   fidelity, 

"bringing  THK  court  into  THE)  POI.ITICAI,  FIKLD,"  aS  Coloucl 

Benton  has  said,  and  making  the  new  questions  thus  raised 
"thk  very  watchwords  of  parties."  For  assuredly  this  is 
a  question  which  must  become  far  more  bitter  and  malignant 
than  the  slavery  question  itself,  when  the  people  fully  com* 
prehend  the  alarming  power  assumed  b}^  this  irresponsible 
department  of  the  government  to  change  or  annul  their  Con- 
stitution at  pleasure.  I  say  irresponsible  department;  be- 
cause, holding  their  offices  for  life,  and  not  amenable  to  the 
people  for  their  acts,  they  have  no  fear  of  removal,  and  do 
not  regard,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  has  said,  the  power  of  impeach- 
ment even  as  a  "  scarecrow. " 

The  important  points  which  the  Supreme  Court  assumed 
to  decide  for  the  interest  of  the  slave  barons  were  :  first,  that 


—  75- 

no  slave,  or  the  descendant  of  a  slave,  could  maintain  a  suit 
at  law  for  any  purpose  in  any  of  the  courts  of  the  United 
States. 

This  decision  was  demanded  and  deemed  necessary,  in 
order  that  the  precedent  might  be  settled  favorable  to  this 
class  interest,  while  the  pro-slavery  party  had  possession  of 
the  courts,  so  that  thereafter  no  slave,  or  person  held  as 
such,  should  be  allowed  to  bring"  suit  for  his  or  her  freedom, 
or  sue  out  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  before  any  of  said  courts, 
to  compel  the  party  holding  any  such  persons  as  slaves  to 
show  by  what  authority  said  person  or  persons  were  dis- 
trained of  their  liberty,  unless  the  court  should  first  overrule 
this  decision. 

The  point  thus  gained  by  the  slave  barons  was  an  impor- 
tant one,  because  it  made  it  necessary  thereafter  for  all  per- 
sons suing  for  their  freedom,  to  bring  their  suits  in  the  State 
courts,  where,  the  law-makers,  the  judges,  and  juries,  being 
all  slaveholders,  there  would  be  no  question  that  the  interests 
and  wishes  of  the  privileged  class  would  be  omnipotent. 
But  little  danger  could  be  apprehended,  with  such  laws  as  are 
enacted  by  Southern  States  to  guard  and  protect  this  class 
interest,  of  any  persons  obtaining  their  freedom,  though  they 
might  be  so  white  that  they  would  readily  pass  for  white  per- 
sons, and  though  it  might  be  well  known  to  the  claimant,  as 
well  as  judge  and  jury,  that  the  person  thus  held  was  born 
free.  Hence  the  importance  of  this  point  to  the  slaveholder, 
else  such  suits  as  I  have  alluded  to  might,  and  doubtless 
would,  become  troublesome  and  inconvenient  to  the  privileged 
class,  as  there  are  a  number  of  States  whose  Constitutions 
and  laws  do  not  establish  slavery  as  an  institution,  but  simply 
recognize  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  without  establish- 
ing the  right. 

2.  That  the  Constitution,  of  its  own  inherent  force, 
extends  to  all  Territories  as  soon  as  acquired.  On  this  point, 
I  quote  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Benton,  because  it  is  of  great 
value,  as  showing  what  views  were  entertained  by  all  depart- 
ments of  the  government  on  this  question  up  to  the  time  this 
decision  was  made.  (I  do  not,  however,  desire  to  be  under- 
stood as  endorsing  Mr.  Benton's  views  in  full  on  this  point.) 


—  76— 

He  says,  in  his  Notification  to  the  Reader,  in  his  volume 
examining-  the  Dred  Scott  case : 

' '  Without  going-  further  into  that  history,  in  this  brief 
POSTSCRiPTUM  notification,  and  confining-  himself  to  the  pre- 
cise point  in  issue,  the  writer  will  say  that  the  administra- 
tion of  Mr.  Monroe  expressly,  by  unanimous  decision,  and 
each  House  of  Congress  impliedly,  and  without  division, 
decided  that  no  part  of  the  Constitution  and  no  act  of  Con- 
gress went  to  a  Territory  unless  extended  to  it  by  act  of  Con- 
gress." 

3.  That  the  Constitution  recognized  slaves  as  property 
as  well  as  persons,  and,  because  thus  recognized,  Congress 
had  no  power  to  prohibit  the  introduction  of,  or  to  exclude 
after  it  was  introduced,  this  species  of  property  from  the 
Territories ;  and 

4.  "If  (as  the  court  say)  Congress  cannot  exercise  this 
power  (to  exclude  slavery  from  the  Territories),  it  will  hardly 
be  claimed  that  it  can  delegate  the  power  to  a  Territorial 
Legislature." 

In  this  summary  manner,  and  in  these  words,  did  the 
Supreme  Court,  whose  decisions  Mr.  Douglas  pretends  to 
endorse,  dispose  of  Mr  boasted  theory  of  popular  sovereignty, 
and  thus  were  ^-he  deception  and  fraud  practiced  upon  the 
people  of  the  North  in  1856  unblushingly  proclaimed. 

The  doctrine  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
recognizes  slaves  as  property,  and  that  Congress  has  not  the 
power  to  exclude  it  from  the  Territories,  having  been  estab- 
lished, so  far  as  the  authority  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  the 
united  voice  of  a  great  party  can  establish  it,  the  next  step 
in  the  series  of  aggressions  and  usurpations  contemplated  by 
this  tribunal,  and  the  class  who  created  and  control  it,  is  to 
declare  that  slavery  cannot  lawfully  be  excluded  from  any  of 
the  States  of  the  Union;  that  so  long  as  one  State  in  the 
Union  recognizes  and  sanctions  slaveholding,  whether  by 
her  Constitution,  her  laws,  or  custom,  slaveholding  shall  be 
legal  in  all  the  Territories,  and  in  every  State,  and  neither 
Congress  nor  S^ate  nor  Territorial  Legislatures  shall  have 
the  power  to  proliibit  it.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  it  can  be 
lawfully  excluded  from  a  Territory  or  State,  or  on  what  just 
principle  the  purchase  and  importation  of  slaves  is  declared 


77  — 


piracy,  if  it  be  true  that  the  national  Constitution  recogfnizes 
slaves  as  property;  for  article  six  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  declares  that 

*/  This  Constitution,  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
which  shall  be  made  in  pursuance  thereof,  and  all  treaties 
made,  or  which  shall  be  made,  under  the  authority  of  the 
United  States,  shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land;  and  the 
judges  in  every  State  shall  be  bound  thereby,  anything-  in 
the  laws  and  Constitution  of  any  State  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding-." 

Any  legislative  enactment,  therefore,  either  by  Terri- 
tories or  States,  excluding  the  master  with  his  slaves;  or,  if 
he  enter  a  Territory  or  State,  destroying  his  property  by 
depriving  him  of  it  without  compensation,  must  be  clearly 
unconstitutional,  as  must  also  be  the  law  which  declares  the 
slave  trade  piracy;  for,  if  slaves  are  property  by  virtue  of  a 
constitutional  provision,  they  are  property,  not  only  in  the 
Territories  and  in  all  the  States  —  Ohio  as  well  as  Missouri 
—  but  are  also  property  in  every  part  of  the  world  wherever 
the  flag  of  the  country  protects  the  lives  and  property  of  her 
citizens.  The  only  exception  that  can  possibly  be  made  to 
this  rule,  provided  the  premises  claimed  be  admitted,  would 
be  where  our  citizens,  with  their  slave  property,  were  tem- 
porarily residing  in  or  passing  through  the  territory  of  a 
foreign  nation  whose  laws  prohibited  slavery.  In  such  a 
country  they  probably  could  not  hold  them  without  express 
treaty  stipulations.  But  if  a  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
under  the  protection  of  his  country's  flag,  buys  slaves  in 
Africa,  or  in  any  other  country,  they  are  as  legally  his  as 
though  he  purchased  them  in  South  Carolina,  provided  sla- 
very is  not  prohibited  by  law  in  the  country  where  the  pur- 
chase is  made.  And  there  being  no  law  in  Africa  to  prohibit 
slaveholding,  but  a  usage  recognizing  it,  the  act  of  Congress 
that  prohibits  citizens  of  the  United  States  from  purchasing 
slaves  there,  or,  if  he  purchase  them,  deprives  him  of  his  prop- 
erty without  compensation,  the  moment  he  sets  foot  on  the  soil 
of  his  own  State  with  them,  and,  in  addition,  inflicts  the  terri- 
ble penalty  of  death  upon  him  for  having  in  his  possession 
persons  who  are  recognized  by  the  Constitution  of  his  coun- 
try as  property,  is  clearly  unconstitutional. 


—  78 


The  Supreme  Court,  however,  did  not  dare,  when  decid- 
ing* the  Dred  Scott  case,  to  declare,  in  so  many  words,  that 
the  States  of  this  Union  could  not  exclude  slavery  and  pro- 
hibit its  existence  within  their  jurisdiction.  The  supporters 
of  the  slave  power  knew  that  the  public  mind  of  the  North 
was  not  prepared  for  such  a  declaration  of  their  purposes. 
They  therefore  preferred  to  take  the  safer  course,  and  first 
secure  the  endorsement  and  acquiescence  of  the  people  in  the 
Dred  Scott  decision,  knowing-  that  the  logical  result  of  that 
decision  would  legalize  slavery  in  all  the  States  and  Terri- 
tories of  the  Republic,  notwithstanding-  their  State  Constitu- 
tions and  laws  mig-ht  prohibit  it. 

Judge  Nelson,  of  the  majority  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
who  concurred  in  the  Dred  Scott  opinion,  is  the  only  judge 
who  approached  near  enough  to  this  point  .to  give  any  inti- 
mation of  what  would  be  his  views  in  a  case  such  as  Virginia 
has  carried  up  from  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York.  In 
stating  his  views,  he  admitted  that  the  several  States  of  the 
Union  had  legislative  power  over  all  subjects,  except  in  cases 
where  the  power  is  restrained  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.     He  adds : 

**The  law  of  the  State  is  supreme  over  the  subject  of 
slavery^  within  its  jurisdiction,  except  in  cases  where  the 
power  is  restrained  by  the  Constitution." 

And  for  this  opinion  he  may  be  nominated  at  the  Balti- 
more Convention  on  the  ISth  of  next  month.  But  if  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  recognizes  slaves  as  property, 
the  State  cannot  legally  exclude  them,  for  the  national  Con- 
stitution "is  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,"  and  provides,  in 
article  four,  section  second,  expressly  that 

**The  citizens  of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the 
privileges  and  immunities  of  the  citizens  in  the  several 
States." 

This  provision  secures  beyond  question  the  right  of  every 
citizen  of  a  State  to  pass  through  or  reside  in  any  State, 
with  any  and  all  descriptions  of  property  recognized  by  the 
national  Constitution,  and  all  laws,  enactments,  and  judicial 
decisions,  of  every  State,  destroying  or  depriving  a  citizen 
of  any  State  of  this  right,  is  violative  not  only  of  the  letter 


—  79  — 

but  the  spirit  of  the  national  Constitution,  if  slaves  are 
property  by  virtue  of  any  provision  of  that  instrument. 
Hence  I  claim,  and  always  have  claimed,  that  either  Jeffer- 
son and  the  Republican  party  are  right  on  this  question,  or 
Calhoun  and  his  disciples  are  right.  There  can  be  but  two 
sides  to  the  question. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  do  not  believe  that  the  Constitution 
of  my  country  recognizes  property  in  man.  If  I  did,  then, 
sir,  I  never  could,  and  I  never  would,  have  laid  my  hand  upon 
the  Bible,  and  taken  such  an  oath  as  I  did  when  I  became  a 
member  of  this  House,  to  support  such  a  Constitution;  and 
which,  by  becoming  a  member  of  this  body,  I  must  either 
violate  or  vote  to  sustain  and  protect  the  right  of  the  master 
to  his  slave  property  in  all  the  Territories  and  m  all  the 
States  of  the  American  Union,  by  the  whole  power  of  the 
government  —  by  the  use  of  the  army  and  navy  and  the  purse 
of  the  nation.  For,  if  such  are  his  vested  rights  under  the 
Constitution,  I  cheerfully  concede  it  to  be  the  duty  of  those 
who  administer  the  government  to  give  him  adequate  protec- 
tion, to  the  full  extent  of  their  power  and  ju:  ^sdiction.  I 
would  simply  decline  participating  in  such  an  Administra- 
tion; for  I  do  not  subscribe  to  the  extraordinary  statesmanship 
of  the  author  of  the  Kansag-Nebraska  act,  which  concedes 
the  constitutional  right  of  one  man  to  property  in  the  person 
of  another;  placing  it  exactly  upon  the  same  tenure  of  other 
property,  and  then  admitting  that  he  may  be  legally  deprived 
of  that  property,  without  compensation,  by  what  he  terms 
the  **  UNFRIENDLY  LEGISI.ATION  "  of  a  Territorial  Legislature, 
which  even  he  does  not  pretend  to  claim  can  exercise  sovereign 
power. 

Sir,  if  I  could  believe  that  our  fathers  who  formed  this 
Union,  which  I  have  been  taught  to  love,  and  this  Constitu- 
tion, which  I  have  been  taught  to  cling  to  as  the  palladium 
of  our  liberties  —  I  say,  if  I  could  be  made  to  believe  that 
they  intended  to  declare  or  did  covertly  and  insidiously  declare 
in  any  line  or  section  of  that  Constitution  that  there  could 
be  property  in  man,  then  I  would  cease  to  cherish  or  venerate 
their  memories,  and,  rather  than  hold  a  seat  on  this  floor  for 
a  single  hour,  and  by  holding  a  seat  here  be  obliged  by  my 


—  80  — 

• 
oath  to  sanction  and  support  the  institution  of  human  sla- 
very, I  would  become  an  alien  to  such  a  government,  and 
refuse  to  be  classed  as  a  citizen  with  a  people  who,  with  the 
light  of  centuries  beaming  upon  them,  persisted  in  the  crime 
of  upholding  a  Constitution  which  recognized  property  in 
man. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  claimed  that  the  question  as  to 
whether  the  Cons^tution  recognizes  property  in  man  or  not, 
is  no  longer  an  open  question;  that  it  is  a  question  which  can- 
not with  safety  be  submitted  for  determination  to  the  people, 
or  be  intrusted  to  the  individual  opinions  of  their  Represen, 
tatives  in  Congress,  nor  to  the  officers  in  any  of  the  co-ordi- 
nate departments  of  the  government,  except  the  Supreme 
Court. 

It  is  said  that  the  question  has  been,  as  the  President 
informs  us,  *'finai.i<y"  and  authoritatively  settled  for  us  by 
that  *' AUGUST  TRiBUNAi,."  Men  of  all  parties,  in  office  and 
out  of  office,  are  called  upon  by  the  party  through  whose 
instrumentality  this  decision  was  procured,  to  submit  to  and 
endorse  it;  and  the  demand  is  made  and  insisted  on,  that,  by 
our  votes  and  acts  here,  we  shall  conform  the  legislation  of 
the  country  to  this  political  decision,  without  regard  to  what 
may  have  been  the  action  of  the  -government  or  the  opinions 
entertained  by  the  leading  statesmen  of  the  past  and  present 
day  upon  this  question.  Thus,  sir,  if  this  theory  is  to  be 
acquiesced  in  by  the  country,  all  individual  responsibility  in 
the  government  ceases;  and  I  must  swear,  and  every  officer  of 
the  government  must  swear,  to  support  the  Constitution,  not 
as  I  or  they  may  understand  it,  but  as  a  majority  of  the  nine 
men  who  compose  the  Supreme  Court  understand  and  inter- 
pret it  for  us.  And  this,  sir,  is  called  Democracy  in  the  year 
of  grace  18601 

Sir,  this  kind  of  Democracy  I  repudiate,  and  appeal  to 
the  common  sense  of  every  man,  and  the  record  of  our 
fathers,  to  prove  that  it  is  a  spurious  species  of  Democracy. 

Sir,  when  I  took  an  oath  to  support  the  Constitution,  I 
swore  to  support  it  as  I  understood  it,  and  not  as  a  majority 
of  the  Supreme  Court  may  understand  it,  or  any  other  num- 
ber of  men,  individually  or  collectively.       On  this  point   I 


•81  — 


believe  the  Supreme  Court  has  no  more  rig-ht  to  control  the 
action  of  members  of  Congress,  than  Congress  has  the  rig-ht 
to  interfere  with  and  dictate  a  decision  in  any  case  before 
that  tribunal  for  adjudication. 

In  Colonel  Benton's  introductory  note  to  his  examination 
of  the  Dred  Scott  case,  he  uses  the  following-  lang-uag-e, which 
I  fully  endorse: 

*'  Cong-ress  holds  its  powers  from  the  Constitution,  where 
every  grant  of  authority  is  preceded  by  the  words,  *  shall 
have  power  to,'  and  to  the  support  of  which  the  members  are 
sworn.  The  grant  of  power  is  in  the  Constitution,  and  the 
oath  is  to  the  Constitution;  and  it  is  written,  that  its  words, 
always  the  same,  may  be  always  seen,  and  no  excuse  for  dis- 
reg-arding"  them.  The  duty  of  the  member,  his  allegiance, 
his  fealty,  is  to  the  Constitution;  and  in  performance  of  this 
duty,  in  the  discharge  of  this  allegiance,  in  the  keeping  of 
this  fealty,  he  must  be  governed  by  the  words  of  the  instru- 
ment, and  by  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience.  The  mem- 
ber may  enlighten  himself,  and  should,  with  counsels  of 
others;  but  as  authority,  as  a  rule  of  obligation,  as  a  guide 
to  conduct,  the  Constitution  and  the  oath  alone  can  govern; 
and  were  it  otherwise,  was  Congress  to  look  to  judicial  inter- 
pretation for  its  powers,  it  would  soon  cease  to  have  any  fixed 
rules  to  go  by;  would  soon  have  as  many  diverse  interpreta- 
tions as  different  courts,  and,  like  the  Holy  Scripture  in  the 
hands  of  councils  and  commentators,  would  soon  cease  to  be 
what  its  framers  made  it. 

**  The  power  of  the  court  is  judicial  —  so  declared  in  the 
Constitution,  and  so  held  in  theory,  if  not  in  practice.  It  is 
limited  to  cases  *  in  law  and  equity;'  and  though  sometimes 
encroaching  upon  political  subjects,  it  is  without  right,  with- 
out authority,  and  without  the  means  of  enforcing  its  decis- 
ions. It  can  issue  no  mandamus  to  Congress  or  the  people, 
nor  punish  them  for  disregarding  its  decisions,  or  even  attack- 
ing them.  Far  from  being  bound  by  their  decisions.  Congress 
may  proceed  criminally  against  the  judges  for  making  them, 
when  deemed  criminally  wrong — one  House  impeach,  and 
the  other  try,  as  done  in  the  famous  case  of  Judge  Chase. 

"In  assuming  to  decide  these  questions  [constitutionality 
of  the  Missouri  compromise,  etc.],  it  is  believed  the  court 
committed  two  great  errors:  first,  in  the  assumption  to  try 
such  questions;  secondi^y,  in  deciding  them  as  they  did. 
And  it  is  certain  that  the  decisions  are  contrary  to  the  uni- 
form action  of  all  departments  of  the  government  —  one  of 
them  for  thirty-six  years,  and  the  other  for  seventy  years — 
6 


~^82  — 

and  in  their  effects  upon  each  are  equivalent  to  an  alteration 
of  the  Constitution,  by  inserting-  new  clauses  in  it,  which 
could  not  have  been  put  in  it  at  the  time  that  instrument  was 
made,  nor  at  any  time  since,  nor  now." 

As  long-  ago  as  when  a  bill  for  the  organization  of  the 
Territory  of  Oregon  was  under  consideration  of  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States,  an  attempt  was  made  to  get  this  politi- 
cal question  of  the  power  of  Congress  over  the  subject  of  sla- 
very in  the  Territories  in  shape,  so  that  at  the  proper  time 
(that  is,  when  the  court  was  so  constituted  as  to  suit  the 
slave  barons)  it  could  be  carried  up  on  an  agreed  case,  and 
decided  as  the  Dred  Scott  case  was  decided. 

Hon.  John  Bell,  then  a  Senator  of  the  United  States 
from  Tennessee,  opposed  the  bill,  and  declared  *'that  the 

COURT  WAS  THE  WEAKEST  OF  THE  THREE  CO-ORDINATE 
BRANCHES  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  —  TOO  WEAK  TO  COMMAND 
OBEDIENCE,  OR  TO  SETTLE  SUCH  QUESTIONS',  AND  HE  DREW  THE 
INFERENCE  THAT  A  DECISION  OF  IT  BEFORE  A  TRIBUNAL  SO  FEE- 
BLE MIGHT    BREAK   DOWN    THE    COURT,    WHILE    IT    FAILED    TO 

SATISFY  THE  PUBLIC  MIND."  The  result  of  the  action  of  the 
Supreme  Court  in  the  Dred  Scott  case  testifies  how  just  and 
wise  were  the  conclusions  of  that  distinguished  Senator. 

GeneralJackson,  in  his  message  returning  the  bill  for  the 
recharter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  replies,  in  the 
following  well-timed  remarks,  to  the  claim  then  set  up,  that 
as  the  Supreme  Court  had  decided  the  constitutionality  of  a 
similar  charter  creating  this  same  bank,  it  was  the  duty  of 
Congress  and  the  Executive  to  acquiesce  in  that  decision: 

"If  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  covered  the  whole 
ground  of  this  act,  it  ought  not  to  control  the  co-ordinate 
authorities  of  this  government.  The  Congress,  the  Executive, 
and  the  Court,  must,  each  for  itself,  be  guided  by  its  own  opin- 
ion of  the  Constitution.  Each  public  ofl&cer,  who  takes  an 
oath  to  support  the  Constitution,  swears  that  he  will  support 
it  as  he  understands  it,  and  not  as  it  is  understood  by  others. 
It  is  as  much  the  duty  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  of 
the  Senate,  and  of  the  President,  to  decide  upon  the  constitu- 
tionality of  any  bill  or  resolution  which  may  be  presented  to 
them  for  passage  or  approval,  as  it  is  of  the  supreme  judges, 
when  it  may  be  brought  before  them  for  judicial  decision. 
The  opinion  of  the  judges  has  no  more  authority  over  Con- 
gress than  the  opinion  of  Congress  over  the  judges;  and,  on 


—  83 


that  point,  the  President  is  independent  of  both.  The  au- 
thority of  the  Supreme  Court  must  not,  therefore,  be  per- 
mitted to  control  the  Congress  or  the  Executive  when  acting" 
in  their  legislative  capacities,  but  to  have  only  such  influence 
as  the  force  of  their  reasoning  may  deserve.'* 

Such,  sir,  were  the  opinions  of  two  of  the  most  illus- 
trious Democratic  statesmen  of  the  past  generation  on  this 
question  of  the  power  of  one  department  of  the  government 
to  bind  or  control  by  any  decision  of  theirs  the  action  of  any 
other  co-ordinate  department,  or  of  any  member  thereof. 
These  opinions  were  entertained  by  nearly  all  the  leading 
statesmen  until  the  slave  barons  obtained  complete  ascendency 
in  the  government,  and  by  no  one  was  these  opinions  more 
distinctly  and  fully  maintained  than  by  the  present  Chief 
31agistrate,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  following  extract  from  a 
speech  delivered  by  him  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
on  the  7th  of  July,  1841,  which  may  be  found  in  the  tenth 
volume  of  the  Congressional  Globe,  No.  2,  page  163: 

*'But  even  if  the  Judiciary  had  settled  the  question,  I 
should  never  hold  myself  bound  by  their  decision  whilst  act- 
ing in  a  legislative  character.  Unlike  the  Senator  from 
Massachusetts  [Mr.  Bates] ,  I  shall  never  consent  to  place  the 
political  rights  and  liberties  of  this  people  in  the  hands  of 
any  judicial  tribunal.  It  was,  therefore,  with  the  utmost 
astonishment  I  heard  the  Senator  declare,  that  he  considered 
the  'expositions  of  the  Constitution  by  the  Judiciary  to  be 
equally  binding  upon  us  as  the  expositions  of  the  moral  law 
by  the  Saviour  of  mankind,  contained  in  the  Gospel,  were 
upon  Christians;  and  that  these  judicial  expositions  were  of 
equal  authority  with  the  text  of  the  Constitution.  This,  sir, 
is  an  infallibility  which  was  never  before  claimed  for  any 
human  tribunal;  an  infallibility  which  would  convert  free- 
men into  abject  slaves;  an  infallibility  which  would  have  ren- 
dered the  famous  sedition  law  as  sacred  as  the  Constitution 
itself,  the  Judiciary  having  decided  this  law  to  be  constitu- 
tional; and  which  would  thus  have  annihilated,  throughout 
the  whole  extent  of  this  Union,  the  liberty  of  the  press  and 
the  freedom  of  speech.  No,  sir,  no;  it  is  not  the  genius  of 
our  institutions  to  consider  mortal  men  as  infallible. 

*'No  man  holds  in  higher  estimation  than  I  do  the 
memory  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall;  but  I  should  never  have 
consented  to  make  even  him  the  final  arbiter  between  the 
government  and  people  of  this  country  on  questions  of  con- 
stitutional liberty.     The  experience  of  all  ages  and  countries 


84  — 


has  demonstratea  thatjudg-es  instinctively  lean  towards  the 
prerogatives  of  Government;  and  it  is  notorious  that  the 
court,  during"  the  whole  period  which  he  presided  over  it, 
embracing"  so  many  years  of  its  existence,  has  inclined 
towards  the  highest  assertion  of  Federal  power.  That  this 
has  been  done  honestly  and  conscientiously,  I  entertain  not 
a  doubt." 

Sir,  if  the  political  opinions  of  a  majority  of  the  Supreme 
Court  in  this  Dred  Scott  case  are  to  assume  the  form  of  a 
decree,  and  be  "  irrkvocabi^k,"  as  is  claimed  by  the  President 
in  his  annual  message,  and  all  future  political  decrees  of  this 
tribunal  are  also  to  be  '*irrevocabi.k"  and  binding  upon  the 
Democratic  party,  as  is  claimed  by  the  leaders  of  this  party, 
and  this  monstrous  assumption  of  the  slave  barons  is  to  be 
acquiesced  in  and  sustained  by  the  people,  in  the  election  of 
another  pro-slavery  President,  then  indeed  will  the  revolu- 
tion inaugurated  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  less  than  twenty-five  years 
ago,  be  complete.  There  will  then  no  longer  be  either  free 
Territories  or  free  States  in  the  American  Union,  but  every 
State  and  every  Territory,  so  far  as  the  National  Govern- 
ment can  decree  it,  will  be  consecrated  to  the  everlasting 
curse  of  human  bondage. 

Now,  sir,  as  to  the  propriety  of  intrusting  this  Judicial 
department  of  the  government  with  the  powers  claimed  for 
it  by  the  present  Administration  party.  On  this  point  I  pre- 
fer to  quote  from  the  speeches  and  writings  of  some  of  the 
most  distinguished  men  who  aided  in  the  formation  of  the 
government. 

John  Randolph,  of  Roanoke,  said: 

*  *  To  me  it  appears  that  the  power  which  has  the  right 
of  passing,  without  appeal,  on  the  validity  of  your  laws,  is 
your  sovereign."  .  .  ,  "But  are  we  not  as  deeply  interested 
m  the  true  exposition  of  the  Constitution  as  the  judges  can 
be?  With  all  due  deference  to  their  talents,  rz  not  Congress 
as  capable  of  forming  a  correct  opinion  as  they  are?  Are 
not  its  members  acting  under  a  responsibility  to  public 
opinion,  which  can  and  will  check  their  aberrations  from 
duty?  Let  a  case,  not  an  imaginary  one,  be  stated :  Con- 
gress violates  the  Constitution  by  fettering  the  press;  the 
judicial  corrective  is  applied  to;  far  from  protecting  the 
liberty  of  the  citizen,  or  the  letter  of  the  Constitution,  you 
find  them  outdoing  the  Legislature  in  zeal — pressing  the 


85- 


common  law  of  England  to  their  service  where  the  sedition 
law  did  not  apply.  Suppose  your  reliance  had  been  alto- 
gether on  this  broken  staff,  and  not  on  the  elective  principle; 
your  press  might  have  been  enchained  till  doomsday,  your 
citizens  incarcerated  for  life;  and  where  is  your  remedy?" 

Joseph  H.  Nicholson,  of  Maryland,  said: 

*'By  what  authority  are  the  judges  to  be  raised  above 
the  law  and  above  the  Constitution?  Where  is  the  charter 
which  places  the  sovereignty  of  this  country  in  their  hands? 
Give  them  the  powers  and  the  independence  now  contended 
for,  and  they  will  require  nothing  more;  for  your  government 
becomes  a  despotism,  and  they  become  your  rulers.  They  are 
to  decide  upon  the  lives,  the  liberties,  and  the  property  of 
your  citizens;  they  have  an  absolute  veto  upon  your  laws,  by 
declaring  them  null  and  void  at  pleasure;  they  are  to  intro- 
duce at  will  the  laws  of  a  foreign  country,  differing  essen- 
tially with  us  upon  the  great  principles  of  government;  and, 
after  being  clothed  with  this  arbitrary  power,  they  are  beyond 
the  control  of  the  nation,  as  they  are  not  to  be  affected  by 
any  laws  which  the  people  by  their  representatives  can  pass. 
If  all  this  be  true,  if  this  doctrine  be  established  in  the 
extent  which  is  now  contended  for,  the  Constitution  is  not 
worth  the  time  we  are  now  spending  upon  it.  It  is,  as  it  has 
been  called  by  its  enemies,  mere  parchment;  for  these  judges, 
thus  rendered  omnipotent,  may  overleap  the  Constitution, 
and  trample  on  your  laws;  they  may  laugh  the  Legislature 
to  scorn,  and  set  the  nation  at  defiance. 

*'  To  me  it  is  a  matter  of  indifference  by  what  name  you 
call  them;  I  care  not  whether  it  be  kings  or  judges.  Arm 
them  with  power,  and  the  danger  is  the  same.  For  myself, 
I  have  no  hesitation  in  declaring,  that  I  would  rather  be  sub- 
ject to  the  absolute  sway  of  one  tyrant  than  to  that  of  thirty; 
as  I  would  prefer  the  mild  despotism  of  China  to  the  hated 
aristocracy  of  Venice,  where  the  vilest  wretch  was  encour- 
aged as  a  secret  informer,  and  the  lion's  mouth  was  ever 
gaping  for  accusation." 

Robert  Williams,  of  North  Carolina,  said: 

"If  this  doctrine  is  to  extend  to  the  length  g;entlemen 
contend,  then  is  the  sovereignty  of  the  government  to  be 
swallowed  up  in  the  vortex  of  the  Judiciary.  Whatever  the 
other  departments  of  the  government  may  do,  they  can  undo. 
You  can  pass  a  law,  but  they  can  annul  it.  Will  not  the 
people  be  astonished  to  hear  that  their  laws  depend  upon  the 
will  of  the  judges,  who  are  'themselves  independent  of  all 
law?" 


—  86  — 

Nathaniel  Macon,  of  North  Carolina,  on  the  same  day 

said: 

*' According-  to  some  g-entlemen,  we  were  to  reg-ard  the 
Judiciary  more  than  the  law,  and  both  more  than  the  Consti- 
tution. It  was  a  misfortune  the  judg-es  were  not  equal  in 
infallibility  to  the  God  who  made  them.  The  truth  was,  if 
the  judg-e  was  a  party  man  out  of  power,  he  would  be  a  party 
man  in.     The  office  would  not  change  human  nature." 

Mr.  Grayson,  one  of  the  best  and  ablest  men  in  the  old 
Republican  party  in  the  days  of  Jefferson,  said,  in  speaking- 
of  the  claim  set  up  by  the  Federalists  for  the  supreme  power 
and  purity  of  this  court,  that — 

**  Such  had  been  the  argument  in  all  countries  where  a 
concession  of  power  had  been  in  ag-itation.  But  that  power 
oug-ht  to  have  such  checks  and  balances  as  will  prevent  bad 
men  from  abusing-  it.  It  ought  to  be  g-ranted  on  a  supposi- 
tion that  men  will  be  bad,  for  it  may  eventually  be  so.  With 
respect  to  the  Judiciary,  my  grand  objection  is,  that  it  will 
interfere  with  the  State  Judiciaries;  there  being-  no  superin- 
tending central  power  to  keep  in  order  these  two  contending- 
jurisdictions.  This  is  an  objection  which  is  unanswerable  in 
its  nature.  In  Eng-land  they  have  great  courts,  which  have 
g-reat  and  interfering-  powers.  But  the  controlling  power 
of  Parliament,  which  is  a  central  focus,  corrects  them.  But 
here  each  party  is  to  shift  for  itself.  There  is  no  arbiter  or 
power  to  correct  their  interference.  Recurrence  can  only  be 
had  to  the  sword.  The  State  Judiciary  is  the  principal 
defense  we  have.  If  its  independence  is  to  be  destroyed,  our 
only  defensive  armor  is  taken  from  us.  Something"  has  been 
said  of  the  independence  of  the  Federal  Judg-es.  I  will  only 
observe  that  it  is  on  as  corrupt  a  basis  as  ths  art  of  man 

CAN  PLACK  IT." 

The  Hon.  James  Barbour,  United  States  Senator  from 
Virg-inia,  made  a  report  on  the  5th  of  December,  1820,  on  the 
petition  of  Matthew  Lyon,  asking-  for  redress  for  wrongs  suf- 
fered under  the  sedition  act,  which  has  been  sustained  by  the 
Supreme  Court.     He  said: 

**  The  committee  entertain  a  high  respect  for  the  purity 
and  intelligence  of  the  Judiciary.  But  it  is  a  rational 
respect,  limited  by  a  knowledge  of  the  frailty  of  human 
nature,  and  the  theory  of  the  Constitution,  which  declares 
not  only  that  judges  may  err  in  opinion,  but  also  may  com- 
mit crimes,  and  hence  has  provided  a  tribunal  for  the  trial  of 
offenders. 


87  — 


*'In  times  of  violent  party  excitement,  agitating-  the 
whole  nation,  to  expect  that  judg-es  will  be  entirely  exempt 
from  its  influence,  arg-ues  a  profound  ig-norance  of  mankind. 
Although  clothed  with  the  ermine,  they  are  still  men,  and 
carry  into  the  judg-ment  seat  the  passions  and  motives  com- 
mon to  their  kind.  Their  decisions  on  party  questions  reflect 
their  individual  opinions,  which  frequently  betray  them 
unconsciously  into  error.  To  balance  the  judg-ment  of  a 
whole  people  by  that  of  two  or  three  men,  no  matter  what 
may  be  their  official  elevation,  is  to  exalt  the  creature  of  the 
Constitution  above  its  creator,  and  to  assail  the  foundation 
of  our  political  fabric,  which  is,  that  the  decision  of  the  peo- 
ple is  infallible,  from  which  there  is  no  appeal  but  to 
Heaven." 

Thomas  Jefferson  was  one  of  the  most  earnest  and  able 
opponents  of  the  doctrine  that  the  court  is  supreme,  and 
above  all  the  co-ordinate  departments  of  the  g-overnment.  In 
a  letter  to  William  T.  Barry,  dated  Monticello,  July  2.  1822, 
he  said: 

^'We  already  see  the  power  installed  for  life,  responsible 
to  no  authority  (for  impeachment  is  not  even  a  scarecrow), 
advancing-  with  a  noiseless  and  steady  pace  to  the  great  ob- 
ject of  consolidation.  The  foundations  are  already  deeply 
laid,  by  their  decisions,  for  the  annihilation  of  constitutional 
State  rights,  and  the  removal  of  every  check,  every  counter- 
poise, to  the  engulfing  power  of  which  themselves  are  to 
make  a  sovereign  part.  If  ever  this  vast  country  is  brought 
under  a  single  government,  it  will  be  one  of  the  most  exten- 
sive corruption,  indifferent,  and  incapable  of  a  wholesome 
care  over  so  wide  a  spread  of  surface.  This  will  not  be 
borne,  and  you  will  have  to  choose  between  reformation  and 
revolution.  If  I  know  the  spirit  of  this  country,  the  one  or 
the  other  is  inevitable.  Before  the  canker  is  become  invet- 
erate, before  its  venom  has  reached  so  much  of  the  body 
politic  as  to  get  beyond  control,  remedy  should  be  applied. 
Let  the  future  appointments  of  judges  be  for  four  or  six 
years,  and  renewable  by  the  President  and  Senate.  This  will 
bring  their  conduct,  at  regular  periods,  under  revision  and 
probation,  and  may  keep  them  in  equipoise  between  the 
general  and  special  governments.  We  have  erred  in  this 
point  by  copying  England,  where  certainly  it  is  a  good  thing 
to  have  the  judges  independent  of  the  King.  But  we  have 
omitted  to  copy  their  caution,  also,  which  makes  a  judge 
removable  on  the  address  of  both  legislative  houses.  That 
there  should    be   public    functionaries    independent  of  the 


88 


nation,  whatever  may  be  their  demerit,  is  a  solecism,  in  a 
republic,  of  the  first  order  of  absurdity  and  inconsistency.'* 

I  must,  however,  close  this  valuable  and  instructive  testi- 
mony, which  mig-ht  be  multiplied  indefinitely,  and  conclude 
by  quoting"  the  characteristic  answers  given  by  Franklin  in 
the  Federal  Convention,  when  asked:     *'  What  means  woulo 

SKCURE  THE   BEST,   PUREST,    AND   ABI.EST    MEN    FOR   JUDGES?'* 

Franklin  arose  and  answered:  *' Immediate  accountabii^ity 
TO  THE  PEOPLE."    He  was  then  asked:     *'What  provisions 

WERE   best  CAI^CUIvATED  TO   PRESERVE  THESE   MEN   PURE  AND 

ABLE  WHEN  PLACED  IN  OFFICE?"  To  which  Franklin  at  once 
responded:     "Limitijd  tenures,  short  periods  in  office, 

AND  IMMEDIATE  ACCOUNTABILITY  TO  THE  PEOPLE."      This  WaS 

Democracy  in  the  days  of  Jefferson,  Franklin,  and  Jackson. 
Contrast  it  with  the  Democracy  of  James  Buchanan  and  the 
so-called  Democratic  party  of  1860,  and  tell  me  if  the  doc- 
trines of  ancient  Federalism  and  the  teaching's  of  the  Ad- 
ministration party  to-day  are  not  identical?  Yet  because,  as 
individuals  and  as  a  party,  we  will  not  cease  to  venerate  the 
teaching"  and  be  gnided  by  the  advice  of  the  Republicans  of 
the  Revolution,  but  choose  rather  to  carry  out  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  g-overnment  their  convictions,  which  are  also 
our  own,  v/e  are  denounced  as  faithless  to  the  Constitution 
and  the  Union,  by  a  class  interest,  who,  by  diplomacy  and 
stealth,  have  obtained  complete  ascendency  in  the  old  Democ- 
racy; who,  though  clinging  to  the  name,  have  changed  its 
mission  and  purpose  from  one  of  republicanism  and  liberty 
to  one  of  despotism  and  slavery. 

Mr.  Chairman,  this  class  interest  have  for  years  been  as 
dominant  in  the  government  as  they  are  to-day  in  the  old  Dem-- 
ocratic  party;  and  so  accustomed  have  they  become  to  dictat- 
ing to,  and  exacting  obedience  of,  their  Northern  allies,  that 
they  are  not  a  little  discomfited  in  finding  that  the  members  of 
the  Republican  party  are  made  of  sterner  stuff,  and  that  all 
Northern  people  are  not  such  as  Randolph  described  those  to 
be  who  defended  the  institution  of  human  slavery. 

Sir,  I  come  not  here  as  the  representative  of  ra  class  in- 
terest, much  less  to  be  dictated  to  and  told  what  my  constitu- 
tional obligations  are  by  the  representatives  of  such  an  in- 
terest.    I  come  as  the  representative  of  a  free  people,  who 


—  89  — 

are  as  loyal  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  as  the  same 
number  of  citizens  in  any  other  State,  or  in  any  Congres- 
sional district  of  the  Nation  —  a  constituency  who  will 
exact  of  any  man  whom  they  commission  to  represent  them 
upon  this  floor,  not  only  fidelity  to  the  Constitution  and 
Union,  but,  above  all,  fidelity  to  freedom  —  zi  constituency 
who  will  demand  that  no  act  or  vote  of  their  Representative 
shall  be  circumscribed  by  the  narrow  bounds  that  limit  the 
geog'raphical  division  of  countries  which  make  up  his  Con- 
g-ressional  district;  but  that  in  every  vote  he  gives  hero  he 
will  see  to  it  that  equal  and  exact  justice  is  withheld  from  no 
locality  or  State  in  the  Union.  With  this  view  of  my  duty, 
sir,  and  the  oblig-ations  I  assumed  when  the  oath  of  offi.ce 
was  administered  to  me,  I  cannot,  and  will  not,  knowing-ly 
give  any  vote  that  will  impair  or  destroy  the  constitutional 
rights  of  a  single  individual,  nor  of  any  State.  Although  I 
am  thus  national,  and  represent  a  constituency  who  are 
equally  national  and  conservative  in  their  views,  yet  I  am 
denounced,  and  the  party  to  which  I  belong  is  denounced,  as 
hostile  to  the  Union.  Sir,  I  deny  it.  Never  has  there  a 
Republican  uttered  a  disunion  sentiment  on  this  floor  or  else- 
where; and  no  Republican  has  either  proposed  or  given  a  vote 
for  any  measure,  here  or  elsewhere,  that  would  not  have  com- 
manded the  cordial  support  of  Washington  and  Jefferson, 
and  the  early  fathers  of  the  Republic.  But  we  are  also 
denounced  as  a  sectional  party;  and  this  charge  of  sectional- 
ism has  been  made,  and  so  persistently  made,  by  the  Adminis- 
tration party,  both  North  and  South,  that  some  people  in  the 
country  act  as  if  they  believed  it;  and  by  no  one  has  this 
change  been  made  with  more  vehemence  than  by  Mr.  Doug- 
las himself. 

In  the  Illinois  campaign  of  1858,  this  was  the  staple  of 
Mr,  Douglas's  speeches;  and  Mr.  Lincoln,  our  present  gallant 
standard-bearer,  in  one  of  his  masterly  answers  to  Mr.  Doug- 
las, after  replying  to  and  refuting  the  charge,  made  the  fol- 
lowing remarkable  prediction,  which  has  been  fully  realized 
by  the  action  of  the  Charleston  Convention: 

"laskhis  [Mr.  Douglas's]  attention,  also,  to  the  fact, 
that  by  the  rule  of  nationality,  he  is  himself  fast  becoming 


—  90  — 

sectional.  I  ask  his  attention  to  the  fact,  that  his  speeches 
would  not  go  as  current  now,  south  of  the  Ohio  River,  as 
they  have  formerly  gone  there.  I  ask  his  attention  to  the  fact, 
that  he  felicitates  himself  to-day,  that  all  the  Democrats  of 
the  free  States  are  agreeing  with  him.  If  he  has  not  thought 
of  this,  I  commend  to  his  consideration  the  evidence  of  his 
own  declaration,  on  this  day,  of  his  becoming  sectional  too. 
I  see  it  rapidly  approaching.  Whatever  may  be  the  result 
of  this  ephemeral  contest  between  Judge  Douglas  and  my- 
self, I  see  the  day  rapidly  approaching  when  his  pill  of  sec- 
tionalism, which  he  has  been  thrusting  down  the  throats  of 
Republicans  for  years  past,  will  be  crowded  down  his  own 
throat." 

But  it  has  been  claimed  that  we  were  a  sectional  party, 
because  we  had  no  representative  of  the  Republican  party  on 
this  floor  from  a  slaveholding  State,  while  the  Administra- 
tion party  have  a  few  allies  from  the  free  States.  Let  me 
say,  in  all  fairness,  to  Southern  gentlemen,  that  if  the 
Northern  Representatives  on  this  floor,  who  support  this 
Administration,  openly  avowed  the  pro-slavery  doctrines  in 
their  own  States  which  are  daily  uttered  here  by  fou'r-fifths 
of  their  party,  without  rebuke  from  them,  the  places  * '  which 
now  know  them  would  know  them  no  more  forever."  A 
majority  of  those  who  are  now  upon  this  floor  from  the 
North,  claiming  affiliation  with  the  so-called  Democratic 
party,  obtained  their  places  by  as  impassioned  appeals  to  the 
people  in  favor  of  free  institutions  and  free  States  as  were 
ever  made  by  Republicans,  and  by  insisting  that  they  were 
not  only  hostile  to  slavery  extension,  but  that  they  were  even 
better  friends  of  freedom  than  the  most  ultra  members  of  the 
Republican  party.  But  let  me  add,  further,  that  if  the 
Republicans,  and  those  opposed  to  slavery  in  the  free  States, 
were  to  forbid,  by  law  and  by  mob  violence,  as  successfully  as 
Southern  States  have  done,  the  free  exercise  of  the  elective 
franchise,  and  the  discussion,  either  through  the  press  or  on 
the  stump,  of  the  principles  of  the  so-called  Democratic  party, 
you  would  not  have,  to-day,  an  ally  upon  this  floor,  except, 
perhaps,  from  one  or  two  districts,  in  all  the  Northern 
States.  Only  because  of  this  toleration  and  respect  for  the 
constitutional  obligations  which  are  binding  alike  upon  every 
State,  are  there  any  supporters  of  the  Administration  party 


91  — 


upon  this  floor  from  the  entire  North.  If  the  same  system  of 
tyranny  and  terrorism  prevailed  ag-ainst  the  minority  in  the 
free  States  that  in  the  Southern  States  is  universal  towardc. 
us,  no  Chief  Magistrate  could  ag"ain  be  elected,  representing* 
the  special  interest  of  a  sectional  party,  as  was  done  in  I8S60 
It  is  only  our  toleration  of  the  freedom  of  speech  and  of 
the  press  that  permits  even  the  existence  of  a  party  to-day 
among-  us,  which  in  the  name  of  Democracy,  sends  Repre- 
sentatives here  who  covertly  support,  apolog-ize  for,  and 
defend  the  most  extravag-ant  demands  of  the  slave  barons. 
Yet  the  charg-e  is  made  and  repeated,  ag-ain  and  ag-ain,  upon 
this  floor,  that  we  are  not  only  a  sectional  party,  but  thr^t  we 
disreg-ard  and  trample  upon  the  Constitution  which  we  are 
sworn  to  support.  I  ask  g-entlemen  to  make  their  charg-es 
more  specific,  and  not  to  deal  so  indiscriminately  in  g-ener- 
alities.  I  ask  them  to  point  out  the  proposed  policy,  or 
any  vote  that  has  been  given  by  the  Representatives  of  the 
Republican  party,  as  a  body,  in  this  House  or  in  any  Cong-ress 
since  the  Republican  party  was  org-anized,  that  is  violative 
of  the  constitutional  rights  of  any  section  of  the  Union. 
I  know  of  no  vote  they  have  given,  or  of  any  proposition 
they  have  made,  that  would  not  have  commanded  the 
support  of  Washington  and  Franklin,  of  Jay  and  Jefferson, 
of  Adams  and  Madison ;  and  I  am  content  to  follow  in  the 
footsteps  of  such  men,  and  accept  their  interpretation  of  the 
Constitution,  rather  than  the  so-called  interpretation  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  Sir,  indiscriminate,  wholesale  charges,  such 
as  have  been  repeated  with  so  much  vehemence  upon  this 
floor,  come  with  a  poor  grace  from  the  Representatives  of 
States  that  openly  trample  upon  and  disregard  not  only  the 
plainest  provisions  of  the  national  Constitution,  but  the 
obligations  due  from  the  citizens  of  one  civilized  country  to 
the  citizens  of  another. 

The  Consti  .ution  guarantees  the  freedom  of  speech  and 
of  the  press,  and  provides  expressly  that  "the  citizens  of  each 
State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and  immunities  of 
citizens  in  the  several  States ; "  and  are  not  these  plain 
provisions  of  the  Constitution  daily  violated  throughout  the 
entire  South?  Can  a  citizen  of  any  State  speak  or  publish 
the  sentiments  of  Washington  and  Jefferson  and  Henry  upon 


—  92  — 

\      the  question  of  slavery  in  the  Southern  States?     Can  he  even 
reside   in  or   pass  through  those   States,  and  be   free  from 
danger  or  of  personal  violence  at  the  hands  of  infuriated  mobs? 
The  history  of  the  country  for  the  past  few  years  gives  a  full 
answer  to  the  question.     In  many  of  the  States,  the  severest 
legislative  enactments  have  been  passed  against  the  liberty 
of  speech  and  of  the  press;  the  United  States  mails  are  even 
rifled  and  private  correspondence  subjected   to  a  censorship 
not  tolerated  in  the  monarchies  of  Europe.     States  that  were 
most  violent  in  their  hostility  to  the  alien  and  sedition  laws 
have,  by  a  strange  combination  of  events,  become  the  enactors 
of  sedition  laws  themselves,  and  mob  violence  has  become  so 
common,  that  it  is  now  regarded  as  the  settled  policy  of  the 
dominant  party  in  the  South,  wherever  they  have  the  numer- 
ical force  thus  to  punish  and  overawe  their  political  opponents. 
But  not  only  are  the  plainest  provisions  of  the  national 
Constitution  thus  violated,  and  the  comity  due  from  one  State 
to  another,  and  from  the  citizen  of  one  State  to  the  citizen  of 
another,  disregarded,  but  laws  are  absolutely  passed  making 
odious   discriminations   in   favor    of    persons  who   are   not 
citizens  of  the  United  States.     Thus,   if  a  steamer  of  Massa- 
chusetts or  New  York  sail  into  Charleston  or  New  Orleans, 
having  on  board  colored  persons,   who  are  free,  and,  by  the 
laws  of  the  States  named,   are  citizens,   they  are  subject  to 
police   regulations   whose  severity   has   no  parallel   in   any 
civilized  nation  on  the  face  of  the  earth.     This  is  where  they 
are  citizens  of  one  of  the  States  of  the  Union,  and  have  a 
constitutional  guaranty  for  protection.     A  special  provision 
is  made,  however,  to  exempt  all  colored   persons   who   are 
subjects  of  Great  Britain   and  France,    and   perhaps   other 
foreign  governments.     Thus  an  odious  and  unconstitutional 
distinction  is  deliberately  made  against  our  own  citizens,  and 
in  favor  of  the  citizens  of  foreign  nations.     But,  worse  than 
this,  unconstitutional   enactments  are  passed  and  enforced, 
which  consign  free  citizens  of  the  Northern   States,  guilty 
of  no  crime,  to  hopeless   slavery.     The  laws  of   Congress, 
made   in  conformity  with   our   treaty  stipulations  and   the 
enlightened  sentiment  of  the  civilized  world,  punishing  the 
African  slave  trade  as  piracy,   are  openly  disregarded,  and 
the  power  of  the  National  Government  declared  to  be  impo- 


93  — 


tent ;  ana  yet  scarcely  a  speech  is  made  upon  this  floor  by 
members  from  these  States  in  which  they  do  not  proclaim 
their  devotion  to  law  and  order,  the  decision  of  courts,  and 
their  fidelity  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union,  which  simply 
means  obedience  to  such  laws  as  they  desire  enacted,  sub- 
mission to  such  decisions  of  courts  as  they  can  dictate,  and 
fidelity  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  so  long-  only  as 
they  are  intrusted  by  the  people  with  the  administration  of 
the  government  and  the  interpretation  of  the  Constitution. 
When  this  ceases,  as  I  trust  and  believe  it  will  on  the  4th  of 
March,  1861,  their  fidelity  to  law  will  cease,  their  love  of  the 
Union  will  cease,  and  their  new-born  veneration  for  that 
*' AUGUST  tribunal"  of  which  we  have  heard  so  much  of 
late — the  Supreme  Court — will  also  cease  ;  and  they  will  be, 
ip  their  threats  are  to  be  put  into  execution,  in  open 
rebellion  against  the  government,  and  enemies  of  the 
Constitution  and  the  Union. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  also  charged  that  because,  as  a 
party  we  are  opposed  to  the  extension  and  nationalization  of 
slavery  in  the  Republic,  and  condemn  the  inhuman  laws 
enacted  for  the  maintenance  and  perpetuity  of  that  institution, 
we  must  of  necessity  favor  the  equality  of  the  neg-ro  race  with 
our  own,  and  desire  to  see  them  intermarry  and  become  one 
people.  Sir,  this  cry  of  * '  neg-ro  equality  "  is  about  all  the 
argument  now  left  the  Northern  allies  of  the  slave  barons,  to 
be  used  in  the  free  States  in  their  appeals  to  their  constitu- 
ents, when  justifying  themselves  for  the  support  they 
uniformly  give  the  slave  interest  in  Congress. 

Now,  sir,  what  are  the  facts  on  this  point  of  negro 
equality?  First,  the  Republican  party  oppose  the  further 
spread  of  slavery  and  the  increase  of  political  power  in  the 
hands  of  slaveholders,  because  they  believe  the  enslavement 
of  one  human  being  by  another,  or  of  one  race  by  another,  to 
be  one  of  the  greatest  wrongs  that  man  or  government  can 
inflict.  They  do  not  desire  to  see  this  government  in  the 
hands  of  men  who  will  use  it  to  favor  and  strengthen  such  a 
policy.  Second,  they  believe  the  enslavement  of  any  race  by 
another,  injures  the  race  who  enslaves,  as  well  as  their 
victims  ;  and  that  the  contact  of  any  free  people  with  slaves 
demoralizes  and  degrades  the  tree  people.     In  support  of  this 


\ 


—  94  — 

proposition,  I  appeal  to  the  history  of  the  world  for  six  thou- 
sand years  to  sustain  me.  But  if  all  the  past  were  a  blank  ; 
if  all  history  were  silent,  and  slavery  was  unknown  to  man 
until  the  inauguration  of  this  g-overnment,  and  all  we  know 
about  it  and  its  blasting-  and  blighting-  effects  was  what  we 
have  learned,  by  sad  experience,  in  the  United  States,  I  think, 
even  here,  we  would  have  just  cause  to  desire  not  only  its 
exclusion  from  all  new  States  and  Territories,  but  its  final 
extinction  on  every  foot  of  soil  over  which  our  national  Con- 
stitution extends.  This  was  the  hope,  the  expectation  and 
the  prayer,  of  the  illustrious  men  who  achieved  our  independ- 
ence and  made  our  Constitution. 

Sir,  the  charge  of  *'nkgro  equality"  and  *'amai.gama- 
TiON  "  comes  with  a  very  bad  grace  from  either  the  Northern 
or  Southern  wing  of  this  pro-slavery  party ;  and,  in  order 
that  I  may  not  be  misquoted  or  misunderstood  in  what  I  pro- 
pose to  offer  on  this  "point,  let  me  say,  right  here,  that  while 
I  shall  condemn  in  unmistakable  terms  the  institution  of 
slavery  as  a  social  and  political  system,  and  the  crime  of 
amalgamation,  which  is  inseparable  from  it,  I  exempt,  with 
pleasure,  from  any  sweeping  denunciation  which  I  may  rnake, 
thousands  of  good  and  true  men,  who  find  themselves  born 
to  this  inheritance,  and  whose  whole  lives  give  assurance  to 
the  world  that  their  hearts  are  better  than  the  system. 
Intrust  a  class  of  men  in  any  society  or  government  with 
absolute  power  over  a  servile  race,  and  the  bad  men  will  not 
only  use  it  and  abuse  it,  as  I  shall  show,  but,  by  their  clamor- 
ous cry  of  danger  to  the  State,  will  perpetrate  and  give  sanc- 
tion to  outrages  that  good  and  true  men  will  be  powerless  to 
prevent.  It  is  not  that  Southern  men  and  slaveholders  are 
worse  than  other  men,  but  because  they  are  no  better,  that  it  is 
unsafe,  if  it  were  not  in  itself  an  indefensible  wrong,  to 
intrust  them  with  absolute  power  over  any  part  of  the  human 
race. 

And  now,  sir,  what  are  the  practical  effects  of  slavery, 
as  exhibited  in  the  working  out  of  this  much-talked-of  and 
universally-denounced  negro  equality  and  amalgamation  of 
the  races?  Has  not  slavery  corrupted  the  blood,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  the  morals,  of  millions  in  the  South?  If  it  has  not, 
whence  spring  the  octoroons,  the  quadroons,  and  the  myriads 


95  — 


who  are  tinged  with  the  blood  of  the  dominant  race,  in  every 
Southern  State?  Sir,  it  is  in  the  land  of  slavery  you  must 
look  for  amalgamation,  and  that  negro  equality,  which  is  in- 
separable from  such  amalgamation.  But  for  a  negro  equality 
all  over  the  South  that  must  be  nameless  here,  there  would 
be  no  blue-eyed,  light-haired  octoroons,  the  children  and 
descendants  of  African  slaves,  in  every  Southern  city,  and  in 
every  neighborhood,  appealing  to  the  liberal,  as  we  see  them 
almost  daily  in  this  capital,  asking  for  aid  to  purchase  their 
right  to  that  which  God  gave  not  only  them,  but  to  all  the 
human  race,  the  right  to  themselves.  Sir,  than  Mormon 
polygamy,  about  which  even  Southern  Representatives  pro- 
fess to  be  so  shocked,  this  crime  of  Southern  amalgamation  is 
worse ;  for  while  the  Mormon  system  is  voluntary,  and  must 
have  the  sanction  of  a  public  church  ordinance,  and  the  full 
and  unqualified  assent  of  the  first  wife,  and  the  children  be 
entitled  to  all  the  rights  of  protection  and  property  which 
are  secured  to  the  children  of  the  first  marriage,  this  South- 
ern system  is  an  involuntary,  forced,  and  revolting  concubi- 
nage, from  which  there  is  no  escape,  if  the  victim  desires  it, 
there  being  no  law  to  punish  the  aggressor.  And,  sir,  the 
offspring  of  this  criminal  negro  equality  are  slaves.  If  there 
were  laws  to  punish  such  crimes,  the  testimony  of  slaves 
could  not  with  safety  be  admitted;  for  if  such  were  the  case, 
and  the  penalty  attached  should  be,  as  it  ought  to  be,  the 
liberation  of  all  slave  children  whose  fathers  were  white 
men,  together  with  their  mothers,  then  Wilmot  provisos 
would  be  unnecessary,  and  further  opposition  to  slavery 
would  be  a  useless  occupation  with  the  people  of  the  North. 
The  institution  would  fall  by  the  fascinating  graces  and 
seductive  power  of  these  black  dulcineas,  by  whose  irresisti- 
ble charms  the  aristocracy  and  plebeians  of  the  South  alike 
appear  to  be  captivated. 

Sir,  it  is  only  in  the  land  of  slavery  where  this  crime  is 
tolerated.  There  it  is  unrestrained.  There  alone  it  is  cher- 
ished; and  if  slavery  continues,  it  must  become  universal, 
blighting  and  corroding  the  life-blood  of  the  nation,  by  eradi- 
cating from  the  heart  of  man  all  love  for  his  own  offspring, 
and  filling  the  land  with  slaves  who  are  the  children  of  the 
dominant  race.     How  frightful  has  been  the  progress  and 


—  96  — 

increase  of  this  desolating"  and  destroying  evil!  Sir,  do  you 
suppose  there  is  one  Southern  State,  nay,  one  Cong-ressional 
district  in  all  the  slave  States  of  this  Union,  in  which  slave-' 
holders  do  not  own  and  sell  their  own  children?  where  they 
do  not  see  them  toil  daily  beneath  the  lash  of  a  taskmaster, 
and  see  them  driven  in  cofiie  gangs  to  the  Southern  market  — 
their  sons  to  the  shambles,  and  their  daughters  to  the  hells 
of  Southern  cities?  But  it  may,  and  probably  will,  be 
claimed  that  these  octoroons  and  quadroons  are  not  the  chil- 
dren of  the  masters,  but  they  are  the  children  of  the  poor 
whites.  I  care  not,  Mr.  Chairman,  whose  they  may  be;  the 
fact  of  their  existence  is  evidence  of  the  crime;  and  the  fur- 
ther fact  that  the  law-makers,  who  are  always  slaveholders 
in  all  the  Southern  States,  do  not  punish  the  crime  by  law, 
as  they  would  if  they  desired  to  restrain  it,  is  certainly  a  cir- 
cumstance not  very  favorable  to  their  own  innocence. 

Sir,  go  into  any  colored  church  in  any  Southern  city,  and 
a  majority  of  the  audience  will  be  of  the  mixed  race,  many 
of  them  so  white  that  it  would  require  a  close  inspection  to 
detect  that  they  were  tinctured  with  negro  blood. 

Sir,  how  long  do  you  suppose  this  mixed  race  will  remain 
in  servitude  without  a  struggle  for  their  freedom?  It  is  im- 
possible that  it  should  be  long,  for  many  of  them  to-day  are 
conceded  to  be  smarter  than  their  reputed  fathers.  If  this 
unrestrained  Southern  negro  equality  is  to  be  not  only  con- 
tinued, but  encouraged,  a  hundred  years  will  not  elapse  —  if 
the  importation  of  fresh  Africans  can  be  effectually  stopped 
—  before  the  last  unmixed  African  slave  will  have  disappeared 
before  this  bleaching  process  of  Southern  amalgamation. 
In  forty  years  there  will  be  over  ten  million  slaves  and  free 
colored  people  in  the  present  slave  States,  if  they  continue  to 
increase  in  the  same  ratio  that  they  have  done  for  the  past 
sixty  years.  At  a  moderate  estimate,  five  million  will  then 
be  of  the  mixed  race,  many  of  them  so  white,  as  advertise- 
ments for  runaway  slaves  often  inform  us  is  the  case  now,  that 
* '  they  would  readily  pass  for  white  persons. "  In  fifty  or  sixty 
years  more  they  will  have  increased,  at  the  same  ratio,  to  at 
least  twenty  million,  and  the  unmixed  Africans  can  be  easily 
counted.     In  less  than  one  hundred  years  from  to-day,  the 


—  97  — 

slave  population  will  have  increased  to  near  thirty  million, 
numbering-  about  eig-hty  to  every  slaveholder,  and  almost,  if 
not  quite,  half  of  these  slaves  will  be  so  white  that  they  can- 
not be  distinguished  from  white  persons.  How  long-,  I  ag-ain 
ask,  can  such  a  servile  population  of  thirty  million  be  kept  in 
subjection  by  less  than  half  a  million  masters? 

Sir,  if  so  g-reat  and  g-ood  a  man  as  Wesley  could  denounce 
this  institution  to  the  Christian  people  of  the  world  as  **the 
sum  of  all  villainies,"  I,  who  have  witnessed  some  of  its  bru- 
tality and  felt  its  tyranny,  may,  without  impropriety,  pro- 
nounce it,  as  I  now  do,  to  be  the  sum  of  all  barbarisms,  for 
whose  continuance  and  further  spread  over  the  Territories  of 
the  nation  the  people  of  the  United  States,  both  North  and 
South,  will  be  held  responsible  in  history  and  before  God. 

Sir,  no  lover  of  his  country  and  the  human  race  can  con- 
template this  picture  without  a  shudder. 

Notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said  and  written,  and 
all  that  is  being  said  and  written  on  this  subject,  to  induce 
the  slave  barons  to  pause  and  take  a  practical  view  of  this 
subject,  they  not  only  refuse,  but  rush  madly  on,  disregard- 
ing alike  the  teachings  of  the  fathers  and  the  warnings  of 
history.  And  to-day  they  claim  that  slavery  is  a  benefit  to 
the  country,  and  a  blessing  to  the  slave  and  master,  as  well 
as  to  the  non-slaveholding  whites. 

Senator  Hammond,  the  leader  of  the  South  Carolina  oli- 
garchy, in  speaking  of  the  manner  in  which  the  poor  whites 
of  that  State  obtained  a  subsistence,  a  year  or  two  since,  did 
not  draw  quite  so  flattering  a  picture  of  their  happy  condition 
as  has  been  done  by  Southern  members  on  this  floor.  Mr. 
Hammond  says: 

*'  They  [the  poor  whites]  obtain  a  precarious  subsistence 
by  occasional  jobs,  by  hunting,  by  fishing,  by  plundering 
fields  or  folds,  and  too  often  by  what  is  in  its  effects  far 
worse  —  trading  with  slaves,  and  seducing  them  to  plunder 
for  their  benefit." 

And  yet  we  are  told  that  this  is  a  desirable  condition  of 
society,  and  that  slave  and  poor  white  alike  are  satisfied  with 
it.     In  speaking  of  this  subject,  one  of  the  honorable  mem- 

7 


98  — 


bers  from  South  Carolina,  in  a  speech  delivered  before  the 
organization  of  the  House,  boasted  not  only  of  the  happiness 
of  the  people,  but  of  the  contentment  and  fidelity  of  the 
slaves  to  their  masters,  as  also  of  the  loyalty  of  the  poor 
whites  of  the  South  to  the  institution  of  slavery;  and  stated 
that,  out  of  a  large  number  who  volunteered  to  go  to  Vir- 
ginia and  aid  Governor  Wise  during  the  John  Brown  troub- 
les, but  five  or  six  were  slaveholders,  and  instanced  this  fact 
as  proof  of  their  loyalty.  If  it  be  true  that  they  are  thus 
loyal  —  and  I  do  not  intend  to  controvert  the  fact  as  stated  — 
why  is  it  that  this  class  of  poor  whites  are  not  permitted  to 
read  whatever  they  may  prefer  to  read,  as  the  slaveholders  do 
themselves? 

I  will  say  nothing  about  the  penal  enactments  prohibit- 
ing, by  fine,  the  lash,  and  imprisonment,  any  and  all  classes  of 
persons,  white  or  colored,  whether  Christian  or  not,  from 
teaching  their  slaves  to  read  or  write;  for  such  laws  are  in- 
separable from  the  system.  It  is  well  known  that  the  loyalty 
of  the  slaves  can  only  be  depended  on  while  they  are  deprived 
of  the  power  of  communicating  with  each  other.  But  if  the 
poor  whites  are  loyal,  why  are  they  also  proscribed?  Why 
are  thdy  deprived  of  the  pleasure  and  profit  Which  they  would 
derive  from  reading  that  stanch  old  Democratic  paper,  the 
New  York  Evening  Post?  or  that  invaluable  paper,  the  New 
York  Tribune?  or  that  first  of  all  religious  journals,  the 
New  York  Independent?  Why  is  it  that  they  are  forbidden 
to  read  such  a  book  as  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  or  the  Octoroon, 
or  any  paper,  whether  Republican  or  independent  of  party, 
that  is  unfriendly  to  slavery,  or  even  to  receive  and  read  pri- 
vate letters  from  the  free  States,  unless  first  subjected  to  a 
censorship  by  the  privileged  class?  There  can  be  but  one 
answer  to  these  questions;  and  that  is,  a  distrust  on  the  part 
of  the  ruling  class  of  the  fidelity  of  the  poor  whites,  and  fear 
of  their  political  power,  should  they  unite,  as  they  might  do 
at  any  time,  and'  take  possession  of  all  the  Southern  State 
Governments,  and  administer  them  for  the  benefit  of  the 
whole  people,  instead  of  permitting  them  to  be  administered, 
as  they  are  to-day,  exclusively  for  the  benefit  of  a  class 
interest. 


—  99 


It  appears,  from  the  facts"  elicited  during*  the  extraordi- 
nary discussion  which  was  indulged  in  here  by  Southern 
Representatives  before  the  organization,  that  many  of  them 
had  read  and  examined  with  care,  some  two  years  ago,  this 
incendiary  Helper  book.  Now,  if  they  had  the  right  to  pos- 
sess and  read  such  books  and  papers,  why  have  not  their  con- 
stituents, the  poor  whites,  the  same  right,  by  whose  votes 
most  of  these  gentlemen  come  here,  for  the  poor  whites  consti- 
tute a  majority  of  the  electors  in  all  the  Southern  States?  Sir, 
there  are  reasons,  and  good  reasons,  why  they  should  not,  if 
the  policy  of  the  privileged  class  is  to  be  sustained  and  con- 
tinued. The  poor  whites  of  the  South,  in  whose  hands,  if 
united,  resides  the  political  power,  must  be  kept  divided,  as 
they  are  to-ilay;  and  in  order  to  keep  them  successfully 
divided,  and  fighting  their  supposed  enemy,  the  free  negro, 
and  those  who  favor  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  Terri- 
tories, they  must  be  kept  in  ignorance.  Hence,  all  that  was 
said,  and  [so  vehemently  said,  in  denunciation  of  Helper  and 
his  book,  was  said,  not  because  it  was  an  appeal  to  the  slaves 
or  free  colored  people  to  rise  in  rebellion,  but  because  its 
arguments  and  appeals  were  addressed  to  the  poor  whites  of 
the  South  by  one  of  their  own  number.  Mr.  Pryor,  of  Vir- 
ginia, in  speaking  of  the  characteristics  of  Helper's  book, 
said: 

**  What  is  the  characteristic  feature  of  that  work?  Some 
gentlemen  have  stated  that  they  have  not  read  it.  I  have 
read  it,  and  read  it  some  two  years  ago.  These  gentlemen 
who  have  signed  it  tell  us  that  they  never  saw  it.  I  have 
read  it,  and  know  all  about  it;  and  let  me  tell  you  what  the 
characteristic  distinction  and  feature  of  that  work  is;  let  me 
inform  the  candidate  for  Speaker  upon  the  other  side  of  the 
House  [Mr.  Sherman],  who  seems  ignorant  of  the  produc- 
tion he  endorses.  It  is  not  tnat  the  author  proposes  that  the 
North  shall  come  down  in  an  avalance  of  invasion,  and  de- 
stroy the  tie  that  subsists  between  the  slave  and  the  master. 
No,  sir;  that  is  familiar  talk.  Nor  is  it  the  literary  execution 
of  the  work;  for  I  never  read  a  book  which  is  more  feeble  in 
conception  and  inartistic  in  execution.  It  is  unworthy  of 
respectable  criticism."     .     .     . 

"But  the  peculiarity  of  that  book  was,  that  Mr.  Helper, 
for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  this  country,  had  invoked, 
with  all  the  power  of  passion,  with  all  his  limited  resources 
of  rhetoric,  the  non-slavkholders  of  the  South  to  rise 


100 


IN    REBELLION   AGAINST    THE   SLAVEHOLDERS.      That    was   the 

peculiar  merit  of  his  book. 

"Now,  the  candidate  for  Speaker  upon  the  other  side 
[Mr.  Sherman]  told  us  yesterday  explicitly,  and  cited  his 
political  record  as  proof  of  it,  that  he  would  not  urg-e  the 
Federal  Government,  nor  the  people  of  the  North,  to  inter- 
fere with  the  relations  of  master  and  slave.  I  tell  him  now, 
ag-ain,  that  that  is  not  the  characteristic  of  the  book." 

Here,  sir,  is  disclosed  the  real  point  of  danger  to  the  rul- 
ing- class  of  the  South — the  fear  of  a  rebellion  on  the  part  of  the 
poor  whites  whom  they  now  claim  as  loyal  subjects.  A  rebel- 
lion, sir.  Can  a  people,  from  whom  all  political  authority 
emanates  in  a  Republic,  be  classed  as  rebels,  for  desiring-  to 
chang-e,  in  a  peaceful  and  constitutional  manner,  their  law- 
makers? If  not,  from  whose  rule  is  it  feared  t^e  poor  whites 
will  rebel?  Their  own  rule?  No,  sir;  but  a^REBELLiON  against 
THE  SLAVEHOLDERS,"  says  Mr.  Pry  or.  This  is  the  fear,  this  the 
danger,  the  bare  contemplation  of  which  makes  all  slavedom 
mad.  This  is  the  power  before  which  they  tremble;  and  well 
they  may,  for  despite  their  sedition  laws  and  prisons  and  mobs, 
the  time  is  coming  when  God's  truth  cannot  longer  be  shut  out 
from  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  non-slaveholders  and  poor 
whites;  and  when  that  time  comes,  their  power  shall  again 
be  felt,  and  their  voices  again  be  heard  in  these  halls  in  de- 
fense of  liberty,  where  now  are  only  heard  the  voices  of  the 
representatives  of  a  class  interest,  defending  and  justifying 
slavery. 

Sir,  I  look  upon  the  loyalty  of  the  slave  as  a  suspicious 
kind  of  loyalty,  where  it  is  necessary  not  only  to  keep  them 
in  ignorance,  but  subject  to  the  most  rigorous  laws  and  in- 
human physical  punishments,  in  order  safely  to  hold  them  in 
any  kind  of  subjection.  And  I  think  the  loyalty  of  the  poor 
white  man  equally  uncertain,  when  there  is  no  safety  or 
security  that  he  will  not  combine  against  you,  unless  you 
shut  out  from  his  mind  and  conscience  all  arguments  in 
favor  of  justice,  and  all  appeals  to  his  humanity.  With  this 
kind  of  censorship,  with  this  kind  of  domination,  with  this 
kind  of  despotism,  are  the  slaves  and  the  poor  whites  of  the 
South  alike  made  loyal.  The  poor  whites  of  Poland  and 
Hungary  are  also  called  loyal  by  the  Emperor  of  Austria. 


— 101  - 

The  poor  whites  of  France  are  called  loyal  by  the  usurper  of 
the  2d  of  December.  The  poor  whites  of  the  South  are 
called  loyal  because  of  their  obedience  to  the  mandates  of 
the  ruling-  class;  and  they  may  be,  and  I  believe  they  are,  to- 
day, more  loyal  than  the  poor  whites  of  the  European  despo- 
tisms to  which  I  have  referred.  They  hug-  the  chains  that 
drag-  them  down,  and  volunteer  with  alacrity  to  sacrifice  their 
lives  at  the  bidding-  of  this  privileged  class.  The  slave 
interest  intend  to  keep  them  loyal;  and  in  order  to  be  doubly 
sure  that  they  shall  remain  so,  their  school-books  for  what 
few  schools  they  have,  their  literature,  their  political  jour- 
nals, their  so-called  relig-ious  periodicals  and  Christian  teach- 
ers, are  permitted  to  talk  and  preach  and  pray  —  if  at  all 
about  slavery  —  only  in  favor  of  its  divinity  and  its  blessing-, 
within  the  hearing-  of  the  slaves  and  poor  whites  alike. 
This  is  the  kind  of  loyalty  that  can  be  found  in  despotisms 
only;  the  kind  of  loyalty  which  you  exact  of  your  Northern 
allies.  It  is  the  kind  of  loyalty,  let  me  assure  you,  which 
cannot  flourish  in  the  free  States;  and  I  do  not  believe  it  can 
endure  many  years  in  the  slave  States. 

An  end  will  and  must  come  to  such  despotism,  peaceably 
and  constitutionally,  I  hope ;  but  it  will  come.  No  human 
hand  can  stay  it.  No  government  ever  has  existed  perma- 
nently, or  ever  can  remain  stable,  that  tramples  deliberately 
and  with  impunity  upon  the  rights  of  humanity  and  the  laws 
of  God.  While  I  cannot  adopt,  to  the  fullest  extent,  the 
declaration  of  the  great  Irish  liberator  * '  that  no  revolu- 
tion WAS  WORTH  ONE  DROP  OF  HUMAN  BLOOD  "  —  because  that 
would  be  a  condemnation  of  our  own  Revolution,  and  of  all 
just  revolutions — yet  I  can  say,  with  all  my  heart,  that  I 
desire  a  revolution  of  peace ;  but,  peaceable  or  bloody,  I 
believe,  with  Jefferson,  that  it  will  come.  The  millions  of 
the  South  who  are  crushed  and  groaning  beneath  this 
despotism  —  the  poor  whites,  as  well  as  the  free  and  slave 
colored,  from  the  octoroon  to  the  quadroon  and  the  unmixed 
black,  if  there  should  be  any  of  the  latter  then  remaining — will 
one  day  be  compelled  to  strike  hands  and  shake  this  despotism 
off  ;  or  the  poor  whites  will  first  be  disfranchised,  then  classed 
socially,    as   they   are   to-day,   to   a   great  extent,   with  the 


—  102  — 

servile  race,  and  at  last  they  and  their  children  will  be  melted 
down  in  the  slave  population  forever. 

That  this  is  the  ultimate  purpose  of  the  ruling-  class  of 
the  South,  may  be  fairly  adduced  from  the  fact,  that  they  do 
not  hesitate  to-day  at  enslaving  Indians,  Mexicans,  Chinamen, 
and  even  whites  of  American  birth  and  unmixed  blood. 
Governor  Hammond,  of  South  Carolina,  does  not  scruple 
publicly  to  denominate  free  white  laborers  as  the  * '  mud-sii.ls 
OF  SOCIETY ; "  and  more  than  twenty  years  ago  asserted,  on 
the  floor  of  Congress,   ' '  that  th:^  South  had  i.ess  trouble 

WITH  THEIR  SLAVES  THAN  THE  NoRTH  HAD  WITH  HER  FREE 
LABORERS,  AS  THE  RECORDS  OF  CRIMINAL  JUSTICE  AND  THE 
NEWSPAPER   ACCOUNTS   OF   NORTHERN   MOBS   FULLY    SHOWED." 

Senator  Mason,  of  Virginia,  in  speaking  of  the  free  States, 
calls  them  "servile  States,"  because  their  labor ars  are  free 
men.  I  might  quote  from  many  leading  men  and  public 
speakers  in  the  South,  if  time  would  permit,  to  show  that 
these  men  have  no  moral  or  religious  convictions  against 
enslaving  any  race,  and  that,  having  no  principles  to  deter 
them  from  the  commission  of  such  a  wrong,  all  they  want  is 
the  power,  and  they  would  reduce,  without  hesitation,  the 
entire  laboring  population,  of  whatever  race  or  color,  to 
bondage. 

Twenty-five  years  ago,  this  anti-Democratic  doctrine, 
justifying  the  enslavement  of  the  laboring  man,  of  whatever 
race  or  color,  was  publicly  proclaimed  by  many  of  the  ruling 
men  of  the  South,  of  both  the  old  political  parties.  Benjamin 
Watkins  Leigh,  a  leading  Whig  statesman  of  Virginia, 
declared,  in  a  speech  in  the  Virginia  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion of  1829  (before  the  anti-slavery  agitation  had  commenced 
in  the  North),  that  — 

*'  There  must  be  some  peasantry  ;  as  the  country  fills  up 
there  must  be  more  —  that  is,  men  who  tend  the  herds  and  dig 
the  soil,  who  have  neither  real  nor  personal  capital  of  their 
own,  and  who  earn  their  bread  by  the  sweat  of  their  brows. 
I  ask  gentlemen  to  say  whether  they  believe  those  who  depend 
on  their  labor  for  their  daily  subsistence  can,  or  ever  do,  enter 
into  political  affairs?     They  never  do,  never  will,  never  can." 

No  distinction  of  races  or  color  Is  made  here.  But  the 
white  laborers  were  especially  referred  to,  as  the  argument 


—  103  — 

was  ag-ainst  extending-  the  right  of  suffrag^e  to  that  class. 
True,  he  did  not  then  propose  to  reduce  them  to  chattelhood, 
but  it  is  evident  that  he  regarded  them  as  belonging-  to 
the  servile  population,  with  no  more  rights  than  negro  slaves. 
Mr.  Pickens,  of  South  Carolina,  in  a  speech  in  this  House, 
in  1836,  said  : 

"I  lay  down  this  proposition  as  universally  true,  that 
there  is  not,  and  never  was,  a  society  organized  under  our 
political  system  for  a  period  long  enough  to  constitute  an 
era,  where  one  class  would  not,  practically  and  substantially, 
own  ANOTHER  CLASS,  in  some  shape  or  form.  Let  not  gen- 
tlemen FROM  THE  North  start  at  this  truth.  We  are  yet 
a  people  in  our  infancy.  Society  has  not  yet  been  pressed 
DOWN  to  its  classifications.  Let  us  live  through  an  era,  and 
we  shall  discover  this  great  truth.  All  society  settles  down 
into  a  classification  of  capitalists  and  laborers.     The  former 

WILL  OWN  THE  LATTER." 

The  argument  of  Mr.  Pickens  is  undoubtedly  correct,  if 
this  government,  by  special  legislation,  is  to  build  up  and 
sustain  an  oligarchy  of  slaveholders,  who  own  all  their 
laborers.  The  * '  pressing-down "  process  to  which  Mr. 
Pickens  refers  has  been  going  on  at  a  frightful  rate  since  the 
delivery  of  this  speech. 

Governor  McDuffie,  of  South  Carolina,  the  bosom  friend 
of  Calhoun,  and  one  of  the  most  distinguished  Democrats  of 
that  State,  in  a  message  to  the  Legislature,  in  1836,  said,  in 
speaking  of  the  subject  of  slavery: 

"No  community  has  ever  existed  without  it,  and  we  may 
confidently  assert,  never  will.  In  the  very  nature  of  things, 
there  must  be  classes  of  persons  to  discharge  all  the  different 
offices  of  society,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest.  Some  of 
these  offices  are  regarded  as  degrading,  though  they  must 
and  will  be  performed.  Hence  those  manifold  forms  of  de- 
pendent servitude,  which  produce  a  sense  of  inferiority  on 
the  part  of  the  servants.  Where  these  offices  are  per- 
formed BY  MEMBERS  OF  THE  POLITICAL  COMMUNITY,  A  DANGER- 
OUS ELEMENT  IS  INTRODUCED   INTO  THE   BODY  POLITIC.      HeUCC 

the  alarming  tendency  to  violate  the  rights  of  property  by 
agrarian  legislation,  which  is  beginning  to  manifest  itself  in 
the  older  States,  where  universal  suffrage  prevails,  with- 
out DOMESTIC  slavery;  a  tendency  that  will  increase,  in  the 
progress  of  society,  with  the  increasing  inequality  of  wealth. 
No  government  is  worthy  of  the  name,  that  does  not  protect  the 


— 104  - 

rig-hts  of  property;  and  no  enli^ntened  people  will  long-  sub- 
mit to  such  a  mockery.  Hence  it  is,  that,  in  the  older  coun- 
tries, different  political  orders  are  established  to  effect  this 
indispensable  object,  and  it  will  be  fortunate  for  the  non- 
slaveholding-  States  if  they  are  not,  i^  i-^ss  than  a  quarter 
OF  A  CENTURY,  driven  to  the  adoption  of  a  similar  institution, 
or  to  take  refug-e  from  robbery  and  anarchy  under  a  military 
despotism."  .  .  .     *' In  A  word,  the  institution  of  slavery 

SUPERSEDES  THE  NECESSITY  OF  AN  ORDER  OF  NOBILITY, and  the 

other  appendages  of  a  hereditary  system  of  g-overnment.  If 
our  slaves  were  emancipated,  and  admitted,  bleached  or 
UNBLEACHED  (i.  c,  white  or  Colored),  to  an  equal  participa- 
tion in  our  political  privileg-es,  what  a  commentary  should 
we  furnish  upon  the  doctrines  of  the  emancipationists,  and 
what  a  revolting"  spectacle  of  republican  equality  should  we 
exhibit  to  the  mockery  of  the  world!  No  rational  man  would 
consent  to  live  in  such  a  state  of  society,  if  he  could  find  a 
refug-e  in  any  other.  Domestic  slavery,  therefore,  instead 
of  being"  a  political  evil,  is  the  corner-stone  of  our  repub- 


In  a  work  called  "  Sociolog"y  for  the  South;  or  the  failure 
of  Free  Society,"  pi^blished  in  1854,  by  Mr.  Georg-e Fitzhug-h, 
of  Richmond,  Virginia,  may  be  found  the  following"  declara- 
tion in  favor  of  white  slavery: 

**  Slavery  protects  the  weaker  members  of  society,  just  as 
do  the  relations  of  parents,  guardian  and  husband,  and  is  as 
necessary,  as  natural,  and  almost  as  universal,  as  those  rela- 
tions. 

'*Ten  years  ago,  we  became  satisfied  that  slavery,  black 
OR  WHITE,  was  right  and  necessary.  We  advocated  this  doc- 
trine in  very  many  essays." 

Some  three  years  ago,  the  Richmond  Enquirer,  then  and 
now  one  of  the  leading  organs  of  the  so-called  Democratic 
party,  in  discussing  and  defending  the  right  to  enslave  any 
race,  said: 

*  *  While  it  is  far  more  obvious  that  negroes  should  be 
slaves  than  whites  —  for  they  are  only  fit  to  labor,  and  not  to 
direct  —  yet  the  principle  of  slavery  is  itself  right,  and 

DOES  not  DEPEND  ON  DIFFERENCE  OF  COMPLEXION." 

In  another  article  on  this  same  subject,  this  Democratic 
(?)  paper  declared: 

**  Freedom  is  not  possible  without  slavery.  Kvery 
civil  polity  and  every  social  system  implies  gradation  of  rank 


—  105  - 
and  condition.     In  thk  States  op  the  South,  an  aristocracy 

OP  WHITE  MEN  IS  BASED  ON  NEGRO  SLAVERY;  AND  THE  ABSENCE 
OF  NEGRO  SLAVERY  WOULD  BE  SUPPLIED  BY  WHITE  MEN." 

In  every  slave  State,^I  believe,  without  exception,  the 
fate  of  all  offspring-  born  of  the  servile  race  is  made  by  statute 
to  depend  on  the  condition  of  the  mother.  If  she  be  a  slave, 
her  children,  thoug-h  white,  are  also  slaves.  The  laws  and 
judicial  decisions  of  all  the  slave  States  on  this  point  are  uni- 
form. From  this  law  of  the  slave  master  there  is  and  can  be 
no  escape,  to  the  latest  generation.  Hence  the  advocates  of 
this  system  do  not  hesitate  to  defend  the  enslavement  of  all 
weak  and  defenseless  races,  and  even  boldly  to  justify  the 
enslavement  of  white  men. 

This  is  the  logical  result  of  the  American  slave  system. 
If  slavery  should  be  confined  by  law  to  the  unmixed  African, 
the  slave  master  understands  that  in  time,  by  the  mere  force 
of  Southern  amalgamation,  there  would  come  an  end  to  the 
existence  of  this  institution.  To  avoid  this,  the  slave  master 
throws  around  his  victim  such  safeguards  in  the  shape  of 
legislative  enactments  as  will  effectually  secure  to  himself, 
as  property,  all  children  born  of  his  female  slaves,  whether 
they  are  white  or  colored. 

If  the  deliberate  intention  of  slave  masters  is  not  to 
reduce  to  chattelhood  all  black  and  white  persons  whom  they 
can  by  such  laws  enslave,  why  are  not  these  barbarous 
statutes  repealed,  and  laws  passed  making  amalgamation  a 
crime,  which  shall  punish  not  only  the  wrongdoer,  be  he 
master  or  not,  but  which  shall  work  the  liberation  of  all  chil- 
dren born  of  slave  mothers  who  have  a  '  *  visible  admixture  " 
of  white  blood  in  their  veins,  and  also  the  immediate  uncon- 
ditional freedom  of  every  such  slave  mother? 

In  1839,  Henry  Clay  delivered  a  speech  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States,  which  may  be  found  in  the  Appendix  to 
the  Congressional  Globe,  page  358,  in  which  he  said: 

"  It  is  frequently  asked,  what  is  to  become  of  the  African 
RACE,  among  us?    Are  they  forever  to  remain  in  bondage?" 

He  thus  answers  his  own  question: 

**  Taking  the  aggregates  of  the  two  races,  the  European 
is  constantly,  though   slowly,   gaining   upon  the  African 


—  106  — 

portion."  .  .  .  *'In  the  progress  of  time,  some  one  hundred 
and  fifty  or  two  hundred  years  hence,  but  few  vestig-es  of  the 
BLACK  race  will  remain  among-  our  posterity." 

In  one  hundred  or  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  then, 
according-  to  Mr.  Clay,  the  "black  race"  will  have  disap- 
peared before  the  bleaching  process  of  Southern  amalgama- 
tion, and  "  our  posterity" — the  descendants  of  slave  mothers 
— though  white,  and  having  in  their  veins  the  best  blood  of 
the  dominant  race,  are  not  onlyto  remain  slaves  forever,  but 
all  laboring  men,  without  regard  to  color  or  birth,  who  can 
be,  are  to  be  reduced  to  chattelhood.  And  this  is  to  be  the 
final  consummation  of  the  barbarism  of  American  slavery, 
unless  the  purposes  and  policy  of  the  slave  barons  are  defeated 
by  the  triumph  of  the  Republican  party. 

And  this  doctrine  of  the  right  to  enslave  any  race  has 
not  been,  and  never  will  be,  repudiated  by  the  present 
Democratic  party  in  the  South.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  ask  the 
honest  portion  of  those  who,  in  the  free  States,  brought  this 
Administration  party  into  power,  how  much  longer  they 
intend,  by  their  money  and  suffrages,  to  aid  in  keeping  the 
government  of  this  country  in  the  hands  of  an  oligarchy  who 
in  the  sacred  name  of  Democracy,  preach  and  practice  such 
despotism  as  this?  If  the  independent  freemen  of  the  nation 
do  not  rally  to  the  standard  of  Lincoln  and  Hamlin,  and  give 
us  deliverance  this  year,  then  I  know  not  when  it  will  come. 
I  have  an  abiding  faith,  however,  that  we  shall  triumph; 
and  that  the  day  cannot  be  far  distant  when  this  deliverance, 
by  a  popular  revolution,  must  come,  if  the  enslavement  of 
the  poor  whites  of  the  South  is  to  be  averted.  When  it  does 
come,  I  pray  Heaven  that  it  may  be  a  revolution  of  the  ballot- 
box  instead  of  the  cartridge-box  —  a  revolution  which,  while 
it  brings  deliverance  to  the  slave,  shall  not  blast  the  land 
with  universal  ruin  and  the  bloody  horrors  of  a  St.  Domingo. 
For  among  a  homogeneous  people,  of  one  language,  living 
under  a  republican  form  of  government,  where  a  majority 
may,  if  they  choose,  control,  I  think  the  true  way,  the  surer 
and  better  way,  to  secure  the  abolition  of  a  great  wrong,  is 
to  appeal  to  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  those  who  have 
the  constitutional  power  to  act,  and  whose  voice  and  votes 


-107  — 

will  not  be  wanting"  to  secure   this   result,  whenever   their 
judg-ments  are  convinced. 

Wherever  these  constitutional  rights  cannot  be  enjoyed,  a 
revolution  by  force  is  not  only  indispensable,  but  a  duty.  For 
the  purpose  of  averting  such  a  revolution,  with  all  its  attendant 
horrors,  the  poor  whites  and  non-slaveholders  of  the  South  ask 
for  the  freedom  of  speech  and  the  press,  and  the  right  to 
the  ballot.  But  this  is  denied  them  in  almost  every  Southern 
State;  and  not  only  denied  them,  but  the  persons  of  those 
who  ask  it,  and  attempt  to  exercise  it,  are  not  safe  from  vio- 
lence and  death.  To  this  open  and  undisguised  violation  of 
the  national  Constitution,  for  which  Southern  Representa- 
tives on  this  floor  profess  such  veneration  and  reverence,  may 
be  added  the  violation  by  this  class  of  all  covenants,  com- 
pacts, and  compromises,  with  the  people  of  the  North;  and 
those  rights  which  are  more  sacred  and  above  all  compromises 
and  Constitutions  —  the  rights  of  humanity —  are  everywhere 
within  their  borders  disregarded  and  trampled  in  the  dust. 
Sir,  the  representatives  of  this  class  interest,  by  the  aid  of 
the  machinery  of  a  once  great  and  glorious  party,  with  the 
immense  patronage  of  the  government  in  their  hands,  and  by 
inflammatory  appeals  to  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  the 
people,  have  at  last  succeeded  in  lashing  the  popular  mind  in 
nearly  every  Southern  State  into  a  furious  fanaticism  that 
will  not  brook  control;  and  Presidents  and  Cabinets,  the  Na- 
tional Legislature,  and  even  the  Supreme  Judiciary,  bow  to 
its  terrible  decrees.  He  who  seeks  place  and  power  in  the 
ranks  of  this  party  to-day  must  ride  upon  the  storm,  and  add 
fuel  to  the  conflagration  already'  kindled.  To  no  exaction, 
however  monstrous,  must  he  hesitate.  Prostrate  before  it,  he 
must  bow  in  humble  submission  to  its  despotic  authority,  and 
recognize  its  wildest  claims  to  universal  domination.  No 
constitutional  provision,  however  plain;  no  compromise,  how- 
ever sacred;  no  law,  however  just;  no  judicial  decision,  how- 
ever venerable,  must  stand  for  a  moment  in  its  way.  He 
who  would  be  a  successful  leader  in  the  ranks  of  this  party 
to-day  cannot,  if  he  "would,  quiet  this  pro- slavery  fanaticism, 
or  secure  its  submission  to  the  just  requirements  of  the  Con- 
stitution.    If  he  refuse  blind  and   unqualified   obedience   to 


108- 


every  demand,  however  revolting,  political  ostracism  is  his 
fate.  If  he  fail  to  keep  pace  with  every  new  movement,  no 
matter  what  may  have  been  his  past  services,  he  will  expe- 
rience the  doom  which,  without  remorse,  was  meted  out  to 
Doug-las  at  Charleston;  for,  whatever  may  be  the  action  of 
the  adjourned  session  of  the  rump  Convention  which  is  to 
meet  in  Baltimore  on  the  18th  of  June,  the  well-informed 
friends  of  Mr.  Douglas  admit  that  politically  he  is  a  doomed 
man;  and  they  may  as  well  admit  that,  from  this  time  for- 
ward, every  leading  man  in  the  party  is  forever  doomed  who 
does  not  g-ive  up  every  aspiration  for  freedom,  surrender  un- 
reservedly his  convictions  to  the  behest  of  this  privileged 
class,  and  use  all  his  power  and  influence  to  extend,  and  make 
permanent  and  universal,  the  institution  of  human  slavery. 

Sir,  from  this  hour  the  pro-slavery  Democratic  party  is 
dead.  The  disease  of  which  it  died  was  Calhounism.  It 
was  attacked  with  this  fatal  malady  in  1844,  when  James 
K.  Polk  was  forced  upon  an  unwilling  people;  and  though 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  Northern  Democracy  have  been  strug- 
gling heroically  from  that  day  to  this  against  the  wiles  of 
its  cunning  enemy,  their  political  leaders  have  been  false;  and 
the  organization,  once  so  powerful,  has  at  last  yielded  to 
the  violence  of  the  attack  at  Charleston.  The  party  of  Cal- 
houn, which  was  spurned  by  Jackson  and  the  Democracy  of 
his  day,  now  stand  with  defiant  foot  upon  its  new-made 
grave,  and  demand  the  surrender  of  every  member  of  the  old 
Democratic  party  in  the  North  to  these  Southern  usurpers, 
who,  under  an  alluring  but  piratical  flag,  whereon  is  em- 
blazoned the  glorious  name  "  Dejmocracy,  "  are  fighting 
against  the  rights  of  man  and  the  liberty  of  the  human 
race. 

From  this  spurious  Democracy,  this  political  intolerance, 
and  party  despotism,  the  honest  portion  of  the  Northern 
Democracy,  which  has  been  basely  deceived  and  betrayed, 
will  be  compelled  to  separate.  No  intelligent  citizen,  sin- 
cerely opposed  to  the  extension  and  perpetuity  of  human 
davery  in  the  Republic,  can  retain  his  manhood  and  longer 
sustain  the  disgraceful  affiliation. 

Sir,  how  is  it  possible  for  an  intelligent,  independent 
citizen,  who  is  in  truth  a  Democrat,  and  opposed  to  all  despo- 


—  109  — 

tism,  longer  to  remain  with  a  party  which  not  only  tramples 
upon  and  violates  the  Constitution,  but  which  aids  and  en- 
courag-es  the  outrages  inflicted  all  over  the  South  upon  inno- 
cent and  defenseless  persons  for  opinion's  sakc^  outrages  that 
would  not  be  tolerated  in  any  despotism  of  Europe,  even 
when  engaged  in  open  hostilities?  Witness  the  hangings, 
the  tar-and-featherings,  the  imprisonments,  the  infernal 
indignities,  to  which  the  citizens  of  this  country,  guilty  of 
no  crime  and  no  wrong,  are  subjected  at  the  hands  of  this 
party  in  almost  every  Southern  State.  Kven  women,  lone 
and  defenseless,  are  not  exempt  from  indignities  that  ought 
to  and  must  forever  disgrace  the  States  and  people  who 
would  tolerate  and  sanction  them.  No  trial,  not  even  the 
poor  mockery  of  a  trial,  but  the  merest  suspicion  that  the 
person  is  unfriendly  to  one  of  the  most  infernal  despotisms 
that  ever  blighted  the  land  or  cursed  the  earth,  is  enough  to 
bring  upon  him  tortures,  outrages,  and  wrongs,  that  will 
scarcely  be  credited  by  the  Christian  nations  of  the  world. 

Sir,  such  things  could  not  be  done  under  the  despotism 
of  Austria,  the  most  despicable  and  intolerant  government 
among  civilized  nations,  without  shaking  the  throne  to  its 
foundation;  and  yet  such  outrages  are  committed  in  one-half 
the  States  of  the  American  Union  by  a  great  party,  whose 
leaders  were  once  composed  of  able  and  eloquent  defenders  of 
the  rights  of  man.  These  outrages  are  endorsed  and  ap- 
proved by  the  party  press  and  party  leaders  of  the  South, 
while  no  word  of  condemnation  or  denunciation  falls  from 
the  lips  of  their  Northern  allies  upon  this  floor,  who  must 
speak,  if  they  speak  at  all,  with  great  deference  in  the  pres- 
ence of  their  political  rulers.  For  all  these  wrongs  and  out- 
rages there  is  no  redress,  and  no  probability  of  any  redress, 
until  the  inauguration  of  a  Republican  President.  If  such 
outrages  were  committed  by  the  citizens  or  government  of 
any  foreign  Power  upon  the  persons  of  any  of  our  citizens 
who  might  be  temporarily  residing  in  or  passing  through 
their  country,  no  matter  what  might  be  the  opinions  they 
entertained  of  the  government  or  any  of  its  institutions,  so 
that  they  committed  no  overt  act,  it  would  be  cause,  and  just 
cause,   for  war,    if  prompt   redress   were   not   given,    and  a 


—  110  — 

guaranty  against  the  commission  of  such  outrages  in  the 
future  were  not  secured.  But  here  at  home,  in  our  own  coun- 
try, with  a  people  who  sprang  from  the  same  ancestry,  with 
the  same  language,  and  equal  rights  under  a  common  Consti- 
tution, these  outrages  are  committed,  not  only  with  impunity, 
but  are  boasted  of  as  feats  of  marvelous  heroism. 

Sir,  do  gentlemen   expect   the   country  to  be  blind  and 
dumb  while  such  crimes  are  being  committed  upon  American 
citizens?     If  such  is  the  expectation  of  Southern  gentlemen, 
let  me  beg  them  to  undeceive  themselves.     Why,  what  would 
you  say,  what  would  the  world  say,  of  our  manhood,  if  such 
a  thing  were  possible  as  silence  and  submission  under  the 
infliction  of  such  monstrous  wrongs?     Sir,  there  will  be  no 
such  silence  as  is  sought,  there  can  be  no  such  submission 
as  is  desired  and  demanded;  and  let  me  ask  how  long  you 
suppose  it  will  be,  if  these  outrages  are  to  continue,  before 
there  will  be  a  hundred  John  Browns  invading  your  weak  and 
defenseless  points  at  once;  not  John  Browns  with  mercy  to 
their  captives,  and   anxiety  to   save   human  life;  not   John 
Browns  controlled  by  a  supposed  religious  duty;   but  John 
Browns  burning  for  revenge  under  the  smart  of  outrages  un- 
justly inflicted?     Think  you  that  such  a  system  of  terrorism 
can  continue  without  retaliation?     Do  you  suppose  that  these 
men  whom  you  outrage  will  flee  from  your  States  into  the 
free  North,  and  quietly  sit  down  and  submit, to  this  kind  of 
treatment?     What  would  be  the  first  impluse  of  a  Southern 
man  under  such  treatment?     Would  it  not  be  for  retaliation? 
And  if  a  hundred,  or  five   hundred,    or  a  thousand  of  you 
were  outraged  and  wronged  in  the  brutal,  barbarous,  and 
cowardly  manner  that  Northern  citizens,  guilty  of  no  crime, 
have  been,  would  it  not  follow,  as  certainly  as  daylight  fol- 
lows the  rising  of  the  sun,  that  a  majority  of  those  who  thus 
suffered,  and  as  many  of  their  friends  as  they  could  collect, 
would  get  together  for  the  purpose  of  retaliation  and  revenge? 
If  we  of  the  North  were  living  in  a  magazine,  as  you  of  the 
South  are,  which  could  be  exploded  at  any  moment  a  match 
should  be  applied  to  it,  would  not  the  victims  of  such  out- 
rages be  inclined  to  apply  the  match,  and  let  consequences 
take  care  of  themselves?     I  think  the  history  of  John  Brown 


-111^ 

««na  his  associates  in  Kansas  and  in  Virg-inia  ought  to  be  a 
lesson  to  you  on  this  point. 

Sir,  if  there  was  any  such  spot  in  any  of  the  free  States 
of  the  North,  not  even  excepting-  Egypt,  in  Illinois,  where, 
twenty  years  ago,  violence  reigned  supreme,  and  as  gallant 
and  brave  and  true  a  man  as  ever  lived  fell  a  victim  to  this 
despotic  pro-slavery  fanaticism;  and  where,  even  now,  the 
representatives  of  the  dominant  party  declare  openly  and 
unblushingly  their  willingness  to  do  the  "dirty  work"  of 
slave-hunters  if  demanded  by  the  party — I  say,  if  there  was 
any  such  spot,  not  even  excepting  Egypt,  that  would  tolerate 
such  crimes  and  outrages  as  have  been  inflicted  upon  free  men 
of  the  North,  and  not  only  tolerate  them,  but  openly  boast  of 
and  glory  in  them,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  the  united 
voice  of  the  people  of  my  district  would  be,  that  such  a  spot 
needed  a  purification  such  as  the  earth  received  in  the  days 
of  Noah;  and,  if  they  had  the  power,  they  would  submerge 
it  for  at  least  a  generation,  not  even  providing  an  ark  to  save 
alive,  for  future  exhibition,  the  representatives  of  such  a 
totally  depraved  race. 

Sir,  all  these  crimes  to  which  I  have  alluded,  all  viola- 
tions of  the  National  or  State  Constitutions,  sacred  compacts 
and  covenants,  all  disregard  of  solemn  treaties  and  just  laws, 
have  been  the  direct  result  of  the  existence  of  slavery  in  the 
government.  Without  slavery,  all  would  have  been  peace, 
union,  and  concord.  With  it,  and  while  it  continues,  all  will 
be  discord,  division  and  strife.  And,  for  men  claiming  to 
be  not  only  Democrats,  but  Christians,  with  the  history  of 
six  thousand  years  to  guide  them,  and  the  light  of  an  ever- 
lasting Gospel  to  direct  them,  to  stand  up  before  the  world 
and  claim  that  human  slavery  and  the  human  auction-block 
are  good  and  desirable  institutions  in  any  country,  tropical 
or  temperate,  seems  like  blasphemy.  For  Southern  Repre- 
sentatives on  this  floor  to  boast  of  the  happy  and  contented 
condition  of  their  slaves  at  home,  while  declaring  that  they 
will  dissolve  the  Union  and  light  up  the  country  with  the 
torch  of  civil  war  if  we  repeal  one  of  the  most  odious  and 
obnoxious  laws  ever  enacted  for  the  express  purpose  of  keep- 
ing these  happy  and  contented  slaves  at  home,  or  of  forcing 
them  back  by  all  the  power  of  the  government,  should  they 


—  112  — 

escape,  seems  like  sielf-contradiction.  The  assertion  that 
slaveholders  are  the  only  true  friends  of  the  slave  wculd 
appear  to  most  men  outside  of  slaveholding-  States  an  assump- 
tion too  transparent  even  for  ridicule,  especially  when  it  is 
remembered  that  the  slave  system  must,  of  necessity,  com- 
pletely eradicate  all  manhood  from  the  nature  of  the  slave. 
The  assertion  that  the  Republican  party  are  madmen  and 
fanatics,  enemies  to  g'ood  g'overnment,  and  law  and  order,  is 
the  assumption  of  Francis  Joseph  of  Austria  and  Napoleon 
of  France,  and  the  despots  of  all  ag^es  and  all  countries. 

Mr.  Chairman,  slavery,  like  other  despotisms,  cannot  live 
where  it  permits  free  speech  and  a  free  press.  Hence  its 
sedition  laws  and  unconstitutional  enactments.  It  is  only 
because  there  is  free  speech  and  a  free  press,  free  schools  and 
a  free  church,  in  eig-hteen  States  of  the  American  Union,  that 
slavery  is  dying"  to-day;  and  because  it  is  dying-,  its  apostles 
are  mad  with  the  madness  of  destruction.  What  the  most 
disting-uished  members  of  the  Republican  party  could  not  do, 
they  are  doing*  for  us.  The  speeches  made  during-  the  eig-ht 
weeks  we  remained  unorganized  in  this  House  have  opened 
the  eyes  of  thousands  who,  until  now,  had  been  blinded  to 
the  purposes  of  this  power.  They  can  be  blinded  no  long-er; 
and  they  will  join  the  friends  of  freedom  in  the  coming-  con- 
test, and  aid  in  taking*  possession  of  the  g-overnment;  and 
when  once  fairly  taken  possession  of,  the  supremacy  of  the 
slave  barons  will  be  forever  destroyed,  slavery  be  assigned  to 
limits  which  it  shall  never  pass,  a  Republican  party  be 
organizod  in  all  the  alave  States,  and  the  present  noisy 
advocates  of  dr.very  here  and  elsewhere  will  be  reduced  to 
insignificance  and  silence. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  causes  that  brought  the  Republican 
party  into  existence,  and  which  give  it  its  life  and  vitality 
to-day,  are  as  eternal  as  the  principles  of  God's  government; 
and  as  certainly  as  truth  and  justice  shall  triumph  over  error 
and  wrong,  so  shall  the  triumph  of  freedom  in  this  country  de- 
pend upon  the  fidelity  of  our  party  to  its  principles.  Let  no 
friend  of  our  cause  be  discouraged,  here  or  elsewhere;  for  action 
and  reaction  are  reciprocal  in  the  moral  as  in  the  natural  world. 
It  cannot  be  that  one  class  of  mankind  shall  forever  exercise 
the  same  dominion  over  another  class  of  their  fellow-men 


—  113  — 

that  they  do  over  the  brute  creation.  The  nation  or  com- 
munity which  is  g-uilty  cannot  escape  without  encountering- 
the  retribution  which  the  ways  of  an  all-wise  Providence 
have  ordained,  and  which  will  inevitably  come  upon  the 
wrong--doer.  **God  is  not  mocked;  and  His  judgments 
wiLi.  NOT  SI.KEP  forever;"  and  so  sure  as  justice  is  the 
foundation  of  His  government,  so  surely  shall  there  come  an 
end  to  oppression  and  to  slavery.  I  will  keep  this  faith  or 
none.  For,  however  strong-  and  apparently  all-powerful  the 
oppressor  may  be  to-day,  we  should  remember  that  there  is 
a  Power  above  all  human  power,  which  proposes  and  dis- 
poses among  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  as  seemeth  to  Him 
best;  and  to  Him  the  oppressed  may  ever  look  for  succor;  for 
as,  in  His  greatness  and  excellence,  He  overthrew  the  hosts 
of  Pharaoh  of  old,  who  rose  up  against  the  children  of  Israel, 
and  with  the  blast  of  his  nostrils  blew  the  waters  together, 
so  that  the  floods  stood  upright  as  a  heap,  and  the  depths 
were  congealed  in  the  heart  of  the  sea  until  the  fugitives 
passed  over  on  dry  land,  and  then  sent  forth  His  wrath  upon 
the  face  of  the  deep,  so  that  the  waters  returned  again  unto 
their  places,  and  the  sea  covered  the  slaveholders  who  were 
pursuing  them,  and  horse  and  chariot  and  rider  sunk  as  lead 
in  the  mighty  waters,  so  will  He  to-day,  as  in  the  past, 
avenge  the  wrongs  done  the  least  and  weakest  of  His  children, 
and  bring  destruction  as  a  whirlwind  upon  the  wrongdoer. 

Thus  hath  it  ever  been,  and  thus  shall  it  ever  be.  The 
nation  or  people  who  do  not  rule  in  righteousness  **  shall 
perish  from  the  earth."  All  history  proclaims  that  this  is  a 
decree  as  enduring  as  time  and  as  unchangeable  as  its  author. 
When  the  time  for  the  exodus  of  this  oppressed  and  wronged 
race  shall  have  come,  as  in  the  providence  of  God  it  surely 
will  come,  then  neither  the  power  of  your  heretofore  invin- 
cible army,  your  Congressional  slave  codes  and  fugitive  slave 
bills,  your  system  of  terrorism  and  mob  laws,  nor  the  pre- 
tended adjudications  of  your  *' august  tribunai,"  will  avail 
you  in  that  hour;  but  the  weakest  slave  mother,  with  her 
simple  and  rmblime  faith  uplifted  in  prayer  to  the  Great 
Supreme,  may  call  down  against  you,  as  did  the  bondmen  of 
Egypt,  a  Power  in  whose   presence  your  squadrons  shall  be 


—  114  — 

consumed  as  stubble,  and  from  before  whose  face  every 
oppressor  of  the  land  shall  flee,  and  the  hearts  of  the  judges 
i  f  your  Supreme  Court  shall  be  turned  to  dust  and  ashes. 

Sir,  it  is  the  purpose  and  mission  of  the  Republican  party 
to  avert,  if  possible,  the  impending*  doom  which  hangs  like 
a  black  pall  over  the  future  of  the  Republic.  It  is  their  pur- 
pose, if  possible,  to  prevent,  first,  the  political  slavery  and 
then  the  final  subjugation  of  the  poor  whites  to  a  despotism 
which,  in  all  ages  and  all  countries,  has  been  inseparable 
from  even  a  milder  form  of  servitude  than  ours.  Remember- 
ing that  the  result  of  slave  systems  has  ever  been  the  same; 
that  it  has  destroyed  all  the  empires  and  republics  which  have 
perished  from  the  earth;  and  believing  that  it  will  destroy 
this  Republic  of  ours  unless  we  provide  and  prepare  the  way 
for  its  ultimate  extinction,  they  have  proposed  to  the  people 
of  all  sections  and  all  former  political  parties  a  union  —  first, 
to  prevent  the  further  spread  of  this  evil,  as  our  fathers  did; 
and  secondly,  to  provide  a  way  for  the  final  freedom  of  all. 
If  some  just  and  fair  plan  is  not  adopted  to  prevent  the 
further  spread  of  this  evil,  and  secure  the  liberation  of  every 
slave,  then  indeed  may  we  look  back  in  vain  through  the 
history  of  all  the  republics  and  nations  that  have  flourished 
and  fallen,  to  find  a  people  whose  condition  was  not  preferable 
to  the  slaveholders  of  the  Southern  States;  preferable  in  that 
security  to  person  and  property  which  is  indispensable  to 
peace  and  happiness.  Sir,  there  is  scarcely  a  government,  to- 
day, in  civilized  Europe,  whose  citizens  do  not  enjoy  greater 
security  for  their  persons  and  their  families  than  do  the  slave 
holders  of  the  South.  Overtaxed  and  oppressed  though  they 
may  be  and  are,  yet  they  enjoy  a  freedom  from  apprehension 
which  the  slaveholder  can  never  know  —  an  apprehension 
fearful  and  dark  as  the  grave,  and  which  all  must  dread  who 
sleep  beneath  the  overshadowing  wing  of  slavery.  There  is 
and  there  can  be  no  security  from  this  terrible  apprehension. 
It  is  inseparable  from  the  slave  system.  Night  never  closes 
her  mantle  around  the  plantation  home,  that  a  shudder  does 
not  creep  through  the  heart  of  the  master,  and  suspicion, 
like  an  ever-watchful  sentinel,  sit  upon  his  eyelids. 

Sir,  the  policy  of  the  Republican  party  is,  by  an  ultimate 
emancipation  of  this  race  to  secure  the  liberty  and  happiness 


—  115  — 

of  both  master  and  slave,  and  remove  forever  the  cause  of 
this  cruel  alarm  and  apprehension,   and  thus  to  bring-  safety 
and  prosperity  where  now  sectional  jealousy  and  alienation, 
desolation  and  fear,  are  supreme;  to  cause  the  white-wing-ed 
sail  of  commerce,  whose  mission  is  peace,   to  cover  every 
Southern  river  and  fill  every  Southern  harbor;   to  reclaim 
her  impoverished  wastes,  and  make  her  desolate  places  the 
home  of  peace   and  plenty.     If  this  cannot  be  done,    and 
speedily  done,  and  peacefully  done,  then   indeed  I  fear  the 
day  is  not  far  distant  when  the  genius  of  despair,  like  au 
atmosphere,  will  pervade  every  habitation,  and  flap  its  dark 
and  desolating"  wings  over  your  fairest  heritage;  when  peace 
shall  flee  from  your  borders,  and  the  terrible  cry  of  **  to  arms  ! 
to  arms  ! "  shall  be  heard  from  mountain  to  mountain,  and  by 
the  side  of  every  river  and  in  every  valley;  when  the  shrieks  of 
flying  women  and  helpless  children  will  be  borne  upon  every 
gale,  and  the  avenging  hand  of  Heaven  shall  be  laid  heavily 
upon  you,  as  it  was  of  old  upon  the  oppressors  of  the  children 
of  Israel.     Sir,  I  know  of  no  way  of  escaping  the  like  impend- 
ing doom,  which  has  sealed  the  fate  of  all  nations  and  people 
who  have  preceded  us  that  were  guilty  of  this  wrong,  except 
by  dealing  justly,  loving  mercy,  and  permitting  this  oppressed 
people  to  go.     When  this  is  done,  peace  and  concord,  pros- 
perity and  happiness,  shall  again  return  to  bless  us  as  a  free 
and  united  people;  and  it  can  only  return  when,  throughout 
the  nation,  on  every  foot  of  American  soil,  and  everywhere 
beneath  the  national  ensign,  the  rights  of  humanity  are  fully 
recognized   and  respected,  and  your  law-makers,    and   your 
General  and  State  Governments  shall  again  be  directed  by  the 
genius  of  universal  emancipation. 


SF^EECH 

OF  HON.  JAMES  M.  ASHLEY,  OF  OHIO. 


DEI.IVBRBD   IN   THE^   U.    S.    HOUSK    OF    RKPRKSENTATIV^S, 

January  17,  1861. 


A  CONTINENT Aly   REPUBLIC,  WITH  NO  SI^AVE  BENEATH  ITS  FI.AG! 


THE   MAJORITY  MUST  GOVERN.      IT  IS  TREASON  TO  SECEDE  t 


Mr.  Chairman  :  For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
the  citizens  of  the  free  States  of  this  Union,  powerful  in 
numbers,  indomitable  in  energy,  superior  in  wealth  and  cul- 
ture, have  submitted  to  the  constitutionally  expressed  will  of 
the  people,  and  a  few  thousand  slave-owners  of  the  South, 
in  the  name  of  Democracy,  have  dictated  and  controlled 
the  policy  of  the  National  Government.  The  constitutionally 
expressed  will  of  the  people  is  ag-ain  declared,  and  the  parties 
which  have  been  defeated  are  called  upon  to  assent  to  the 
adoption  of  the  policy  of  the  fathers  in  the  inauguration  of  the 
just  sway  of  freedom  in  the  National  Government.  But  a 
large  majority  of  the  leaders  of  one  of  the  parties  into  which 
the  South  is  divided,  not  only  refuse  obedience  to  the  legally 
constituted  authorities,  but  some  four  or  five  States,  under 
the  guidance  of  these  party  leaders,  have  gone  so  far  as  to 
declare  their  independence,  and  others  arfe  openly  threaten- 
ing rebellion,  and  the  destruction  of  the  government  they 
have  so  long  controlled. 

Standing,  Mr.  Chairman,  upon  the  threshold  of  such 
events,  events  the  most  important  in  our  history  since  the  era 
of  the  Revolution,  I  feel  the  importance,  the  responsibility, 
and  the  grandeur  of  the  mission  committed  by  the  verdict  of 
a  generous  people  to  the  party  of  which  I  am  a  member.  And 
I  desire  for  a  short  time  the  attention  of  the  House,  while 
discussing  the  exciting  questions  which  it  is  alleged  this 
verdict  of  the  people  has  precipitated  upon  the  country. 

(116) 


—  117  — 

Mr.  Chairman,  however  much  to  be  regretted,  I  am  not  in- 
sensible to  the  fact,  that  in  a  struggle  to  carry  any  important 
measure  through  this  House,  tactics  are  of  ten  restored  to  rather 
than  argument,  that  votes  are  secured  and  changes  are  of  tener 
effected  by  party  machinery  and  Executive  influences,  than 
by  appeals  to  the  judgment  and  patriotism  of  members. 

Nevertheless,  I  feel  it  to  be  my  duty  to  speak  and  make 
known,  so  far  as  I  may  in  the  limited  time  allowed  me,  the 
views  of  those  whom  I  have  the  honor  to  represent. 

Mr.  Chairman:  Our  present  prosperity  and  happiness 
as  a  nation,  no  less  than  our  future  peace,  demands,  in  my 
judgment,  the  preservation  of  the  American  Union  as  our 
fathers  intended  it  should  be,  with  no  star  withdrawn  from 
the  constellation;  demands  the  maintenance  of  the  National 
Constitution  inviolate,  and  the  faithful  execution  of  all  laws 
passed  in  pursuance  of  that  Constitution,  not  only  in  every 
State  but  in  every  Territory  within  the  limits  of  the  Repub- 
lic; demands  an  acquiescence  in  and  support  of  the  legally 
constituted  authorities  chosen  by  the  people  against  any  and 
all  combinations  of  men  who  may  attempt  to  subvert  or  destroy 
the  government,  because  they  cannot  longer  control  and 
dictate  its  policy. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  people  of  the  United  States  will  ask, 
the  nations  of  Europe  will  ask,  what  has  been  done  in  this 
country  to  justify  revolution  and  the  attempted  destruction 
of  the  National  Government?  Where  are  the  usurpations, 
the  acts  of  oppression,  which  have  been  committed  either  by 
the  National  Government  or  any  one  or  more  of  the  Northern 
State  governments  against  any  of  the  Southern  States,  or  the 
citizens  of  any  Southern  State,  that  will  excuse,  much  less 
justify,  revolution?  Certainly  there  are  no  acts  of  the  Gen- 
eral Government,  of  which  the  Southern  people  may  justly 
complain.  The  President  [Mr.  Buchanan]  says  in  his  mes- 
sage, that  during  his  term  of  office  the  laws  have  been  faith- 
fully executed,  and  in  order  that  the  Southern  slave  barons 
may  be  doubly  assured  that  he  has  been  looking  after  and 
guarding  their  special  interest,  he  declares  that  * '  the  fugi- 
tive SI.AVK  LAW  HAS  BEEN  CARRIED  INTO  EXECUTION  IN  EVERY 
CONTESTED  CASE  SINCE  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  PRESENT 
ADMINISTRATION. " 


—  118  — 

Senator  Doug-las,  in  his  letter  to  the  merchants  of  New 
Orleans,  on  the  13th  of  November  last,  says:     "  I  have  yet  to 

LEARN  THAT  THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE  SoUTH  COMPLAIN  OF  THE 
ACTS  NOW  ON  THE  STATUTE  BOOK  UPON  THE  SUBJECT  OF 
SLAVERY,  AS  APPLIED  TO  THE  STATES  OR  TERRITORIES  OR  THE 

District  of  Columbia."  Of  no  action  of  the  National 
Government  up  to  this  date,  either  in  refusing-  to  pass  such 
laws  as  the  slave  barons  have  demanded  or  executing-  them  as 
they  have  ordered,  can  the  South  justly  complain;  because 
thej^  have  controlled  until  within  a  few  days  the  Government, 
and  filled  all  its  offices  with  men  who  have  done  their  bidding-, 
even  to  conspiring-  with  those  who  are  attempting-  to  over- 
throw the  g-overnment. 

What,  then,  is  the  cause  of  this  **  crisis,"  as  it  is  called? 

I  confess,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  I  have  seen  no  adequate 
cause  for  it,  and  therefore  voted  against  the  unusual  course 
adopted  by  the  House  in  referring-  that  part  of  the  President's 
Messag-e  treating-  of  what  is  termed  **  our  domestic  affairs," 
to  a  special  committee  of  thirty-three. 

If  there  had  been  any  serious  alarm,  whether  with  or 
without  cause,  among-  the  great  body  of  sober  thinking-  men 
in  the  South;  if  they  really  believed  that  their  so-called  rig-hts 
were  to  be  invaded  because  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  election;  I  say 
if  there  were  those  who  were  really  alarmed,  I  was  unwilling- 
to  add  to  that  alarm  by  adopting-  an  unusual  course  in  creat- 
ing- an  extraordinary  committee,  and  thus  g-ive  aid  and 
encourag-ement  to  the  conspirators  in  stirring-  up  political 
animosities,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  precipitating-  the  country 
into  a  revolution,  unless  the  North  ag-ain  surrendered  as  they 
had  uniformly  done  before  under  such  menaces,  and  on  such 
terms  as  it  mig-ht  please  the  conspirators  g-raciously  to  dictate. 
I  believed  that  such  a  committee  would  not  only  do  no  g-ood  — 
as  the  sequel  has  proven — but  that  by  creating-  it  we  would 
tacitly  admit  that  there  was  some  necessity  for  it.  It  ap- 
peared to  me  like  pleading-  ** guilty"  to  the  indictment  of 
the  President,  which  I  could  not  do,  knowing-  it  to  be  false. 
For  these  reasons  I  voted  ag-ainst  raising-  this  extraordinary 
committee  of  thirty-three  (33). 

But  I  am  told  that  we  are  in  the  midst  of  a  "crisis,"  a 
**  revolutionary  crisis,"  and  such  a  one  as  we  have  never  before 


—  119  — 

passed  through;  and  I  must  yield  to  the  minority ,  compromise 
away  the  rights  of  millions  of  freemen,  or  the  Union  is  forever 
dismembered  and  destroyed.  I  admit,  Mr.  Chairman,  that 
the  conspirators  have  been  able,  with  the  aid  and  connivance 
of  the  traitors  connected  with  the  government,  to  get  up  a 
formidable  looking  "crisis;"  and  I  can  assure  you,  sir,  that 
had  the  people  of  this  country  known  what  has  been  going 
on  here  in  this  Capital  for  the  past  four  years,  in  nearly  every 
department  of  the  government,  there  would  have  been  such 
an  expression  by  them  at  the  ballot-boxes  in  condemnation  of 
the  party  in  power,  as  would  not  only  have  silenced  the  allies 
of  the  southern  disunionists  from  the  North,  but  have  nipped 
in  the  bud  this  "revolutionary  crisis."  But,  Mr.  Chairman, 
we  have  passed  through  several  "  crises  "  before.  It  appears 
to  be  a  chronic  disease  in  American  politics.  It  must  be  con- 
ceded, however,  that  heretofore  in  their  desperate  efforts  to 
get  up  a  "  crisis,"  the  conspirators  have  never  set  their  stakes 
quite  so  high,  nor  permitted  the  treason  to  appear  so  undis- 
guised. In  1820  and  in  1832,  in  1850,  and  again  in  1854,  we 
had  "crises"  not  dissimilar  to  the  present  one;  and  they  were 
gotten  up  to  order  by  the  same  class  of  men  who  have  suc- 
ceeded so  well  in  getting  up  the  present  one.  These  are  the 
same  men  who,  with  calculating  coolness,  disrupted  the 
Charleston-Baltimore  conventions,  and  divided  the  party 
which,  for  nearly  twenty-five  years,  they  had  implicitly 
governed.  They  did  not  hesitate  openly  to  declare  that  they 
did  so  because  the  friends  of  Mr.  Douglas  in  the  free  States 
would  not  yield  to  their  imperious  demands.  I  have  no  doubt, 
however,  that  a  large  majority  of  the  Southern  men,  in  their 
conventions,  never  intended  to  go  so  far  as  they  have  since 
gone.  They  expected  the  friends  of  Mr.  Douglas  to  surrender, 
as  they  now  expect  twenty-five  millions  of  people  to  sur- 
render, to  the  demands  of  a  few  thousand  men,  who  are  ask- 
ing new  guarantees  for  slavery. 

But  revolutions  seldom  go  backward;  and  this  one  is  fast 
getting  beyond  the  control  of  its  authors.  Undoubtedly,  a 
large  majority  of  these  men  only  intended  to  play  the  old  and 
oft-repeated  game  by  which,  heretofore,  they  had  always 
been  successful;  which  has  been,  first,  to  create  a  panic  in  all 
the  slave  States,  by  the  most  unfounded  statements  and  in- 


—  120  — 

flammatory  appeals;  and  when  the  *' crisis"  had  reached  the 
culminating-  point,  boldly  threaten  the  disruption  and 
destruction  of  the  g-overnment,  unless  new  concessions  were 
made  by  the  North;  and  the  concession  they  were  to  demand 
this  time  as  a  condition  for  remaining-  in  the  Union  was  not 
a  new  compromise  that  mig-ht  be  repealed,  as  they  had  repealed 
the  old  Missouri  Compromise;  but  a  so-called  compromise  that 
should,  indeed,  this  time,  be  a  "finality,"  by  making-  slavery 
constitutional  and  perpetual. 

This  play,  however,  Mr.  Chairman,  has  had  its  run.  The 
people  of  the  free  States  have  seen  behind  the  curtain,  and 
begin  to  comprehend  the  manner  in  which  these  periodical 
crises  are  gotten  up.  They  have  not  forgotten  the  manufac- 
tured crisis  of  1850  —  nor  forgiven  the  Northern  men  who 
pretended  that  that  sham  was  a  reality.  They  have  not 
forgotten  that  many  of  their  faithless  representatives  surren- 
dered the  rights,  and  interest,  and  honor  of  the  North,  at  the 
bidding  of  a  few  slave-masters.  And  why,  Mr.  Chairman,  did 
these  Northern  Representatives  then  surrender?  To  save  the 
Union,  they  answer.  Southern  men  threatened  then  as  now 
the  dissolution  of  the  Union  and  the  destruction  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, unless  their  demands  were  complied  with.  And  to 
save  any  trouble  these  accommodating  Representatives,  at 
the  bidding  of  a  few  Southern  men,  yielded. 

Did  that  *'  finality,"  as  it  was  then  called,  settle  the  ques- 
tion Not  at  all.  Hardly  had  these  pretended  Northern 
patriots  time  to  take  a  breathing  spell  (in  the  retirement 
from  the  cares  of  public  life,  which  the  people  immediately 
permitted  most  of  them  to  enjoy),  before  it  was  broken  up  by 
the  new  and  ' '  final  adjustment  "  of  1854.  Upon  what  pre- 
text was  this  demand  for  a  compromise,  that  should  be 
** final,"  made,  in  1850?  The  pretext  of  equality  in  the 
Territories.  The  freemen  of  California  —  as  they  had  the 
right  to  do  —  had  made  California  a  free  State.  This  was  a 
mortal  offense  to  the  slave  barons,  because,  by  this  action  of 
the  miners  of  California  the  slave  propagandists  lost  the 
golden  prize  upon  which  they  had  set  their  hearts,  and  for 
which  they  had  involved  this  nation  in  an  unconstitutional 
war.  And  because  of  the  action  of  the  free  laboring  men  of 
California,  in  prohibiting  slavery  in  that  State,  these  men 


—  121  — 

would  not  admit  her  into  the  Union,  unless  all  the  remaining- 
territory,  wrested  from  Mexico,  should  be  given  up  to  slavery. 

Sir,  when  the  impartial  historian  comes  to  write  the  his- 
tory of  the  compromise  schemes  of  1850,  and  the  war  made 
by  the  act  of  the  Executive  of  this  powerful  Nation  ag-ainst 
the  weak  Republic  of  Mexico,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  extend- 
ing- the  institution  of  slavery  over  the  free  and  virgin  soil  of 
Utah,  New  Mexico  and  California  —  he  will  be  compelled  to 
class  these  acts  as  among-  the  darkest  crimes  of  which  this 
Nation  was  ever  g-uilty;  and  the  compromisers  from  the  free 
States  as  morally  g-uiltier  than  those  who  precipitated  us  into 
that  unjust  war. 

When  the  old  Whig-  party  authoritatively  endorsed,  in 
their 'national  convention,  these  compromise  measures,  its 
death  was  inevitable.  This  old  party,  so  formidable  and 
manly  when  the  ally  of  freedom,  immediately  became  weak, 
sickly  and  powerless  when  it  became  the  ally  of  slavery,  and 
died;  died  as  the  pro-slavery  Democratic  party  has  just  died, 
because  also  false  to  freedom,  and  as  the  Republican  party 
will  die,  and  as  it  ought  to  die,  if  it  ever  agrees  to  engraft 
into  the  Constitution  a  clause  recognizing  property  in  man. 
If  it  should  do  this  thing,  nothing  can  or  ought  to  save  it. 
Neither  the  talents  of  its  most  distinguished  leaders,  their 
prospective  promotion,  or  the  distribution  of  the  patronage 
of  the  Federal  Government.  If  all  these  combined  could 
have  saved  any  party,  the  Whig  party  could  have  been  saved. 
But  they  could  not.  And  as  I  now  look  back,  over  the  long 
list  of  names  which  once  made  that  party  illustrious  in  the 
history  of  my  country,  I  feel  almost  startled  at  the  thought, 
that  men  so  great,  so  venerated  by  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  could,  by  the  allurements  and  blandishments  of  the 
slave  barons,  have  been  so  far  overcome  as  to  betray  the 
cherished  principles  of  their  lives,  and  the  hopes  of  the  peo- 
ple who  entrusted  them  with  power.  But  such  was  the  fate 
of  most  of  the  leaders  of  the  organization  of  which  I  am 
speaking.  One  after  another  deserted  until,  at  last,  the  eyes 
of  the  Nation  were  fixed  upon  one  whose  unsurpassed  ability 
and  great  name  had,  in  almost  every  crisis  through  which 
the  country  had  passed,  been  the  hope  and  reliance  of  the 
liberty-loving  masses.     And  when,  alas!  he  too  fell,  a  black 


—  122  — 

pall,  as  of  midnigflit  darkness,  spread  over  the  political  hori- 
zon, and  many  earnest  and  true  men  g-ave  up  in  despair. 

It  may  be,  sir,  that  with  others,  I  have  placed  too  g"reat 
an  estimate  upon  this  extraordinary  man,  who  has  done  so 
much  as  a  statesman  and  orator  to  give  our  country  fame  and 
position  among"  the  nations  of  the  earth,  who  has  done  so 
much  for  freedom  and  so  much,  alas!  for  slavery,  whose  fall 
will  ever  be  regretted  by  the  good  and  great,  and  whose  last 
fatal  step  should  be  a  perpetual  warning  to  all  who  shall 
come  after  him.  Sir,  it  would  seem  as  if  by  the  rock-beaten 
shore  of  his  own  beloved  Massachusetts,  in  whose  bosom  he  is 
laid  down  to  rest,  there  must  come  up  forever  from  old  ocean  a 
sorrowing  response  to  the  sad  hearts  of  the  people  of  Massa- 
chusetts for  his  fall.  Vanity  of  vanities,  all  is  vanity,  saith  the 
preacher.  The  weakness  and  nothingness  of  human  great- 
ness never  in  all  the  history  of  the  past  shone  out  more  con- 
spicuously than  when  this  great  light  went  out,  overshadowed 
as  it  was  by  the  dark  cloud  of  slavery.  From  the  hour  he 
abandoned  the  principles  of  freedom  and  the  will  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Massachusetts,  he  felt  that  he  was  dying,  and  he  hur- 
riedly bade  adieu  to  this  Capital,  to  the  scenes  of  his  wonder- 
ful triumphs  and  former  glory,  and  to  the  dying  organization 
which  had  been  at  once  his  life  and  his  death,  and  passing 
away  with  it,  both  were  entombed  together,  and  there  the 
party  and  he  who  was  its  brightest  ornament  and  most  dis- 
tinguished leader  will  ever  remain  —  the  party  to  be  remem- 
bered in  history  only  for  its  greatness  and  folly;  its  timidity 
and  its  wrongs.  Its  greatness,  in  that  it  had  as  its  leaders 
the  brightest  intellects  of  the  land  and  in  its  ranks  the  mass 
of  intelligence.  Its  folly,  in  that  it  subordinated  human 
rights  to  a  financial  policy  calculated  to  benefit  the  few, 
rather  than  guard  the  interest  of  the  many.  Its  timidity,  in 
that  it  never  could  lead,  but  was  ever  on  the  defensive,  plead- 
ing for  ease  and  quiet.  In  its  wrongs,  in  that  it  gave  the 
sanction  of  its  organization  to  the  most  offensive  demands  of 
the  slave  barons,  when  it  endorsed  the  fatal  compromise 
of  1850. 

Mr.  Chairman,  there  was  no  more  necessity  for  the  politi- 
cal excitement  which  preceded  the  so-called  compromises 
of  1850  than  there  is  to-day  for  President  Buchanan  to  in- 


—  123  — 

flict  upon  this  House  and  country  another  messag-e  on  South- 
ern rig-hts  and  Southern  wrongs.^  That  panic  was  all  manu- 
factured, coolly  and  deliberately  manufactured,  just  as  the 
owner  of  a  steam  mill  would  g-et  up  steam  by  putting-  fire 
under  the  boiler. 

Just  so  with  this  * '  crisis  "  to  a  great  extent.  Three- 
fourths  of  it  is  the  baldest  pretense.  There  are  only  a  few 
leading-  men  who  at  heart  favor  it,  and  those  who  do  have 
put  a  ball  in  motion  which,  unless  soon  checked,  they  will  be 
unable  to  control  or  even  direct,  and  like  the  authors  of  the 
French  revolution,  they  will,  in  all  human  probability,  be 
among-  its  first  victims. 

Already  the  sober  thinking-  men  of  the  Soutn  are  trem- 
bling, not  only  for  their  own  personal  safety  and  that  of  their 
families,  but  for  fear  of  a  despotism  which  they  cannot 
tolerate,  and  a  taxation  which  will  eat  out  all  their  substance. 
Already  we  get  glimpses  of  what  may  be  expected  in  the 
future,  especially  if  war  should  ensue.  Forced  contributions 
must  be  levied;  the  citizens  will  be  assessed  and  told  they 
must  take  so  much  of  the  revolutionary  stock.  If  they  re- 
fuse, they  will  be  classed  among  the  disaffected,  then  de- 
nounced as  abolitionists  in  disguise,  and  subjected  to  the 
mercy  of  a  maddened  mob.  A  tax  of  from  fifteen  to 
TWENTY-FIVE  DOLLARS  per  head  annually  for  each  slave,  and 
other  property  in  proportion,  will  soon  cool  the  mad  enthu- 
siasm of  the  thoughtless. 

How  many  men  are  there  in  South  Carolina  over  twenty- 
one  years  of  age?  Not  more  than  fifty-five  thousand.  Of 
this  number  less  than  ten  thousand  are  planters  —  and  not 
more  than  twelve  thousand  in  addition  own  their  homesteads. 
Almost  two-thirds  of  the  entire  white  population  are  tenants 
at  will  of  the  planters.  They  are  very  poor,  ignorant,  and 
destitute,  and  according  to  Senator  Hammond,  "obtain  a 
precarious  subsistence  by  occasional  jobs,  by  hunting,  by 
fishing,  by  plundering  fields  and  folds,  and  too  often  by  what 
is  in  its  effects  far  worse  —  trading  with  slaves,  and  seducing 
them  to  plunder  for  their  benefit." 

With  less  than  twenty-five  thousand  men  who  have  any 
property  to  be  taxed,   South  Carolina  proposed  to  make  war 


124 


on  the  United  States.  Has  the  world  ever  witnessed  such 
stupendous  folly  and  madness? 

From  seven  to  ten  millions  of  dollars  annually  will  be 
necessary  if  she  is  involved  in  war,  to  maintain  her  g-overn- 
ment  and  army.  '  Where  is  this  vast  sum  of  money  to  come 
from?  From  the  other  slave  States,  it  may  be  answered, 
but  the  other  slave  States  will  be  in  no  better  condition  than 
South  Carolina,  even  if  they  should  unite.  The  proportion- 
ate cost  of  maintaining-  one  or  ten  g"overnments,  one  or  ten 
armies,  would  be  about  the  same. 

Mr.  Boyce,  late  a  member  of  this  House,  answered  these 
questions,  a  few  years  ag^o,  in  an  address  to  the  people  of 
South  Carolina,  as  follows: 

' '  South  Carolina  cannot  become  a  nation.  God  makes 
nations — not  man.  You  cannot  extemporize  a  nation  out  of 
South  Carolina.  It  is  simply  impossible;  we  have  not  the 
resources.  We  could  exist  by  tolerance;  and  what  that  toler- 
ance would  be,  when  we  consider  the  present  hostile  spirit  of 
the  age  to  the  institution  of  slavery,  all  may  readily  imag-ine. 
I  trust  we  may  never  have  to  look  upon  the  painful  and 
humiliating-  spectacle.  From  the  weakness  of  our  National 
Government  a  feeling-  of  insecurity  would  arise,  and  capital 
would  take  the  alarm  and  leave  us.  But  it  may  be  said, 
*'Let  capital  g-o!"  To  this  I  reply,  that  capital  is  the  life- 
blood  of  a  modern  community;  and,  in  losing-  it,  you  lose  the 
vitality  of  the  State. 

* '  Secession  —  separate  nationality,  with  all  its  burdens 
—  is  no  remedy.  It  is  no  redress  for  the  past,  it  is  no  secu- 
rity for  the  future.  It  is  only  a  mag-nificent  sacrifice  of  the 
present,  without  in  anywise  g-aining-  in  the  future.  Such  is 
the  intensity  of  my  conviction  on  the  subject,  that  if  seces- 
sion should  take  place  —  of  which  I  have  no  idea,  for  I  can- 
not believe  in  such  stupendous  madness — I  shali.  consider 
THE  institution  OF  SLAVERY  AS  DOOMED,  and  that  the  g-reat 
God,  in  our  blindness,  has  made  us  the  instrument  of  its 
destruction." 

What  Mr.  Boyce  then  said,  is  as  true  to-day  as  when  he 
uttered  it.  South  Carolina  cannot  long-  maintain  her  present 
position.  With  her  commerce  destroyed  by  blockade,  as  it 
will  be  in  case  of  war,  all  her  available  men  in  the  arm}^, 
an  immense  police  force,  at  g-reat  cost,  to  watch  and  prevent 
if  they  can,  an  outbreak  among-  the  slaves,  every  branch  of 
business  prostrated,  and  her  cotton  and  rice  fields  turned  into 


—  US- 
desolate  wastes,  no  people  will  long-  submit  to  such  an  in- 
tolerable condition.  Already  men  of  means  are  moving*  or 
sending"  their  families  North.  It  is  a  step  dictated  by  pru- 
dence. I  should  certainly  do  so  were  I  a  resident  of  the 
South,  and  one  of  her  larg-est  slave  owners.  I  would  have 
no  fears  that  my  family  would  be  either  mobbed,  or  insulted, 
or  ordered  out  of  the  country  by  some  self -constituted  vig-i- 
lance  committee,  or  that  my  property  would  be  destroyed  or 
stolen  and  distributed  among-  the  rabble,  because  I  happened 
to  be  a  resident  of  a  Southern  State.  No  judicious  man 
who  is  able,  will  hazard  the  risk,  at  such  a  time,  of  having- 
his  wife  and  family  violated  and  massacred  by  the  slaves,  in 
case  of  a  servile  insurrection.  The  madness  of  the  leaders  in 
this  attempted  revolution,  is  driving*  and  will  drive  thousands 
of  families  and  millions  of  wealth  into  the  North.  The 
bluster  of  1832  drove  some  citizens  of  South  Carolina,  whom 
I  know,  into  Ohio,  and  I  doubt  not  there  were  others  who 
settled  in  nearly  all  the  free  States. 

When  the  leading"  conspirators  come  to  put  their  hands 
into  the  pockets  of  the  people,  to  take  their  last  dollar,  they 
will  rebel.  If  the  citizens  of  South  Carolina,  and  of  the 
Southern  States,  were  oppressed  by  the  National  Govern- 
ment with  burdens  that  honorable  and  patriotic  men  could 
not  bear,  then  I  g-rant  you  they  would,  as  would  every  brave 
people,  sacrifice  life  and  property  without  stint,  if  there  was 
any  hope  of  bettering"  their  condition.  They  have  not,  how- 
ever, and  cannot  point  the  people  to  a  list  of  intolerable 
g"rievances,  such  as  will  justify  their  attempted  revolution. 
The  address  issued  to  the  Southern  people,  which  was  prepared 
by  order  of  the  South  Carolina  convention,  declares,  that 
**  While  constituting"  a  portion  of  the  United  States,  it  has 
been  the  statesmanship  of  the  South,  which  has  guided  the 
nation  in  its  mig"hty  strides  to  power  and  expansion.  In 
the  field,  as  in  the  Cabinet,  it  is  they  who  have  led  it  to  its 
renown  and  g"randeur.'*  For  seventy-three  years  then,  on 
her  own  showing".  Southern  statesmen  have  controlled  and 
given  direction  to  the  National  Government,  under  which 
their  section  has  g"r6wn  from  a  million  and  a  half  to  eig"ht 
millions,  without  including"  the  slaves,  and  has  advanced  in 
prosperity  and  wealth  as  no  people  ever  did  before.     Is  there 


—  126  — 

then,  taking-  her  own  statement  as  true,  any  justification  for 
the  course  South  Carolina  and  other  Southern  States  are 
attempting",  and  which  nearly  all  are  threatening"? 

No  wrong-  or  unconstitutional  act  has  been  committed  or 
is  proposed  to  be  committed  by  the  General  Government.  Is 
the  mere  election  by  the  people,  of  a  President  who  does  not 
favor  the  cherished  policy  of  a  few  thousand  slaveholders, 
sufficient  cause  for  destroying-  the  Union,  and  involving-  the 
nation  in  civil  war?  I  need  not  answer  this  question;  there 
can  be  and  there  will  be  but  one  response  by  the  patriotic 
men  of  all  parties.  The  judgments  of  all  thinking-  impartial 
men  in  the  entire  nation,  and  in  the  civilized  world,  will  con- 
demn the  leaders  who  without  cause,  are  attempting-  the  disso- 
lution of  this  Union,  and  the  destruction  of  the  best  form  of 
government  ever  devised  by  man.  To  this  crime  is  added 
that  of  duplicity.  During  the  late  campaign  every  Presiden- 
tial candidate  for  whom  the  South  or  North  voted,  distinctly 
denied  that  they  were  in  favor  of  disunion,  but  on  the  con- 
trary they  all  professed  the  most  unqualified  devotion  to  the 
Union. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  then  voted,  but  little 
over  two  months  ago,  unanimously  in  favor  of  maintaining 
the  Union.  Why  then  should  it  be  destroyed  now?  What 
has  been  done  since  to  justify  such  a  gigantic  crime?  Cato 
anyone  give  a  satisfactory  answer?  Men  who  have  brought 
about  the  present  excitement  may  attempt  to  satisfy  them- 
selves, but  they  cannot  justify  their  conduct  to  an  intelligent 
people. 

But  we  are  told,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  unless  we  vote  for 
such  new  guarantees  to  slavery  as  the  South  shall  demand, 
that  all  the  Southern  States  are  going  out  of  the  Union.  It 
is  said  that  they  intend  to  do  this  with  the  confident  expec- 
tation of  obtaining  concessions  from  the  North  which  they 
could  not  obtain  in  the  Union.  That  they -expect  to  do  this 
by  a  reconstruction  of  the  National  Union  on  such  terms  as 
they  shall  dictate.  In  this  mad  scheme  they  have  the  sym- 
pathy, encouragement  and  promise  of  aid  from  men  in  the  free 
States,  calling  themselves  Democrats. 

The  basis  of  the  new  Union  is  to  be  the  recognition  of 
slaves  as  property  by   constitutional  provision,  unalterable 


—  127  — 

except  with  the  consent  of  every  slave  State.  And  this  is 
called  Democracy  in  the  year  of  grace,  1861.  Democracy  in 
the  days  of  Jefferson,  was  for  free  States  and  free  Territories. 
Madison  "would  not  admit  into  thk  Constitution  ths 

IDEA    THAT     THERE)     COUI.D     BE     PROPERTY   IN    MAN."      To-day 

the  doctrine  that  slavery  is  right  and  must  be  made  per- 
petual, is  the  test  of  what  is  called  Democracy. 

That  such  demands  will  ever  be  acceded  to  by  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  I  do  not  believe  possible.  But  whatever 
may  be  the  course  of  others,  be  the  consequences  what  they 
may,  by  no  act  or  vote  of  mine  shall  the  Constitution  of  my 
country  ever  be  so  amended  as  to  recognize  property  in  man. 

Mr.  Chairman,  ours  is  a  complex  system  of  government 
uniting  two  governments  within  the  same  territorial  jurisdic- 
tion. The  State  governments  being  confined  within  their 
own  boundaries,  the  National  Government  extending  over 
all  States  and  Territories,  and  on  the  high  seas.  Every 
loyal  citizen  is  subject  to  both  these  governments,  and  can  in 
no  way  withdraw  his  allegiance  from  either,  except  by  ceas- 
ing to  be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  If  he  is  a  citizen  of 
the  United  States  he  is  also  a  citizen  of  the  State  where  he 
resides,  and  he  cannot  be  a  citizen  of  any  State,  and  be  re- 
leased by  any  action  Gx  said  State  from  his  allegiance  to  the 
National  Government. 

Both  these  governments,  the  State  and  National,  derive 
all  the  power  they  possess  directly  from  the  people.  The  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  is  supreme  to  the  extent  of  the 
powers  clearly  delegated  to  it  in  the  National  Constitution. 
The  State  governments  are  supreme  within  their  limits,  ex- 
cept in  the  exercise  of  power  reserved  by  the  people  or  pro- 
hibited to  them  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

There  can  be  no  misunderstanding  as  to  what  the  reserved 
powers  are  which  are  prohibited  to  the  States.  Article  first, 
section  ten,  of  the  Federal  Constitution  declares  that 

* '  No  State  shall  enter  into  any  treaty,  alliance,  or  con- 
federation; grant  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal;  coin  money; 
emit  bills  of  credit;  make  anything  but  gold  and  silver  coin  a 
tender  in  payment  of  debts;  pass  any  bill  of  attainder,  or 
EX  POST  FACTO  law,  or  law  impairing  the  obligation  of  con- 
tracts, or  grant  any  title  of  nobility." 


— 128  — 

CI.AUSE  2.  **  No  State  shall,  without  the  consent  of  Con- 
gress, lay  any  imposts  on  duties,  on  imports  or  exports,  ex- 
cept what  may  be  absolutely  necessary  for  executing-  its  in- 
spection laws;  and  the  net  produce  of  all  duties  and  impost, 
laid  by  any  State  on  imports  or  exports,  shall  be  for  the  use 
of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States;  and  all  such  laws 
shall  be  subject  to  the  revision  and  control  of  Congress." 

C1.AUSE,  3.  "  No  State  shall,  without  the  consent  of  Con- 
gress, lay  a  duty  on  tonnage,  keep  troops  or  ships  of  war  in 
time  of  peace,  enter  into  any  agreement  or  compact  with 
another  State,  or  with  a  foreign  power,  or  engage  in  war,  un- 
less actually  invaded,  or  in  such  imminent  danger  as  will  not 
admit  of  delay." 

These  powers  prohibited  to  the  States  were  conferred  by 
the  supreme  Constitution  on  the  National  Government.  The 
highest  attributes  of  sovereignty  are  thus  secured  by  this  Con- 
stitution, Congress  alone  has  power  to  make  war  and  make 
peace,  to  conclude  treaties  and  to  regulate  commerce  with  the 
nations  abroad  and  with  the  States  of  the  Union  at  home. 
Congress  alone  possesses  the  exclusive  power  to  keep  an 
army  and  navy,  to  lay  and  collect  duties  on  imports,  coin 
money  and  regulate  its  value,  and  to  crown  all,  it  is  declared 

—  *'that  this  Constitution  and  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  which  shall  be  made  in  pursuance  thereof,  and  all 
treaties  made,  or  which  shall  be  made,  under  the  authority 
of  the  United  States,  shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land; 
and  the  judges  in  every  State  shall  be  bound  thereby,  anything 
in  the  constitution  or  laws  of  any  State  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding." 

There  is  then,  no  necessity  for  a  conflict  of  jurisdiction 
between  the  General  and  State  governments.  To  the  extent 
of  the  powers  conferred  by  the  Constitution  on  Congress,  it 
was  intended  that  the  National  Government  should  act  di- 
rectly upon  the  citizens  of  all  the  States  and  Territories  and 
execute  its  own  laws  and  decrees  by  its  own  officers.  To  the 
States  are  secured  the  regulation  of  their  own  municipal 
aJBPairs,  with  which  Congress  can  in  no  way  constitutionally 
interfere. 

The  powers  and  duties  of  both  governments  are  clearly 
defined,  and  neither  may  of  right  interfere  with  or  attempt  to 
exercise  the  functions  of  the  other.  Where  the  citizens  and 
officers  of  these  governments  discharge  their  duties  properly, 


—  129  — 

there  can  be  no  collision.  These  systems  of  government  are, 
in  my  opinion,  the  best  ever  devised  by  man.  The  his- 
tory of  this  nation,  for  the  past  seventy-three  years,  is 
the  best  evidence  of  its  practicability.  They  have  and 
evef  will  work  harmoniously,  if-  honestly  administered.  The 
people  residing"  in  the  thirteen  colonies  created  this 
National  Government  by  making-  and  adopting-  our  present 
Constitution.  They  did  not  make  it  and  ratify  it  as  nations 
make  and  ratify  treaties.  They  did  not  make  it  for  a  tempo- 
^•ary  purpose,  but  to  secure  a  '*  perpetual  union."  It  was 
made  by  the  action  and  with  the  approval  of  the  whole  peo- 
ple residing-  in  all  the  colonies,  and  was  not  made  by  the 
citizens  of  independent  sovereignties,  as  the  secessionists 
claim.  Neither  before  nor  after  the  Declaration  of  our 
National  Independence  were  any  one  of  the  old  thirteen  colo- 
nies free  and  independent  states  or  nations;  but  they  were 
colonies  of  Great  Britain,  then  they  were  colonies  united  as 
one  government,  under  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  in  re- 
bellion against  Great  Britain,  calling  themselves  the  * '  United 
States  of  America. "  The  war  of  our  Independence  was  fought 
and  our  liberty  secured  by  the  Confederation,  and  not  by 
single  colonies.  Their  joint  independence  was  acknowledged 
by  Great  Britain  and  the  nations  of  Europe,  and  never  as  sep- 
arate sovereign  independent  States.  The  several  States  are 
not  even  mentioned  by  name  in  any  one  of  these  treaties,  so 
far  as  I  have  examined.  Our  fathers  intended,  in  every  pos- 
sible manner,  to  impress  upon  the  American  mind  the  maxim 
that  our  freedom  and  independence  was  secured  by  our  Union; 
and  that,  without  this  Union,  we  could  not  maintain  our 
liberty  and  independence. 

From  all  the  patriotic  men  of  the  Revolution  there  comes 
to  us  the  warning,  to  beware  of  the  dangers  of  a  dissolution 
of  the  Union.  In  a  letter,  of  the  date  of  October  10th,  1787, 
addressed  by  Randolph  to  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Dele- 
gates of  Virginia,  he  said: 

**  Severe  experience  under  the  pressure  of  war,  a  ruinous 
weakness  manifested  since  the  return  of  peace,  and  the  con- 
templation of  those  dangers  which  darken  the  future  pros- 
pect, have  condemned  the  hope  of  grandeur  and  of  safety 
9 


130 


tinder  the  auspices  of  the  Confederation.  .  .  .  Among-  the  up- 
right and  intellig-ent,  few  can  read  without  emotion  the  future 
fate  of  the  States  if  severed  from  each  other.  Then  shall  we 
learn  the  full  weig-ht  of  f oreig-n  intrig-ue.  Then  shall  we  hear 
of  partitions  of  the  country.  .  .  .  But  dreadful  as  the  total 
dissolution  of  the  Union  is  to  my  mind,  I  entertain  no  less 
horror  at  the  thoug-ht  of  partial  confederacies.  In  short,  sir, 
I  am  fatig-ued  with  summoning*  up  to  my  imag-ination  the 
miseries  which  will  harass  the  United  States,  if  torn  from 
each  other,  and  which  will  not  end  until  they  are  superseded 
by  fresh  mischiefs,  under  the  yoke  of  a  tyrant." 

To  the  same  effect  are  the  declarations  of  Washing-ton, 
Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe,  and  many  others,  whose  opinions 
might  be  quoted,  did  time  permit. 

At  no  period  in  our  history,  either  before  or  since  the 
Revolution,  has  any  one  of  the  States  been  a  separate  sover- 
eign independent  nation,  with  the  recognized  power  to  make 
war  and  conclude  treaties,  or  form  or  dissolve  alliances  with 
any  nation.  The  principle  of  national  unity  is  the  very  life 
and  soul  of  our  Constitution.  Without  it,  our  great  national 
charter  is  not  worth  the  paper  upon  which  it  is  written. 

In  a  letter,  addressed  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  con- 
vention which  framed  the  Constitution,  to  **his  excellency 
the  President  of  Congress,"  it  is  declared  that — 

—  "it  is  obviously  impracticable  in  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment of  these  States  to  secure  all  rights  of  independent  sover- 
eignty to  each,  and  yet  provide  for  the  interests  and  safety 
of  all.  ...  In  all  our  deliberations  on  this  subject,  we  kept 
steadily  in  our  view  that  which  appears  to  us  the  greatest 
INTEREST  of  every  true  American,  the  consoi^idation  of  our 
Union,  in  which  is  involved  our  prosperity,  felicity,  safety, 
perhaps  our  national  existence." —  [Elliott's  Debates,  vol. 
1,  P.  24.] 

The  thirteen  colonies,  as  I  have  before  said,  were  united 
mider  the  Confederation  at  the  time  the  present  Constitution 
was  adopted,  and  the  old  Continental  Congress,  representing 
the  people  in  all  the  States,  initiated  the  movements  for  the 
new  government,  by  calling  together  the  convention  of  dele- 
gates which  made  this  Constitution,  declaring  by  resolutions 
when  they  did  so,  that  the  convention  was  called  * '  for  the 
sole  and  only  purpose  of  making  the  Federal  Government 
adequate  to  the  exigencies  of  government,  and  the  preserva- 


—  131  — 

tion  of  the  Union. "  And  this  constitutional  convention,  when 
submitting-  their  joint  labors  to  the  judgment  of  their  con- 
stituents, declared  in  the  preamble  to  the  Constitution,  that, 
**  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  form  a 
MORE  PERFECT  Union,  establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tran- 
quility, provide  for  the  common  defense,  promote  the  g-eneral 
welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and 
our  posterity,  do  ordain  and  establish  this  Constitution  for 
the  United  States  of  America." 

**  Can  it  be  conceived,"  says  General  Jackson, 

— *'that  an  instrument  made  for  the  purpose  of  *  forming-  a 
more  perfect  Union'  than  that  of  the  Confederation  could  be  so 
constructed  by  the  assembled  wisdom  of  our  country  as  to 
substitute  for  that  confederation  a  form  of  g-overnment  de- 
pendent for  its  existence  on  the  local  interest,  the  party  spirit 
of  a  State  or  of  a  prevailing-  faction  in  a  State?" 

Mr.  Patterson,  of  New  Jersey,  a  distinguished  member  of 
the  convention  which  framed  the  Constitution,  declared  '*that 
no  State  under  the  Confederation  had  a  right  to  with- 
draw from  the  Union  without  the  consent  of  all."  **The 
Confederation,"  he  says, 

— **is  in  the  nature  of  a  compact,  and  can  any  State,  unless 
by  the  consent  of  the  whole,  either  in  politics  or  law,  with- 
draw their  powers?  Let  it  be  said  by  Pennsylvania  and  the 
other  large  States  that  they,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  assented 
to  the  Confederation;  can  she  now  resume  her  original  right 
without  the  consent  of  the  donee?" 

This  modern  doctrine  of  the  right  of  a  State  to  withdraw 
from  the  Union  at  pleasure,  is  a  ** heresy"  which  was  de- 
nounced by  all  the  leading  men  of  the  Revolution.  If  one 
State  can  withdraw  from  the  Union  at  pleasure,  may  not  a 
majority  of  the  States,  with  the  same  propriety,  exclude  one 
or  more  States  from  the  Union?  Certainly  they  can.  But 
there  is  no  such  right  under  the  Constitution,  and  the  f ramers 
of  the  Constitution  carefully  guarded  against  any  such  ab- 
surd theory. 

*'It  is  only,"  says  Judge  Story, 

**IN  THE  EVENT  OF  A  FAII^URE  OF  EVERY  CONSTITUTIONAL 
RESORT,  AND  AN  ACCUMULATION  OF  USURPATIONS  AND  ABUSES 
RENDERING  PASSIVE  OBEDIENCE  AND  NON-RESISTANCE  A  GREATER 


132- 


KViL  THAN  RESISTANCE  AND  REV01.UTI0N,  that  even  Madison 
claims  for  *a  single  member  of  the  Union'  a  right,  as  an 
EXTRA  AND  ULTRA  CONSTITUTIONAI,  right,  to  make  the  appeal 
from  the  cancelled  obligations  of  the  constitutional  compact 
to  original  rights  and  the  laws  of  self-preservation." — [1 
Story  ON  Con.  280.] 

Chief  Justice  Marshall,  in  the  case  of  Cohens  vs.  Vir- 
ginia (5  Wheaton,  p.  92),  said 

"  The  PEOPI.E  made  the  Constitution,  and  the  people  can 
unmake  it.  It  is  the  creature  of  their  will,  and  lives  only  by 
their  will.  But  this  supreme  irresistible  power  to  make  and 
unmake  resides  only  in  the  whole  body  op  the  people;  not 
in  any  subdivision  of  them.  The  attempt  of  any  of  the 
parts  to  exercise  it  is  usurpation,  and  ought  to  be  repelled  by 
those  to  whom  the  people  have  delegated  this  power  of  repel- 
ling it.  The  acknowledged  inability  of  the  government, 
then,  to  sustain  itself  against  the  public  will,  and,  by  force 
or  otherwise,  to  control  the  whole  nation,  is  no  sound  argu- 
ment in  support  of  its  constitutional  inability  to  preserve 
itself  against  a  section  of  The  nation  acting  in  opposition 

TO  THE   general  WILL." 

Nowhere  did  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  provide  for 
the  dissolution  of  the  Union.  Neither  did  the  people,  in  any 
one  of  the  colonies,  when  adopting  the  Constitution,  reserve 
to  themselves  the  right  to  withdraw  from  the  Union  at  pleas- 
ure, and  thus  destroy  the  government  they  were  organizing 
and  the  Union  it  created.  The  citizens  in  two  or  three  of 
the  colonies,  it  is  true,  before  ratifying  the  Constitution,  did 
discuss  the  propriety  of  reserving  the  right  to  withdraw  from 
the  Union  at  pleasure,  but  no  such  right  was  conceded;  and 
from  the  necessity  of  the  case,  could  not  be  admitted  then, 
any  more  than  it  can  be  now. 

Alexander  Hamilton,  in  a  letter  to  James  Madison,  sug- 
gested the  propriety  of  New  York  ratifying  the  Constitution 

with  "THE  RESERVATION   OF  A   RIGHT  TO   SECEDE,"  if  Certain 

amendments  to  the  Constitution,  proposed  by  New  York, 
were  not  adopted  within  a  given  period.  Mr.  Madison  re- 
plied, declaring  explicitly,  that  the  Constitution  required  an 
*' ADOPTION  IN  TOTO  AND  FOREVER."  It  has,  he  adds,  "been 
SO  ADOPTED  BY  THE  OTHER  STATES."  But  I  will  read  the 
whole  paragraph: 


—  133  — 

**My  opinion  is,  that  a  reservation  of  a  rig-ht  to  with- 
draw, if  amendments  be  not  decided  on  under  the  form  of  the 
Constitution,  within  a  certain  time,  is  a  conditional  ratifica- 
tion, that  it  does  not  make  New  York  a  member  of  the  new 
Union,  and  consequently  she  should  not  be  received  on  that 
plan.  Compacts  must  be  reciprocal;  this  principle  in  such 
case  would  not  be  preserved.  The  Constitution  requires  an 
adoption  in  toto  and  forevkr.  It  has  been  so  adopted  by 
the  other  States.  An  adoption  for  a  limited  time  would  be 
as  defective  as  an  adoption  of  some  of  the  articles  only.  In 
short,  any  condition  whatever  must  vitiate  the  ratification. 
.  .  .  The  idea  of  reserving-  the  right  to  withdraw  was  stated 
at  Richmond  and  considered  as  a  conditional  ratification, 
which  was  itself  abandoned — worse  than  a  rejection." 

At  a  later  day  (1830),  Mr.  Madison  declared,  in  a  letter 
to  Hon.  Edward  Everett,  that — 

**It  [the  Constitution]  was  formed  not  by  th»e  govern- 
ments OF  THE  component  States,  as  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment for  which  it  was  substituted  was  formed;  nor  was  it 
formed  by  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  as 
a  sing-le  community,  in  the  manner  of  a  consolidated  g-overn- 
ment.  It  was  formed  by  the  States,  that  is,  by  the  people  in 
each  of  the  States,  acting-  in  their  hig-hest  sovereig-n  capacity, 
and  formed  consequently  by  the  same  authority  which  formed 
the  State  constitutions. 

*' Being-  thus  derived  from  the  same  source  as  the  con- 
stitutions of  the  States,  it  has  within  each  State  the  same 
authority  as  the  constitution  of  the  State,  and  is  as  much  a 
constitution,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term,  within  its  pre- 
scribed sphere,  as  the  constitutions  of  the  States  are  in  their 
respective  spheres,  but  with  this  obvious  and  essential  differ- 
ence, that  being-  a  compact  among-  States  in  their  hig-hest 
sovereig-n  capacity,  and  constituting-  the  people  thereof  one 
people  for  certain  purposes,  it  can  not  be  ai^tered  or  an- 
nulled AT  THE  .WILL  OF  THE   STATES   INDIVIDUALLY,   aS  the 

constitution  of  a  State  may  be  at  its  individual  will." 

Thus  spoke  Madison,  the  father  of  the  Constitution. 
I  now  make  a  quotation  from  Jefferson.     In  a  letter  writ- 
ten more  than  forty-five  years  ag-o,  he  said  — 

*'  In  every  free  and  deliberating*  society,  there  must,  from 
the  nature  of  man,  be  opposite  parties  and  violent  dissen- 
sions and  discords;  and  one  of  these,  for  the  most  part,  must 
prevail  over  the  others  for  a  long-er  or  a  shorter  time.  Per- 
haps this  party  division  is  necessary  to  induce  each  to  watch 
and  relate  to  the  people  the  proceeding-s  of  the  other.    But 


—  134  — 


IF,  ON  A  TEMPORARY  SUPERIORITY  OP  THE  ONE  PARTY,  THE 
OTHER  IS  TO  RESORT  TO  A  SCISSION  OP  THE  UnION,  NO  PEDERAL 

GOVERNMENT  CAN  EVER  EXIST.  If  to  rid  ouTselves  of  the 
present  rule  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  we  break  the 
Uniioo,  will  the  evil  stop  there?  Suppose  the  New  Eng-land 
States  alone  cut  off,  will  our  natures  be  chang-ed?  Are  we 
not  men  still  to  the  south  of  that,  and  with  all  the  passions 
of  men?  Immediately  we  shall  see  a  Virg-inia  and  a  Penn- 
sylvania party  arise  in  the  residuary  confederacy,  and  the  pub- 
lic mind  will  be  distracted  by  the  same  party  spirit.  What  a 
g-ame,  too,  will  one  party  have  in  their  hands,  by  eternally 
threatening-  the  other,  that  unless  they  do  so  and  so  they 
will  join  their  northern  neig-hbors.  If  we  reduce  our  Union 
to  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  immediately  the  conflict 
will  be  established  between  the  representatives  of  these  two 
States,  and  they  will  end  by  breaking*  into  their  simple  units." 

These  and  similar  opinions  of  the  leading*  men  who  put 
the  machinery  of  our  g-overnment  in  motion,  might  be  quoted, 
if  time  permitted,  almost  indefinitely.  In  fact  the  whole  his- 
tory of  the  times  proves  that  the  men  who  made  the  Consti- 
tution and  favored  its  ratification,  intended  to  make  a  govern- 
ment for  the  people  in  all  the  States  which  should  be  strong 
enough  to  withstand  all  attacks,  and  which  could  not  be 
broken  up  or  divided,  except  by  the  consent  of  the  whole 
people. 

Mr.  Chairman,  article  fourth,  section  fourth,  of  the 
Constitution  declares  that  the  **  United  States  shall  guarantee 
to  every  State  in  the  Union  a  republican  form  of  government." 
This  includes,  of  course,  all  the  States  in  the  Union  when 
the  Constitution  was  adopted,  and  all  new  States  which 
should  afterwards  be  admitted  into  the  Union.  These  words 
are  not  susceptible  of  double  interpretation. .  They  can  have 
but  one  meaning.  They  declare  imperatively  that  the  exec- 
utive, legislative,  and  judicial  powers  of  the  government, 
acting  under  and  by  authority  of  the  National  Constitution, 
shall  see  that  every  State  in  the  Union  has  secured  to  it  a 
republican  form  of  government.  This  provision  of  itself  is 
a  clear  denial  of  the  claim  set  up  here  that  every  State  is 
sovereign  and  independent,  and  that  the  National  Govern- 
ment is  only  a  confederation  clothed  by  these  sovereign  and 
independent  States  with  temporary  authorit}^,  which  can  be 
withdrawn  at  the  pleasure,  caprice,  or  whim  of  an  accidental 


—  135  — 

or  absolute  majority  of  the  citizens  of  any  State.  General 
Jackson  declared  in  his  celebrated  proclamation  *'that  to  say 
that  any  State  may  at  pleasure  secede  from  the  Union,  is  to 
say  that  the  United  States  are  not  a  nation." 

This  claim  of  the  rig-ht  of  any  State  to  withdraw  from 
the  Union  at  pleasure,  is  so  absurd  that  it  would  seem  un- 
worthy of  serious  consideration,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that 
the  doctrine  is  daily  proclaimed  here,  with  some  show  of 
seriousness,  and,  I  regret  to  say,  by  some  northern  men. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  people  of  the  United  States  in  creat- 
ing* this  National  Government,  intended  to  protect  themselves 
from  every  form  of  despotism.  They  intended  to  secure 
themselves  ag-ainst  the  action  of  State  governments,  which 
in  an  excitement  like  the  present  might  attempt  to  establish 
a  despotic  g-overnment,  abolish  liberty,  and  violate  the 
guaranteed  rights  of  any  portion  of  their  citizens.  And  in 
order  thus  to  secure  themselves,  they  provided  in  the  National 
Constitution  for  a  redress  of  their  grievances  by  appealing 
from  the  unconstitutional  action  of  such  a  State  to  the  whole 
people  in  all  the  States  represented  in  one  government.  The 
National  Government,  by  this  mandatory  clause,  becomes  the 
protector  of  the  whole  people  in  all  the  States  against  the 
violation  of  their  personal  rights  and  liberties,  even  though 
committed  by  legislative  majorities;  and  the  General  Govern- 
ment is  clothed  with  all  necessary  power  and  authority  to 
preserve  inviolate  the  guarantees  secured  to  all  citizens  by 
the  National  Constitution.  This  was  a  wise  and  salutary  pro- 
vision, enabling  an  oppressed  minority  in  any  locality  to 
secure  the  assistance  and  protection  of  the  whole  people 
against  every  form  of  despotism. 

As  a  nation,  the  law  of  self-preservation  demands  that 
we  permit  no  State  or  combination  of  States  to  break  up  and 
destroy  this  government,  and  establish  upon  our  borders  anti- 
democratic, monarchical  or  military  despotisms.  As  a  gov- 
ernment, we  can  no  more  allow  this  to  be  done,  than  a  State 
zcM  allow  one  or  more  counties  within  its  jurisdiction  to  dis- 
solve their  connection  at  pleasure  with  the  State  government, 
and  establish  a  government  hostile  to  the  State.  The  fact 
that  the  citizens  of  these  counties  might  vote  unanimously 
for  secession,  would  not  justify  the  citizens  in  the  remaining 


—  136  — 

counties  of  the  State  in  permitting-  the  State  thus  to  be  dis- 
membered, any  more  than  the  government  of  the  United 
States  could  permit  a  State  to  be  withdrawn,  even  though 
the  citizens  of  the  seceding  State  should  vote  unanimously  in 
favor  of  the  proposition.  Neither  could  we  permit  States  in 
the  Union  to  change  their  governments,  and  adopt  govern- 
ments anti-republican  in  form,  much  less  to  establish  monar- 
chical or  military  despotisms  in  violation  of  the  fundamental 
provisions  of  the  National  Constitution. 

Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  the  case  of  Luther  vs.  Borden, 
ET  Ai..,  8th  Howard,  page  45,  a  case  growing  out  of  the 
Dorr  rebellion  in  Rhode  Island,  and  to  which  I  may  again 
allude,  declared  that: 

*' Unquestionably,  a  military  government,  established  as 
the  permanent  government  of  a  State,  would  not  be  a  repub- 
lican government,  and  it  would  be  the  duty  of  Congress  to 
overthrow  it." 

If  it  be  the  duty  of  Congress,  as  Chief  Justice  Taney 
declares,  and  as  I  believe,  to  overthrow  a  military  govern- 
ment, established  by  the  legal  authorities  of  any  State,  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  it  is  also  the  duty  of  Congress  to  over- 
throw and  abolish  any  form  of  government  in  a  State  which 
is  in  fact  anti-republican  and  oppressive,  no  matter  whether 
established  by  the  legally  constituted  authorities,  or  by  usur- 
pation. The  power  of  the  National  Government  to  prohibit 
any  State  from  establishing  an  anti-republican  form  of  gov- 
ernment, is  as  clear  and  unquestioned  as  is  its  authority  to 
prohibit  any  State  from  setting  the  National  Constitution  at 
defiance  and  assuming  the  power  of  an  independent  nation. 

The  mode  and  manner  of  procedure,  in  either  case,  is 
committed  entirely  to  the  discretion  of  Congress,  as  pro- 
vided in  section  eighth,  clause  eighteen  of  the  Constitution, 
Y>rhich  authorizes  Congress  "To  make  ai.i.  i.aws  which  shai.1, 
be  necessary  and  proper  to  carry  into  execution  the 
foregoing  powers,  and  ai.i.  other  powers  vested  by  this 
Constitution  in  the  government  op  the  United  States  or 

IN  ANY  DEPARTMENT  OR     FFICER  THEREOF." 

In  the  Rhode  Island  case  to  which  I  have  alluded,  there 
was  I  believe,  an  admitted  majority,  of  the  people  cf  the 
State,  who  desired  to  change  from  the  charter  government  of 


—  137  — 

Charles  the  Second,  granted  in  1663,  under  which  the  State 
had  always  acted,  to  a  constitutional  g-overnment  which 
should  extend  the  rig-ht  of  suffrage,  and  fairly  adjust  the  ine- 
quality in  the  apportionment  of  representatives  in  the  State 
Legislature.  The  charter  pointed  out  no  mode  of  procedure 
by  which  amendments  could  be  made,  and  the  charter  party, 
by  the  unfair  apportionment  and  the  property  qualification 
for  electors,  were  able  to  keep  possession  of  the  government, 
and  on  a  pretense  of  want  of  power  to  propose  any  amend- 
ments to  the  charter,  they  repeatedly  refused  to  initiate  pro- 
ceedings on  application  of  the  people  for  a  change  of  the 
organic  law  from  the  old  monarchical  charter  to  a  republi- 
can constitution. 

The  people  failing  to  obtain  a  redress  of  their  grievances 
from  the  recognized  authorities,  proceeded  to  secure  them  in 
a  revolutionary  manner.  They  formed  associations,  held 
public  meetings,  prescribed  rules  for  the  election  of  a  con- 
vention of  delegates  to  form  a  State  constitution;  in  accor- 
dance with  which  delegates  were  elected  throughout  the 
State,  who  met,  framed  an  excellent  constitution  and  sub- 
mitted it  to  the  people  for  adoption  or  rejection.  A  vote  was 
taken  upon  it  at  the  time  and  in  the  manner  prescribed  by 
the  convention,  and  it  was  adopted  and  ratified  by  a  large 
majority  of  the  people.  Elections  were  subsequently  held  in 
accordance  with  the  provisions  of  this  constitution,  and 
Thomas  W.  Dorr  was  duly  elected  governor,  together  with 
a  legislature  and  all  State  of&cers  provided  for  in  the  consti- 
tution. This  legislature  convened  and  organized;  Dorr  was 
inaugurated  governor,  and  attempted  to  take  possession  of 
the  arsenals  and  public  property  of  the  State.  The  charter 
government  resisted  the  people's  government,  proclaimed 
martial  law  by  act  of  their  legislature,  and  called  on  the 
President  of  the  United  States  for  military  aid  to  assist  in 
putting  down  the  rebellion.  As  soon  as  Dorr  and  his  party 
learned  that  the  president  had  decided  to  assist  the  charter 
government,  he  fled  from  the  State,  and  thus  ended  the  so- 
called  Dorr  rebellion  and  with  it  their  government.  Of 
course  I  need  hardly  add  what  all  know  so  well,  that  Dorr 
was  subsequently  tried  for  treason,  convicted,  and  sent  to  the 
penitentiary  for  life.     I  do  not  speak  of  the  justice  or  injus- 


—  138— 

tice  of  the  charter  g-overnment,  I  only  speak  of  the  fact.  I 
have  been  thus  minute  in  this  matter  to  show  that  if  an  ad- 
mitted minority  of  the  citizens  of  any  State  may  thus  have 
the  assistance  of  the  National  Government  against  an  ad- 
mitted majority  who  were  seeking-  in  a  peaceful,  and  as  they 
supposed,  the  only  manner  in  which  they  could  proceed  to 
secure  their  own  rights,  without  inflicting-  or  intending-  to 
inflict  injury  or  wrong  o'n  the  minority,  or  establish  a  g-overn- 
ment hostile  to  the  United  States,  how  much  more  important 
that  a  minority  of  the  citizens  in  any  State,  who  are  loyal  to 
the  Union,  shall  be  protected  in  their  constitutional  rights, 
even  though  a  larg-e  majority,  through  the  forms  of  law, 
attempt  to  destroy  their  liberties,  make  war  upon  the  Na- 
tional Government,  and  establish  a  despotic  instead  of  a 
republican  form  of  g-overnment. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  introduced  the  subject  matter  of 
the  Rhode  Island  controversy  here,  for  the  double  purpose  of 
showing-  the  power  conferred  on  the  government  of  the  United 
States  by  the  National  Constitution,  and  the  duty  of  the 
government  in  contingencies  that  now  seem  likely  to  happen. 
Suppose  FivK  or  ten,  or  even  all  the  slave  States  should,  with 
the  sanction  of  a  majority  of  their  citizens,  and  under  the 
forms  of  law  enacted  by  their  present  recognized  authorities, 
join  South  Carolina  in  her  treasonable  movements.  What 
would  .be  the  duty  of  the  General  Government  toward  the 
patriotic  and  loyal  minority  in  these  States?  Undoubtedly 
there  can  be  but  one  answer  to  this  question.  It  is  their  duty 
to  protect  and  secure  them  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  their  con- 
stitutional rights,  and  by  force  if  necessary.  And  though 
the  loyal  citizens  should  be  largely  in  the  minority,  if  they 
remain  faithful  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union,  they  may 
and  should  disregard  the  action  and  usurpations  of  a  ma- 
jority, refuse  to  recognize  their  treasonable  proceedings, 
either  in  declaring  the  States  sovereign  and  independent, 
changing  the  State  constitutions,  or  by  acts  of  their  conven- 
tions absolving  all  citizens  from  their  allegiance  to  the  Na- 
tional Government.  Those  who  remain  loyal  and  refuse  to 
recognize  such  revolutionary  proceedings,  may  continue  to 
act  under  the  old  constitution  and  laws  of  the  State,  as  if  no 
such  treasonable  action  had  taken  place,  elect  their  governor, 


—  139  — 

State  officers,  and  members  of  the  Leg-islature  and  Congress, 
at  the  time  and  in  the  manner  prescribed  by  the  laws  existing 
prior  to  the  usurpation. 

The  Governors  thus  elected  could  call  upon  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  for  aid  to  suppress  the  rebellion, 
and  it  would  be  his  duty  to  g-rant  it.  There  is  no  doubt  but 
what  Cong-ress  would  recognize  such  a  government.  The 
legislature  thus  elected  could  choose  United  States  Senators 
to  fill  any  vacancies  that  might  exist  either  from  the  expira- 
tion of  the  terms  of  the  present  Senators,  their  resignation 
or  expulsion,  because  engaged  in  a  conspiracy  to  overthrow 
the  present  National  Government.  The  Senators  and  Repre- 
sentatives in  Congress  thus  elected  by  the  loyal  citizens  of 
any  of  the  seceding  States,  would  undoubtedly  be  admitted  to 
seats,  each  House,  by  the  Constitution,  being  the  sole  judge 
of  the  qualifications  of  its  own  members.  In  this  manner 
the  National  Government  could  fulfill  and  discharge  its  con- 
stitutional obligations  by  securing  to  each  State  a  republi- 
can form  of  government,  suppress  rebellion,  and  protect  the 
lives,  liberties  and  property  of  the  loyal  citizens.  If  it  be 
said,  however,  that  the  majority  would  vote  down  the 
MINORITY,  or  by  force  and  mob  law  prevent  such  an  expression 
of  their  opinions  at  the  ballot-box,  or  the  revolutionists  might 
elect  a  Governor  and  Legislature,  members  of  Congress  and 
Senators,  with  the  understanding  that  they  should  not  serve, 
and  that  such  a  scheme  as  is  proposed  for  the  minority  to  act 
upon  is  impracticable;  then,  I  answer,  that  the  duty  of  all 
loyal  citizens  would  be  to  assemble  and  petition  Congress  for 
a  redress  of  their  grievances  —  the  protection  of  their  lives 
and  property,  and  the  security  of  all  their  constitutional 
rights,  including  a  republican  form  of  State  government. 

The  National  Government  justly  and  proudly  boasts  of 
having  protected  one  poor  and  friendless  foreigner,  who  had 
only  declared  his  intention  to  become  an  American  citizen, 
from  the  despotism  of  Austria,  at  the  hazard  of  a  bloody 
and  expensive  war.  If,  then,  there  be  but  one  of  its  own 
citizens,  born  and  bred  on  its  own  soil,  who,  despite  the 
threatened  punishment  of  traitors  in  rebellion  against  the 
United  States,  remains  loyal  to  the  Constitution  and  Union, 
shall  he  not  be  protected  in  his  life,  liberty,  and  property  by 


—  140  — 

the  National  Government?  If  the  General  Government  have 
not  power  to  protect  the  rights  of  all  loyal  citizens,  then  the 
government  is  a  failure,  and  that  provision  of  the  National 
Constitution   which    says:      "Th:b    United    States   shali. 

GUARANTEE  TO  EVERY  STATE  IN  THE  UnION  A  REPUBI.ICAN 

FORM  OF  GOVERNMENT,"  is  a  dead  letter,  and  worse  than 
useless. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  with  a  proper  administration  of  the 
National  Government  it  will  neither  be  a  dead  letter  nor  use- 
less, and  the  future  history  of  this  government  will  prove 
how  wisely,  and  with  what  sagacity  and  forethought  our 
fathers  acted  when  they  inserted  this  invaluable  provision  in 
the  Constitution,  requiring  the  whole  people  to  aid  in  sup- 
pressing rebellion,  and  securing  the  rights  of  all  who  either 
by  numbers  or  military  usurpation  might  be  overpowered  in 
any  particular  State  or  States. 

Mr.  Chairman,  all  governments  must,  from  the  very 
nature  of  the  case,  use  force  to  execute  their  Executive, 
Legislative,  and  Judicial  decrees,  if  resisted.  This  is  a  power 
inseparable  from  all  governments.  If  the  city  of  New  York, 
to-day,  by  the  unanimous  voice  of  her  citizens,  were  to  de- 
clare herself  a  sovereign  and  independent  city,  and  set  up  a 
government  of  her  own,  put  the  authority  of  the  National 
and  State  governments  at  defiance,  and  collect  and  appro- 
priate all  the  revenue  derived  from  duties  on  imports,  thus 
cutting  off  more  than  half  the  entire  revenue  of  the  National 
Government,  does  any  sane  man  suppose  for  a  moment  that 
this  government  would  tolerate  it?  By  no  means.  If  it  be- 
came necessary  to  subdue  her,  the  government  would  lay  the 
entire  city  in  ruins.  Martial  law  would  be  declared,  a  block- 
ade proclaimed —  the  property  of  all  rebels  confiscated,  and 
the  leading  traitors  hanged  or  shot.  The  city  of  New  York 
contains  nearly  a  million  of  inhabitants,  almost,  if  not  quite, 
four  times  the  number  of  whites  in  South  Carolina,  and,  I 
believe,  more  wealth  than  any  one  Southern  State,  unless  it 
be  Virginia.  The  people  living  in  the  city  of  New  York 
have  just  the  same  right  to  declare  themselves  out  of  the 
Union  that  the  people  of  any  one  or  more  of  the  Southern 
States  have — no  more,  no  less.  And  that  right  is  the  in- 
herent right  of  revolution.     The  government  once  involved 


—  141  — 

in  war,  in  its  efforts  to  enforce  the  laws  and  put  down  rebel- 
lion, could  know  no  rule  but  success.  A  blockade,  martial 
law,  the  confiscation  of  all  property,  real  and  personal,  of 
the  insurg-ents,  the  execution  of  all  the  leading-  rebels  and 

THE  REMOVAL,  BY  FORCE  IF  NECESSARY,  OF  THE  CAUSE  THAT 
PRODUCED  THE  REBEI.I.ION. 

This  is  no  new  doctrine.  John  Quincy  Adams,  nearly 
twenty  years  ago,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  speak- 
ing" of  the  war  power,  said: 

'^When  jour  country  is  actually  in  war,  whether  it  be  a 
war  of  invasion  or  a  war  of  insurrection,  Congress  has  power 
to  carry  on  the  war,  and  must  carry  it  on  according  to  the  laws 
of  war;  and  by  the  laws  of  war  an  invaded  country  has  all  its 
laws  and  municipal  institutions  swept  by  the  board,  and  mar- 
tial law  takes  the  place  of  them.  This  power  in  Cong-ress 
has,  perhaps,  never  been  called  into  exercise  under  the 
present  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  But,  when  the 
laws  of  war  are  in  force,  what,  I  ask,  is  one  of  those  laws? 
It  is  this:  that  when  a  country  is  invaded  and  two  hostile 
armies  are  set  in  martial  array,  the  commanders  of  both 
armies  have  power  to  emancipate  all  the  slaves  in  the  invaded 
territory." 

This  course  is  generally  indispensable  with  the  insur- 
g-ents, in  all  revolutions,  in  order  to  * '  obtain  indemnity  for 
THE  PAST,  AND  SECURITY  FOR  THE  FUTURE."  The  Constitu- 
tion makes  the  President  of  the  United  States  the  Commander 
in  Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  and  he  is  required  to  see  that 
the  laws  are  faithfully  executed.  He  cannot  evade  this  just 
responsibility,  if  he  would,  unless  he  is  a  traitor.  There  is, 
then,  but  one  course  left  after  all  peaceful  remedies  fail,  and 
that  is,  to  use  all  the  power  of  the  g-overnment  to  crush  re- 
bellion and  treason,  if  we  would  preserve  the  nation  from 
certain  and  utter  ruin. 

As  to  the  powers  and  duties  of  the  g-overnment,  in  case 
of  rebellion,  I  quote  and  endorse  in  full  the  declarations  of 
Henry  Clay,  made  in  a  letter  to  Hon.  Daniel  Ullman  and 
others,  of  New  York,  dated  October  3d,  1850.  In  speaking- 
of  secession,  he  said: 

"  Suppose  the  standard  should  be  raised  of  open  resist- 
ance to  the  Union,  the  Constitution,  and  laws,  what  is  to  be 
done?  There  can  be  but  one  possible  answer.  The  power, 
the  authority,  and  the  dignity  of  the  g-overnment  ought  to  be 


—  142  — 

maintained,  and  resistance  put  down  at  all  hazard.  The 
duty  of  executing-  the  laws  and  suppressing-  insurrections  is 
without  limitation  or  qualification;  it  is  co- extensive  with  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  United  States.  No  human  g-overnment 
can  exist  without  the  power  of  applying-  force,  and  the  actual 
application  of  it  in  extreme  cases.  My  belief  is,  that  if  it 
should  be  applied  to  South  Carolina,  in  the  event  of  her 
secession,  she  would  be  speedily  reduced  to  obedience,  and 
the  Union,  instead  of  being-  weakened,  would  acquire  addi- 
tional streng-th." 

And  in  a  speech  delivered  in  the  United  States  Senate  in 
1850,  he  said: 

**Now,  Mr.  President,  I  stand  here  in  my  place,  meaning- 
to  be  unawed  by  any  threats,  whether  they  come  from  indi- 
viduals or  from  States.  I  should  deplore  as  much  as  any 
man,  living-  or  dead,  that  arms  should  be  raised  ag-ainst  the 
authority  of  the  Union,  either  by  individuals  or  by  States. 
But,  after  all  that  has  occurred,  if  any  one  State,  or  a  portion 
of  the  people  of  any  one  State,  choose  to  place  themselves  in 
military  array  ag-ainst  the  g-overnment  of  the  Union,  I  am 

FOR     TRYING     TH:^     STRENGTH     OF    THK    GOVERNMENT.      I    am 

for  ascertaining-  whether  we  have  a  g-overnment  or  not  — 
practical,  efficient,  capable  of  maintaining-  its  authority,  and 
of  upholding-  the  powers  and  interests  which  belong-  to  a  g*ov- 
ernment.  Nor,  sir,  am  I  to  be  alarmed  or  dissuaded  from  any 
such  course  by  intimations  of  the  spilling-  of  blood.  If  bi^ood 
IS  TO  BE  SPII.T,  BY  WHOSE  FAUI.T  IS  IT?  Upon  the  supposition, 
I  maintain  it  will  be  the  fault  of  those  who  choose  to  raise 
the  standard  of  disunion,  and  endeavor  to  prostrate  this  gov- 
ernment; and,  sir,  when  that  is  done,  so  long-  as  it  pleases 
God  to  give  me  a  voice  to  express  my  sentiments,  or  an  arm, 
weak  and  enfeebled  as  it  may  be  by  age,  that  voice  and  that 
arm  will  be  on  the  side  of  my  country  for  the  support  of  the 
general  authority,  and  for  maintenance  of  the  powers  of  this 
Union." 

Again,  in  reply  to  some  remarks  of  the  Senator  from 
South  Carolina  (Mr.  Barnwell),  Mr.  Clay  said: 

**Mr.  President,  I  said  nothing  with  respect  to  the  char- 
acter of  Mr.  Rhett  (for  I  might  as  well  name  him).  I  know 
him  personally,  and  have  some  respect  for  him;  but  if  he  pro- 
nounced the  sentiment  attributed  to  him,  of  raising  the  stan- 
dard of  disunion  and  of  resistance  to  the  common  government, 
whatever  he  has  been,  if  he  follows  up  that  declaration  by 
corresponding  overt  acts,  he  is  a  traitor,  and  I  hope  will 
meet  with  the  fate  of  a  traitor  ! "  [Great  applause  in  the 
galleries.] 


^143 


Of  South  Carolina,  he  said: 

*'  I  will  tell  her,  and  I  will  tell  the  Senator  himself,  that 
there  are  as  brave,  as  dauntless,  as  g-allant  men,  and  as  devoted 
patriots,  in  my  opinion,  in  every  other  State  in  the  Union,  as 
are  to  be  found  in  South  Carolina  herself;  and,  if  in  any 
unjust  cause  South  Carolina,  or  any  other  State,  should 
hoist  the  flag-  of  disunion  and  rebellion,  thousands,  tens  of 
thousands,  of  Kentuckians  would  flock  to  the  standard  of 
their  country  to  dissipate  and  repress  their  rebellion.  These 
are  my  sentiments  —  make  the  most  of  them." —  [  App.  Cong. 
Globe,  1  SESS.  31  Cong.  p.  1414.] 

Our  first  duty,  then,  it  seems  to  me,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  to 
abolish  all  ports  of  entry  which  it  may  be  inconvenient  to 
occupy;  to  proclaim  a  blockade  of  all  ports  in  the  rebellious 
States;  employ  the  navy  in  connection  with  privateers,  who 
shall  be  authorized  to  capture  and  hold  as  prizes  all  vessels 
with  their  cargoes  leaving"  any  port  without  a  clearance  from 
an  officer  duly  commissioned  by  the  authorities  of  the  United 
States,  as  also  all  vessels  which  mig-ht  attempt  to  enter  any 
of  said  ports  without  paying*  the  duties  to  an  officer  of  the 
General  Government.  A  blockade,  such  as  I  speak  of,  would 
be  one  of  the  most  effective  methods,  without  firing-  a  g"un, 
of  opening-  the  eyes  of  the  thoug-htless  and  reckless  men  in 
the  South  to  the  true  condition  into  which  they  have  so 
madly  precipitated  themselves. 

Their  commerce,  which  consists  almost  entirely  of  ex- 
ports, would  be  utterly  destroyed,  so  far  as  finding-  outlets 
throug-h  the  present  channels  of  trade.  And  they  would  be 
forced  to  find  outlets,  for  they  must  export  to  live  —  and  they 
would  be  compelled  to  ship  their  cotton,  rice,  tobacco,  etc.,  by 
way  of  New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore,  but  princi- 
pally by  way  of  Baltimore  —  which  latter  city  would  reap  a 
harvest  and  enjoy  a  trade  and  prosperity  which  she  has  never 
known,  furnishing-,  as  she  would  be  compelled  to  do,  shipping- 
and  exchang-e  for  three-fourths  of  the  immense  commerce  that 
would  thus  be  forced  through  her  gates,  but  which  now  finds 
outlets  through  other  channels. 

This  will  be  a  matter  at  which  it  will  be  well  enough  for 
business  men  to  look  in  the  cities  named,  especially  in 
Baltimore,  if  the  National  Government  unfortunately  should 
be  driven  to  the  necessity  of  adopting  the  course  I  have  indi- 


—  144  — 

cated  —  a  course  which  I  trust  and  pray  may  never  be  neces- 
sary—  but  which,  when  necessary,  I  shall  insist  on  being* 
adopted. 

Mr.  Chairman.  The  President  of  the  United  States,  in 
his  late  annual  message,  charges  upon  the  Northern  people, 
and  this  charge  is  made  the  ground  of  complaint  by  repre- 
sentatives from  States  now  threatening  rebellion,  that  the 
free  States  of  the  Union  are  faithless  to  their  constitutional 
obligations;  that  they  obstruct  and  resist  the  execution  of 
constitutional  laws  enacted  by  Congress,  in  which  the  South- 
ern States  are  deeply  interested. 

Sir,  this  unfounded  and  slanderous  charge  of  the  Presi- 
dent has  done  much  to  inflame  the  public  mind  in  the  South, 
and  I  meet  it  right  here,  and  most  positively  and  unquali- 
fiedly deny  it.  Sir,  there  is  not,  there  never  has  been,  and  I 
do  not  believe  there  ever  will  be,  a  constitutional  obligation 
imposed  upon  the  citizens  of  the  free  States  that  they  will 
not  faithfully  and  honorably  discharge.  True,  here  and 
there  the  laws  of  the  National  as  well  as  the  State  govern- 
ments have  been  violated,  but  these  are  exceptions  to  the  rule. 

The  laws  of  Congress  and  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme 
Court  are,  you  know,  Mr.  Chairman,  uniformly  obeyed  by  the 
citizens  of  the  entire  North,  and  obeyed,  too,  even  though 
they  may,  in  accordance  with  their  highest  convictions  of 
justice,  regard  some  of  them  as  infamous,  as  they  undoubt- 
edly do.  Still  the  people  of  the  Northern  States  have  sub- 
mitted to  them  and  prefer  still  to  yield  obedience  to  them 
until  the  people,  in  their  majesty,  shall  demand,  in  a  peace- 
ful and  constitutional  manner,  their  modification  or  repeal, 
and  also  the  reversal,  in  a  like  peaceful  and  constitutional 
manner,  of  such  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  as  they 
believe  to  be  not  only  in  violation  of  the  plainest  provisions 
of  the  Constitution,  but  also  inhuman,  barbarous  and  unjust. 
All  this  the  citizens  of  the  free  States  have  done  and  will 
continue  to  do,  rather  than  resort  to  revolution  and  blood- 
shed, and  the  overthrow  and  destruction  of  this  government 
and  Union,  freighted  as  it  is  with  the  hopes  of  millions,  and 
endeared  to  every  patriot  by  the  memories  of  the  past  and 
the  hopes  of  the  future.  The  Northern  States  ever  have  and 
will  continue  to  abide  by  the  obligations  of  the  National 


—  145  — 

Constitution,  whatever  the  South  may  do.  The  citizens  of 
the  free  States  have  been  taug-ht  to  regard  the  Constitution 
as  the  sheet  anchor  of  their  liberties,  and  they  will  not  aban- 
don it,  much  less  trample  upon  its  just  requirements. 

But  the  *' Personal  Liberty  bills,"  as  they  are  called, 
which  some  of  the  free  States  have  felt  themselves  called 
on  to  pass  to  prevent  kidnapping",  are  seized  upon  and  used 
by  the  **  crises  "  manufacturers  to  inflame  the  Southern  mind 
ag-ainst  the  North.  Why  has  this  matter  never  been  thoug-ht 
of  before,  and  broug-ht  to  our  notice?  Some  of  these  laws 
have  been  on  the  statute  books  of  the  free  States  for  over 
twenty  years,  and  no  complaint  has  been  made  until  now. 

Mr.  Chairman.  I  can  hardly  find  language  with  which 
properly  to  characterize  this  miserable  pretext.  It  is  one  of  the 
most  flimsy  shams  ever  resorted  to  by  any  set  of  men  to  hide 
their  real  designs.  Why,  sir,  it  is  so  contemptible  that  even 
South  Carolina  secessionists  are  too  honorable  to  use  it.  In 
their  convention  her  leading  men  do  not  attempt  to  justify 
their  treason  on  such  grounds,  or  because  of  the  election  of 
Mr.  Lincoln,  or  the  non-execution  of  the  fugitive  slave  act. 
Indeed,  on  the  seventh  and  eighth  days  of  the  sitting  of  the 
secession  convention,  in  the  course  of  the  debate  on  the 
causes  that  induced  South  Carolina  to  take  her  present  posi- 
tion, Mr.  Packer  said  — 

"It  is  no  spasmodic  effort  that  has  come  suddenly  upon 
us,  but  it  has  been  gradually  culminating  for  a  long  series  of 
years." 

Mr.  Inglis  said:  "Most  of  us  have  had  this  subject 
under  consideration  for  the  last  twenty  years. " 

Mr.  Keitt  said:  "  I  have  been  engaged  in  this  movement 
ever  since  I  entered  political  life." 

Mr.  Rhett  said:  "It  is  nothing  produced  by  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's election,  or  the  non-execution  of  the  fugitive  slave  law. 
It  is  a  matter  which  has  been  gathering  head  for  thirty 
years.'.' 

And  before  this,   in  their  discussions,   Messrs.  Rhett, 
Spratt,  and  others,  declared  their  opinion  that  THie  fugitive 
SLAVE  I.AW  IS  UNCONSTITUTIONAL.     Judge  Withers,  in  an  able 
speech,  said  it  was  unconstitutional. 
10 


—  He- 
Mr.  Keitt  said:  *'I  have  great  doubts  myself  about  the 
fugitive  slave  law.  The  Constitution  was  at  first  a  compact 
between  the  States;  secondly,  a  treaty  between  sections.  It 
was  something-  more  than  a  compact  between  the  States.  I 
believe,  therefore,  that  this  law  oug-ht  to  have  been  left  to  the 
execution  of  the  various  States." 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  what  are  the  *' Personal  Liberty 
bills  "  which  some  of  the  free  States  have  passed?  They  are 
simply  laws  to  prevent  the  kidnapping-  of  their  own  citizens. 
They  are  just  such  laws  in  substance  as  may  be  found  on  the 
statute  books  of  most  of  the  Southern  States  to  prevent  tlie 
kidnapping-  of  their  free  and  slave  people. 

I  have  looked  over  these  acts  of  the  free  Statfes  oai  this 
subject,  and  find  that  they  were  not,  as  many  suppose,  passea 
expressly  to  obstruct  the  execution  of  anv  law  of  Cong-ress. 
Many  of  these  laws  were  passed  to  confornj.  to  the  decision  of 
the  Supreme  Court  in  the  case  of  Prig-g-  vs.  Pe«insvlvania, 
which  declared  substantially  that  it  was  not  the  duty  of  a 
State  to  pass  laws  for  the  arrest  and  rendition  of  fugitive 
slaves,  and  that  Cong-ress  alone  had  exclusive  jurisdiction 
over  the  subject. 

The  law  of  Vermont  provides  that  all  officers  of  the 
United  States  and  their  deputies  shall  be  exempt  from  the 
provisions  of  their  *' liberty  bill "  while  in  the  discharg-e  of 
their  official  duty.     The  proviso  reads  as  follows: 

'*This  act,  however,  shall  not  be  construed  to  extend  to 
any  citizen  of  the  State  acting-  as  a  Judg-e  of  the  Circuit  or 
District  Court  of  the  United  States,  or  as  a  Marshal  or  Deputy 
Marshal  of  the  district  of  Vermont,  or  to  any  person  acting- 
under  the  command  or  authority  of  said  courts  or  marshal." 

Nineteen-twentieths  of  those  who  are  prating"  about 
Northern  *' Personal  Liberty  bills,"  know  nothing-  about 
them.  Nevertheless,  they  do  not  hesitate  boldly  to  declare 
that  they  are  unconstitutional. 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  do  not  assume  to  speak  for  all  the 
Northern  States;  but  I  can  say  with  great  confidence  (  and  I 
have  no  doubt  but  what  other  gentlemen  will  speak  for  their 
States,  and  give  the  same  pledge)  that  if  the  Legislature  of 
Ohio  should  at  any  time  pass  an  unconstitutional  law  — 
which  is  not  all  improbable,  as  their  own   local   laws    are 


—  147  — 

frequently  adjudged  unconstitutional  by  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  State  —  I  say,  if  such  a  law  should  at  any  time  be 
passed,  whether  conflicting*  with  the  fugitive  slave  bill  or  any 
other  act  of  Congress,  it  will  be  repealed  whenever  the  Su- 
preme Court  declares  it  unconstitutional.  Can  the  represen- 
tatives from  the  States  who  complain  of  these  "Personal 
Liberty  bills  "  in  fairness  ask  anything  more?  Are  they  will- 
ing, in  turn,  to  give  the  North  the  same  pledge  of  loyalty? 
Most  of  the  States  now  in  rebellion  against  the  government 
have,  and  have  had  for  many  years,  laws  on  their  statute 
books,  the  most  inhuman,  and,  as  we  believe,  unconstitutional 
—  laws  which  enslave  our  free  people,  who  are  guilty  of  no 
crime,  but  are  enslaved  for  life  simply  for  coming  into  the 
State.  The  authorities  of  some  of  the  free  States  have  sent 
commissioners  to  one  or  more  of  these  Southern  States,  to 
test,  in  a  legal  and  peaceful  manner,  the  constitutionality  of 
such  laws;  but  they  have  not  only  never  been  permitted  to  do  so, 
but  gentlemen  of  distinction  who  have  visited  the  Southern. 
States  for  that  purpose,  have  been  driven  from  the  South  by 
mobs.  There  never  has  been,  and  I  think  I  may  safely  say 
there  never  will  be,  such  an  outrage  committed  by  the  citi- 
zens of  any  of  the  free  States  on  a  Southern  man  whom  a 
State  might  send  North  on  such  a  mission.  Any  gentleman 
whom  the  authorities  of  a  Southern  State  may  choose  to 
commission  to  a  free  State,  or  who  may  come  of  his  own  will 
and  pleasure,  to  test  the  constitutionality  of  any  of  our  laws, 
whether  they  be  our  '* Personal  Liberty  bills,"  or  any  others, 
will  be  received  and  treated  as  a  gentleman.  And  the  de- 
cision of  our  highest  judicial  tribunal,  whether  in  accordance 
with  our  views  or  not,  will  be  strictly  and  in  good  faith 
obeyed. 

The  Legislature  of  my  State  a  few  years  ago  passed  a 
law,  known  with  us  as  the  crowbar  law,  to  tax  banks  the 
same  as  other  property  —  a  law  whioh  they  not  only  believed 
to  be  just,  but  also  constitutional.  The  banks  resisted  the 
payment  of  the  tax.  Suits  were  commenced  to  test  its  con- 
stitutionality. The  Supreme  Court  of  Ohio  sustained  the  law, 
and  declared  it  constitutional.  It  was  carried  to  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  and  they  pronounced  the  law  un- 
constitutional.    The  Legislature,    in   compliance  with   that 


148 


decision,  repealed  the  law,  and  appropriated  money  to  refund 
to  the  banks  the  taxes  thus  declared  to  have  been  illegally  col- 
lected. I  mention  this  act  as  one  that  came  within  my  own 
personal  knowledge.  I  could  name  others,  had  I  time,  which 
would  show  the  law-abiding  and  loyal  character  of  the  entire 
Northern  people.  But  it  is  not  necessary.  A  majority  of  the 
people  of  Ohio  believed  then  and  believe  now  that  that  law 
was  constitutional,  and  that  the  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  was  wrong;  yet  they  obeyed  its 
mandates,  because  it  was  the  court  of  last  resort,  and  disobe- 
dience would  be  nullification. 

Mr.  Chairman,  our  calumniators  in  the  North  have  de- 
ceived and  are  to-day  deceiving  the  honest  people  of  the  South, 
as  to  the  character  and  purpose  of  the  masses  of  men  who 
make  up  the  •  Republican  party.  They  are  told  that  **the 
North  had  got  to  be  utterly  lost  to  all  sense  of  truth  or  false- 
hood, right  or  wrong;  that  everything  good  gave  way  before 
senseless  sympathy  for  black  men  to  such  a  degree  that  to 
steal  property,  incite  to  insurrection,  rapine,  and  murder, 
were  every-day  sights."  Sir,  a  more  shameless  falsehood 
never  fell  from  the  lips  of  man  or  devil.  In  the  estimation 
of  all  honorable  men,  a  wilful  falsifier  is  of  all  men  the  most 
despicable,  and  the  utterer  of  this  base  slander  on  his  own  State 
and  neighbors  has  at  last  found  the  depths  of  infamy.  There 
cannot  be  one  fact  adduced  upon  which  to  rest  so  monstrous  a 
charge.  There  is  no  evidence  of  this  alleged  hatred  on  the 
part  of  the  North.  No  Southern  man  or  woman  visiting  the 
North,  either  for  business  or  pleasure,  was  ever  beaten  with 
stripes,  tarred  and  feathered,  imprisoned,  or  murdered  by  any 
cowardly  mobs,  or  lynch-law  courts,  no  matter  what  their 
opinions  might  be  on  any  subject,  however  obnoxious,  or 
however  offensively  they  might  have  proclaimed  them.  I 
wish  as  much  could  be  said,  and  as  truthfully,  of  every  South- 
ern State. 

Sir,  I  say  to  Southern  gentlemen,  and  I  say  it  with  pride, 
that  a  more  law-abiding,  peaceful,  constitutional  and  union- 
loving  people  cannot  be  found  in  any  part  of  the  country  than 
the  great  body  of  those  who  make  up  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
Republican  party.  Indeed  they  are  pre-eminently  distin- 
guished, wherever  known,  for  the  conscientious  discharge  of 


—  149  — 

every  duty,  public  and  private,  for  their  sobriety  and  Chris- 
tian character,  for  their  love  of  peace,  for  their  unselfish 
philanthropy  and  a  love  of  the  human  race,  which  is  circum- 
scribed by  no  narrow  limits,  but  embraces  in  its  cosmopolitan 
liberality  the  people  of  every  nation  and  every  religious 
creed. 

If  this  be  true,  I  am  asked  why  we  permit  such  slan- 
derers as  the  author  of  the  extract  just  read  to  utter  their 
falsehoods  throughout  the  North.  I  answer,  because  we  are 
not  fearful  of  falsehood,  where  free  speech  and  a  free  press  is 
left  free  to  combat  it  before  an  intellig-ent  people.  Wherever 
such  slanders  are  uttered  in  the  North  they  are  harmless. 
They  ought  to  be  and  would  be  harmless  with  you  in  the 
South,  if  you  tolerated  free  speech  and  a  free  press.  The 
utterer  of  this  slanderer  is  like  the  desperate  gambler,  who, 
having  lost  character,  position,  everything  that  a  manly  man 
could  desire,  is  playing  the  last  card  upon  the  political  board, 
with  a  recklessness  befitting  his  desperate  condition,  hoping 
almost  against  hope  to  be  promoted,  by  the  dying  political 
organization  now  in  charge  of  the  government,  to  a  posi- 
tion once  dignifieJ  and  made  honorable  by  a  Jay,  a  Story, 
and  a  Marshall.  How  infamous  and  wicked  must  an  adminis- 
tration be  where  promotions  to  high  and  honorable  positions 
are  more  readily  secured  by  such  baseness  than  by  an  honor- 
able, manly,  upright  bearing. 

John  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  once  said,  when  rebuking 
those  whom  he  justly  called  doughfaces,  **that  he  did  not 
envy  the  head  or  heart  of  that  man  who  could  rise  here  and 
defend  slavery  on  principle."  I  would,  sir,  that  we  had  a 
Randolph,  a  Jefferson,  and  a  McDowell  to  speak  here  to-day, 

for  the  South  and  to  the  South. 

Mr.  Chairman.  It  is  a  mistake,  and  our  Southern  breth- 
ren are  deceived  in  supposing  that  opposition  to  slavery  in 
the  free  States  is  the  result  of  political  preaching  or  political 
parties.  It  is  a  still  greater  mistake  to  suppose  that  th:3 
opposition  has  become  so  formidable  as  it  has  because  of 
political  demagogues  seeking-  office.  This  sentiment  of  oppo- 
sition to  slavery  has  existed  from  the  day  the  Pilgrims  landed 
on  Plymouth  rock,  and  ever  will  exist,  not  only  with  their 
children  but  with  the  great  body  of  the  Christian  world.     It 


—  ISO  — 

has  grown  in  spite  of  political  preaching-,  in  spite  of  dema- 
gogues, and  in  spite  of  doughfaces,  of  whom  the  North  has, 
I  am  sorry  to  say,  quite  as  many  to-day  as  when  Randolph 
g-ave  them  a  name  so  characteristic  of  their  depravity.    . 

In  Canada,  on  our  northern  border,  in  Eng-land,  and 
France,  and  indeed  throug"hout  all  Europe  the  hostility  to 
slavery  is  far  greater  and  more  unanimous  than  in  any  of  the 
free  States  of  the  American  Union.  And  those  who  are  its 
most  uncompromising  opponents  in  the  countries  named  can- 
not and  never  expect  to  obtain  office  or  political  promotion 
because  of  their  opposition  to  the  system.  They  are  not 
and  never  have  been  influenced  by  any  such  sordid  considera- 
tions. Neither  are  the  great  body  of  the  citizens  of  the  free 
States,  who  are  and  always  have  been  opposed  to  slavery, 
governed  in  their  opposition  by  any  such  considerations.  It 
is  a  feeling  of  human  nature  which  cannot  be  overcome,  a 
** prejudice,"  if  you  will,  which  cannot  be  *' conquered"  at 
the  bidding  of  any  man  or  party. 

Three-fourths  of  the  civilized  and  Christian  world  look 
upon  the  trade  of  man-stealing  and  man-selling  as  a  piratical 
commerce,  to  be  prohibited  and  abolished  wherever  govern- 
ments have  the  power.  And  if  there  never  had  been  any 
United  States  Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress  made 
elective  by  the  people  in  the  free  States,  and  there  were  no 
offices  to  be  filled  there  by  appointment  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  the  hostility  to  this  execrable  commerce  in 
the  free  States  would  have  been  five-fold  greater  than  it  is. 
And  without  the  aid  which  the  North  has  given  to  the  slavery 
interest,  it  would  be  powerless  to-day.  For  the  truth  is,  the 
National  Government  in  the  hands  of  slaveholders,  as  it  has 
been  three-fourths  of  the  time  since  its  organization,  has 
debauched  and  corrupted  the  public  mind  of  the  ^orth,  and 
in  the  name  of  democracy,  has  been  able  to  keep  possession 
of  the  government,  while  extending,  strengthening,  and 
nationalizing  slavery. 

Mr.  Chairman.  Liberty  is  one  of  the  grandest  and  most 
God-like  aspirations  of  the  human  heart;  it  is  a  sentiment 
which  cannot  be  eradicated  by  compromises  or  party  plat- 
forms.    No,  nor  by  cburch  creeds   either.     It  is   a   feeling 


—  151  — 

implanted  in  the  breast  of  every  intelligent  human  soul  by 
the  hand  of  the  Creator,  and  bars  and  bolts  and  prisons  can- 
not eradicate  it.  It  is  the  morning*  and  evening  prayer  of  every 
slave,  and  the  late  Governor  McDowell,  of  Virginia,  never 
uttered  a  more  sublime  truth  than  when  he  said: 

**You  may  place  the  slave  where  you  please;  you  may 
dry  up  to  your  uttermost  the  fountains  of  his  feelings,  the 
springs  of  his  thoughts;  you  may  close  upon  his  mind  every 
avenue  to  knowledge,  and  cloud  it  over  with  artificial  night; 
you  may  yoke  him  to  labor  as  an  ox  which  liveth  only  to  work, 
and  worketh  only  to  live;  you  may  put  him  under  any  process 
which,  without  destroying  his  value  as  a  slave,  will  debase 
and  crush  him  as  a  rational  being;  you  may  do  all  this,  and 

THB  IDEA  THAT  HE  WAS  BORN   FREE  Wllvly  SURVIVE   IT  AI.I..      It 

is  allied  to  his  hope  of  immortality;  it  is  the  eternal  part  of 
his  nature,  which  oppression  cannot  reach.  It  is  a  torch  lit 
up  in  his  soul  by  the  hand  of  Deity,  and  never  meant  to  be 
extinguished  by  the  hand  of  man." 

Mr.  Chairman.  The  people  of  the  North  hold  these 
sentiments  to-day,  as  they  ever  have  and  as  I  trust  they  ever 
will.  What  wonder,  then,  that  when  called  upon  to  extend  by 
their  vote  this  institution,  so  obnoxious  to  them  and  the 
moral  sense  of  the  civilized  world,  that  they  should  be  found, 
as  a  body,  in  opposition  to  it.  The  only  wonder,  sir,  is  that 
there  is  any  division  in  the  free  States  on  the  subject.  On 
this  question  a  large  majority  of  the  citizens  of  all  parties 
in  the  free  States  stand  to-day  where  Washington  and 
Adams,  Jefferson  and  Franklin,  Hancock  and  Jay,  stood  in 
the  days  of  the  revolution,  and  where  Clay  and  the  leading 
men  of  all  parties,  political  as  well  as  religious,  stood  thirty 
and  forty  years  ago. 

When  Henry  Clay  was  called  upon  in  1850  to  vote  to 
legalize  slavery  in  the  National  Territories,  he  indignantly 
refused,  and*  declared,  in  language  which  will  live  as  long  as 
any  sentiment  his  great  heart  ever  conceived,  or  his  eloquent 
lips  ever  uttered,  *'that  no  earthly  power  could  induce  him 
to  do  it."  I  will  quote  the  extract.  In  reply  to  Senator 
Jefferson  Davis,  of  Mississippi,  he  said — 

*'I  am  extremely  sorry  to  hear  the  Senator  from  Missis- 
sippi say  that  he  requires,  first  the  extension  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  line  to  the  Pacific,  and,  also,  that  he  is  not 


152 


satisfied  with  that,  but  Requires,  if  I  understood  him  cor- 
rectly, a  positive  provision  for  the  admission  of  slavery  south 
of  that  line.  And  now,  sir,  coming-  from  a  slave  State,  as  1 
do,  I  owe  it  to  myself,  I  owe  it  to  truth,  I  owe  it  to  the  sub- 
ject, to  say  that  no  earthly  power  could  induce  me  to  vote  for 
a  specific  measure  for  the  introduction  of  slavery  where  it 
had  not  before  existed,  either  south  or  north  of  that  line. 
Coming",  as  I  do,  from  a  slave  State,  it  is  my  solemn,  deliber- 
ate, and  well  matured  determination  that  no  power  —  no 
earthly  power  —  shall  compel  me  to  vote  for  the  positive  in- 
troduction of  slavery  either  south  or  north-  of  that  line. 
While  you  reproach,  and  justly,  our  British  ancestors  for  the 
introduction  of  this  institution  upon  the  continent  of  North 
America,  I  am,  for  one,  unwilling-  that  the  posterity  of  the 
present  inhabitants  of  California  and  New  Mexico  shall 
reproach  us  for  doing-  what  we  reproach  Great  Britain  for 
doing-  for  us." 

Need  any  of  the  men  of  to-day  in  this  House  hesitate  or 
fear  to  stand  as  firmly  in  opposition  to  the  extension  of  sla- 
very as  the  g-reat  Kentucky  statesman  stood  only  ten  years 
ag-o? 

To  the  same  effect  spoke  the  distinguished  Senator  from 
the  slave  State  of  Delaware,  the  late  John  M.  Clayton.  In 
a  speech  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  Aug-ust  3,  1848, 
he  said — 

**Does  any  man  expect  that,  from  this  time  forth  to  the 
end  of  the  republic,  the  North  will  ever  ag-ain  consent  to  ex- 
tend slavery  by  aot  of  Cong-ress  into  any  free  territory, 
and  thus  increase  that  alleg-ed  inequality  of  representation  in 
the  other  House,  arising-  out  of  the  enumeration  of  three- 
fifths  of  slaves  in  the  apportionment  of  its  members,  which 
has  ever  been  the  foundation  of  their  most  bitter  complaints? 
Try  that  question  when  you  may  in  that  House,  an  over- 
whelming- majority  will  ever  appear  ag-ainst  such  an  extension. 
I  have  never  voted  for  such  an  act  of  Congress,  because,  in 
my  deliberate  opinion,  it  would  be  wrong",  and  never  could  be 
justified,  except  as  a  measure  to  be  resorted  to  in  an  extreme 
case,  involving  the  very  existence  of  the  Union. 

*'  I  am  no  advocate  of  slavery,  or  of  its  extension.  Like 
my  friend  from  Maryland  (Mr.  Johnson),  I  hold  no  slaves, 
and  I  fully  concur  in  the  opinion  which  he  expressed  a  year 
ago,  *that  slavery  is  a  moral,  social,  and  political  evil — to 
be  removed,  however,  only  by  those  who  are  immediately 
interested  in  it.'  These  are  the  deliberate  opinions  of  thou- 
sands and  tens  of  thousands  in  Maryland,  Virginia,  Delaware, 


—  153  — 

and  Kentucky  —  all  si aveholding'*  States.  .  ,  .  Opinions  g-o 
far  beyond  ours  in  the  non-slaveholding  States.  They  view 
slavery  as  aneradicable  curse,  and  will  never  consent,  in  any 
EVENT,  to  its  extension,  unless  where  the  Constitution  car- 
ries it. 

"Sir,  it  is  time  the  South  understood  her  true  position. 
She  can  no  longer  control  this  question.  He  who  supposes 
that  a  threat  of  disunion  will  alarm  the  potent  men  of  the 
North  labors  under  a  great  mistake.  To  them  disunion  has 
no  terrors." 

Mr.  Chairman,  every  concession  made  by  the  majority 
of  any  people  in  any  government,  to  the   minority,  under 
menaces  and  threats,  but  emboldens  and  makes  that  minority 
more  exacting  and  imperious  in  their  demands.     All   past 
compromises,  as  they  were  called  —  concessions,  as  they  were 
in  fact  —  to  the  slave  interest,  prove  the  truth  of  this  declar- 
ation.    So  domineering  has  this  slave  interest  become,   be- 
cause of  these  concessions,  that  they  now  threaten  the  utter 
destruction  of  the  government,  unless  every  demand  they 
make  is  immediately  complied  with.     Indeed,  it   has  been 
seriously  intimated  that  Abraham   Lincoln,  who  has  been 
selected  by  the  people  as  their  Chief  Magistrate  for  the  ensu- 
ing four  years  from  the  fourth  of  March  next,  will  never  be 
inaugurated  in  this  capital ;  that  the  city  of  Washington  will 
be  in  the  hands  of  traitors  before  that  time,  and  the  seat 
of  government  of  the  proposed  Democratic  slave  empire.     In 
answer  to  this,  sir,  I  have  just  this  to  say  :  that  in  any  event 
—  yes,  sir,  in  any  event  —  Mr.   Lincoln  will  be  inaugurated 
President  of  the  United  States   in  this   city,  and  that  this 
capital,  with  all  its  magnificent  structures  and  its  venerable 
traditions,  will  remain  the  seat  of  government  of  this  Repub- 
lic ;  I  mean,  sir,  that  it  will  remain  the  seat  of  government 
of   those  loyal   States  who,  come  what  may,  with  patriotic 
fidelity  will  remain  true  to  the  old  Constitution,  and  faith- 
fully adhere  to  the  principles  upon  which  the  government  was 
founded.   The  eighteen  millions  of  freemen  in  the  North  will 
never  allow  it  to  be  otherwise.    Should  the  conspirators,  how- 
ever,   ever   succeed  —  which   is   hardly  within  the  range  of 
human  probability  —  in    establishing    their  proposed  slave 
empire,  Washington  City  will  never  be  its  capital.     So  long, 
sir,  as  it  shall  remain  a  capital  at  all,  the  banner  of  liberty, 


—  154  — 

with  its  stars  and  stripes,  shall  float  from  its  dome,  or  none 

—  the  black  banner  of  slavery  and  disunion,  never! 

Mr.  Chairman,  our  duty,  as  the  representatives  of  the 
people,  is  to  meet  like  men  this  off-recurring-  and  exciting- 
question  which  is  ag-ain  presented  for  our  consideration. 
Not  selfishly,  as  maintaining-  consistency;  not  hastily,  through 
fear;  not  in  ang-er,  or  red-hot  wrath;  but  calmly,  firmly, 
courteously,  in  view  of  the  great  responsibility  resting  upon 
each  member,  and  the  momentous  consequences  that  may 
follow  the  casting  of  a  single  vote. 

Sir,  I  would  not  knowingly  or  willingly  do  or  say  one 
word  that  would  have  a  tendency  to  light  up  the  torch  of 
civil  and  servile  war,  for  I  feel  that  the  two  will  be  insepa- 
rable—  that  the  one  cannot  come  without  the  other;  and  I 
pray  Heaven  that  such  a  calamity  may  not  only  be  spared 
my  own  kindred,  but  the  people  of  every  Southern  State.  I 
am  for  peace;  the  great  body  of  the  citizens  with  whom  it  is 
my  pride  and  pleasure  to  act  are  for  peace  —  they  are  men  of 
peace.  And  no  language  that  I  can  command  will  •  more 
forcibly  express  the  sentiments  of  the  entire  constituency 
whom  I  have  the  honor  to  represent  than  the  following  lines 
from  our  own  Quaker  poet,  John  G.  Whittier.  They  were  writ- 
ten a  short  time  after  the  John  Brown  raid  at  Harper's  Ferry. 
His  execution  was  the  occasion  which  called  them  forth.  I 
endorse  every  line  and  every  thought,  and  apply  them  to-day 

—  as  he  then  applied  them  to  Virginia —  to  all  the  Southern 
States,  so  far  as  interfering  in  any  unlawful  manner  with 
their  local  affairs. 

"  Perish  with  him  the  folly 

That  seeks  through  evil  good, 
Long  LIVE  the;  GENEROUS  PURPOSE) 

Unstained  with  human  blood  ! 
Not  the  raid  of  midnight  terror. 

But  the  thought  which  underi,ies  ; 
Not  the  outlaw's  pride  of  daring 

But  the  Christian's  sacrifice. 


—  155  — 

**  Oh  I  never  may  yon  blue-ridged  hills 

The  northern  rifle  hear, 
Nor  see  the  light  of  blazing  homes 

Flash  on  the  negro's  spear. 
But  let  the  free-winged  angel  Truth 

Their  guarded  passes  scale, 
To  teach  that  right  is  more  than  might 

And  justice  more  than  mail  I 

"  So  vainly  shall  Virginia  set 

Her  battle  in  array  ; 
In  vain  her  trampling  squadrons  knead 

The  winter  snow  with  clay. 
She  may  strike  the  pouncing  eagle 

But  she  dare  not  harm  the  dove  ; 
And  every  gate  she  bars  to  Hate 

Shall  open  wide  to  Love  !  " 

Mr.  Chairman,  we  should  have  had  peace  if  we  had  had 
an  Executive  with  firmness  and  courage,  one  who  at  a  proper 
time  would  have  driven  traitors  from  his  Cabinet,  and  called 
to  his  councils  Union-loving  and  patriotic  men,  instead  of 
entering  into  secret  negotiations  with  the  conspirators. 

Sir,  one  of  the  most  melancholy  spectacles  this  genera- 
tion has  been  called  to  witness,  and,  I  may  add,  one  of  the 
most  melancholy  I  hope  they  may  ever  live  to  witness,  has 
been  the  utter  failure  of  James  Buchanan  to  administer  this 
Government.  Called  to  the  Chief  Magistracy  by  the  voice  of 
a  generous  and  confiding  people,  he  found  the  nation  in  a  state 
of  prosperity  which  it  had  never  known,  with  an  overflowing 
Treasury,  and  a  large  majority  of  his  political  friends  in  both 
houses  of  Congress.  He  is  now  to  retire  from  the  position  to 
which,  in  an  evil  hour,  he  was  unfortunately  elevated, 
utterly  disgraced.  His  party  defeated,  the  Treasury  bank- 
rupt, the  business  of  the  country  prostrate,  and  the  whole 
nation  convulsed  by  the  action  of  a  band  of  conspirators  who, 
if  not  with  his  complicity,  with  the  complicity,  at  least,  of  a 
majority  of  his  late  Cabinet,  were  attempting,  and  to-day  are 
determined,  if  possible,  to  destroy  the  Government,  which  he 
and  they  had  alike  sworn  to  maintain  and  defend. 


—  156  — 

He  has  failed  as  no  President  has  ever  failed  before  him, 
and  failed  only  because  destitute  of  that  firmnes'S  and  moral 
integ-rity  necessary  (when  surrounded  as  he  has  been  by  the 
most  unscrupulous)  to  discharge  the  plain  and  unmistakable 
duties  imposed  upon  him  by  the  Constitution.  His  vacilla- 
tion and  want  of  courag-e  has  driven  the  country  from  a  state 
of  unexampled  prosperity  and  peace  to  the  very  brink  of  ruin 
and  civil  war,  and  we  are  to-day  in  a  condition  that  no  other 
nation  with  such  an  executive  head  could  be  in  for  a  sing-le 
hour  without  revolution.  Our  only  hope  is  in  the  loyalty  and 
patriotism  of  the  people.  This,  I  trust,  will  enable  us  to 
withstand  the  storm  until  the  fourth  of  March,  when  the 
Government  will,  I  am  sure,  pass  into  other  and  better  hands. 

With  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  we  have  also  the 
destruction  of  the  political  org-anization  of  which,  for  so 
many  years,  he  has  been  a  leader.  This  party,  claiming-  to 
be  Democratic,  has  been  one  of  the  most  wonderful  org-aniza- 
tions  known  in  the  history  of  this  or  any  other  country  hav- 
ing" a  popular  form  of  g-overnment.  Professing"  the  broadest 
liberalism,  the  greatest  veneration  for  constitutional  liberty, 
and  assuming"  to  recog"nize  to  the  fullest  extent  the  binding" 
oblig"ations  of  all  compacts  and  compromises,  as  well  as  a 
most  sacred  reg"ard  for  the  rig"hts  of  all  men,  its  leaders  have 
not  scrupled  to  apolog-ize  for  the  vilest  despotism,  nor  hesitated 
to  trample  upon  the  Constitution  as  upon  all  compacts  and 
compromises,  and  every  rig"ht  of  human  nature.  They  have 
not  hesitated,  until  the  break-up  at  Charleston  and  Baltimore, 
at  supporting"  any  and  every  demand,  however  monstrous, 
when  made  by  the  slave  barons.  In  past  years  the  resources 
of  this  wonderful  party  seemed  inexhaustible  and  its  power 
invincible  No  matter  what  its  leader  said  or  did,  the  party 
was  successrul.  It  defied  and  in  turn  prostrated  all  parties 
which  contested  its  claims  for  power,  and  in  its  triumphal 
march  all  opposition  and  combinations  fell  before  it  as  by  the 
hand  of  mag"ic.  So  blinded  were  the  people  by  its  fair 
promises  and  captivating"  name.  But  to-day,  thanks  to  a  free 
press  and  free  speech,  all  this  is  chang"ed,  and  its  prestig"e  is 
gone,  its  glory  has  departed,  its  hold  upon  the  heart  of  the 
people  is  broken,  and  the  sceptre  of  power  is  about  to  pass 


157 


from  its  hands  into  those  of  a  young-  and  generous  party,  rep- 
resenting- the  republican  principles  of  Jefferson. 

Mr.  Chairman.  There  are  thirty  millions  of  people  in 
this  country;  of  this  number  twenty-five  millions,  at  least, 
are  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery  into  any  national 
Territory,  and  would  never  vote  at  the  ballot  box  to  sanction 
such  a  proposition,  much  less  ag-ree  to  give  it  additional 
guarantees,  and  make  it  perpetual  by  an  amendment  to  the 
Constitution.  This  immense  moral  power,  with  all  the  civi- 
lized and  Christian  world  to  sympathize  with  it,  wielded 
peacefully  and  constitutionally  against  slavery,  as  I  trust 
it  ever  will  be,  cannot  fail  eventually  to  put  it  in  the  course 
of  ultimate  extinction,  and  ere  long  the  citizens  of  the  slave 
States,  in  their  own  way,  will  put  away  this  evil  and  wrong 
from  among  them.  This  is  the  faith  and  hope  of  the  Repub- 
lican party,  and,  as  I  have  said  before,  I  will  keep  this  faith 
or  none. 

If,  however,  civil  war  is  forced  upon  the  nation  for  the 
purpose  of  extending  and  making  slavery  perpetual,  he  must 
indeed  be  blind  who  does  not  see  that  the  system  will  go  out 
in  blood.  Twenty-five  millions  of  people  who  not  only  have 
no  interest  in  slavery,  but  whose  pecuniary  interests  are 
against  it,  as  well  as  their  political  and  religious  views,  will 
never  submit  to  the  dictation  of  a  privileged  class  numbering 
less  than  half  a  million.  May  God  in  his  mercy  avert  the 
catastrophe  of  civil  and  servile  war.  But  if  it  must  come,  I 
pray  that  the  doom  of  slavery,  which  will  be  inevitable,  may 
not  also  prove  the  doom  of  the  slave  masters;  that  we  may 
not  see  re-enacted  in  any  part  of  our  country  the  bloody  hor- 
rors of  St.  Domingo;  for,  as  Jefferson  said,  **the  Almighty 
has  no  attributes  that  can  take  sides  with  the  slave  masters 
in  such  a  contest." 

Mr.  Chairman.  If  it  were  possible  for  the  people  of  the 
United  States  to  permit  the  Union  to  be  dissolved  and  allow 
a  Southern  confederacy  to  be  permanently  established  it  would 
be  a  confederated  despotism  more  intolerant  than  any  govern- 
ment of  the  nineteenth  century.  Those  who  have  heretofore 
been  the  boasted  champions  of  what  they  have  been  pleased  to 
call  democracy,  do  not  hesitate  now  to  declare,  in  case  of  the 


— 158  — 

establislimerit  of  a  Southern  confederacy  that  everything-  like 
democracy  is  to  be  ignored.  Popular  government  is  a  failure! 
exclaim  the  leaders  of  this  Southern  revolution,  who,  until 
now,  have  been  loudest  in  declaiming  for  the  sovereignty  of 
the  people.  Popular  g-overnment  is  a  failure !  respond  the  mad 
disunion  pro-slavery  democracy.  Popular  g-overnment  is  a  fail- 
ure! is  echoed  back  by  many  of  the  so-called  conservatives,  who 
a  few  months  ago  were  clamorous  for  ' '  the  preservation  of  the 
Union  and  the  enforcement  of  the  laws."  Popular  govern- 
ment is  a  failure!  say  the  slave  barons,  who  are  attempting  to 
establish  a  slave  empire,  and  who  insist  that  a  government 
must  be  established  which  shall  prohibit  free  speech  and  a 
free  press,  for  with  them  these  are  also  a  failure.  Popular 
government  is  a  failure!  shout  this  band  of  conspirators  of  all 
former  political  parties  and  all  religious  creeds,  who  unite  in 
demanding  that  a  strong  military  government  shall  be  estab- 
lished, excluding  all  from  a  voice  in  its  deliberations  who  have 
not  a  pecuniary  interest  in  maintaining  the  institution  of 
slavery. 

They  desire  a  government  in  which  the  slave  masters 
shall  govern  as  the  Bourbons  in  Europe  claimed  to  have  gov- 
erned, by  the  grace  of  God,  and  that  the  poor  whites  shall 
submit.  And,  as  I  said  in  some  remarks  which  I  made  upon 
this  subject  at  the  last  session,  this  despotism  will  have  to  be 
resisted,  * '  or  the  poor  whites  of  the  South  will  first  be  dis- 
franchised, then  classed  socially  as  they  are  to-day,  to  a  great 
extent,  with  the  servile  race,  and  at  last  they  and  their  chil- 
dren will  be  melted  down  in  the  slave  population  forever.'* 
The  men  who  are  seeking  the  destruction  of  this  Union  and 
the  establishment  of  such  a  government  are  the  identical 
men  who  for  the  past  twenty-five  years  have  dictated  the 
policy,  controlled  the  political  action  of  all  their  conventions, 
and  finally  destroyed  the  old  Democratic  party  in  all  the  free 
States.  What  wonder  that  the  Northern  wing  of  this  old 
party  should  have  been  repudiated  by  the  people,  when  their 
leaders  surrendered  to  the  demands  of  this  slave  interest,  and 
while  professing  democracy,  abandoned  the  principles  of 
Jefferson  and  joined  in  an  effort  to  make  this  a  slave  empire. 


—  159  — 

Thos.  S.  Grimke,  of  South  Carolina,  one  of  the  noblest 
and  truest  of  men,  in  a  speech  of  great  power  and  eloquence, 
while  denouncing"  the  nullification  movement  of  Calhoun  in 
1833,  referred  to  the  certainty  of  slave  insurrections,  as  also 
the  ultimate  loss  of  liberty  to  the  poor  whites  in  case  of  civil 
war,  which  he  regarded  as  certain  to  follow  an  attempt  to 
enforce  the  doctrines  of  nullification.     He  said — 

*' These  insurrections  would  be  followed  by  depreciation 
of  property,  not  only  in  negroes,  but  of  all  kinds  of  wealth, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  necessities  of  war  would  require  an 
amount  of  taxation  that  could  be  enforced  only  by  a  military 
government,  under  which  even  the  liberties  of  the  whites 
will  soon  perish." 

If  there  is  disunion  and  civil  war,  it  will  be  no  fault  of 
the  Northern  people.  If  there  should  be  servile  insurrections, 
the  people  of  the  free  States  cannot  be  justly  charged  with 
inciting  it.  It  will  be  the  fault  of  the  very  men  who,  in  their 
madness  to  sustain  slavery,  have  inflamed  not  only  the  minds 
of  the  whites,  but  of  the  slave  population  also. 

A  traveler  returning  to  France  under  the  reign  of  Louis 
XVI.,  after  an  absence  of  many  years,  was  asked  what 
changes  he  found.  **  Nothing,"  he  answered,  '*  save  that  the 
people  are  now  saying  in  the  streets  what  was  formerly  only 
said  at  the  dinner  tables  and  in  the  drawing  rooms  of  the  lead- 
ing men  in  Paris." 

The  traveler  was  right.  **  The  idea  of  liberty  had  gone 
down  to  the  people.  Philosophy  in  a  deep  and  thrilling 
voice  had  told  the  injured  of  their  rights  as  men;  it  had  re- 
minded them  of  their  many  galling  wrongs.  Habit  still 
made  them  suffer  in  silence,  but  the  seeds  of  future  vengeance 
were  sown."     That  vengeance  was  the  French  revolution. 

The  slaves  in  the  South,  waiting  upon  their  masters  at 
the  dinner  tables,  at  all  political  meetings,  indeed  every- 
where, hear  the  Republican  party  denounced  and  Mr.  Lincoln 
called  their  friend.  They  hear  their  masters  declare  that  he 
is  to  liberate  them  by  force  if  necessary,  and  place  them  on  a 
social  and  political  equality  with  the  whites.  The  slave 
catches  up  their  thoughts;  vague  notions  of  freedom  take 
possession  of  him;  he  meditates  upon  it;  he  communicates  it 
from  cabin  to  cabin,  from  plantation  to  plantation,  and  thus 


—  160  — 

are  the  seeds  of  insurrections  sown  by  the  slave  masters,  and 
insurrections  in  time  are  sure  to  follow,  whether  the  South  is 
in  or  out  of  the  Union. 

But,  Mr,  Chairman,  I  am  asked  how  I  propose  to  adjust 
our  present  difficulties.  I  answer,  by  accommodating-  our- 
selves to  the  log-ic  of  events;  by  yielding-  to  that  which  is  in- 
evitable, and  obeying-  the  deliberately  expressed  will  of  the 
nation.  The  people  of  the  United  States  are  not  only  tired, 
but  disg-usted  with  these  everlasting-  diplomatic  tricks  called 
*' compromises,"  patched  up  by  slave  barons  and  political 
quacks  on  the  one  side,  and  commercial  timidity  and  northern 
flunkey  ism  on  the  other.  We  have  had  enoug-h  of  these 
crafty  tricks,  which  have  decided  nothing-;  which,  instead 
of  settling-  the  difficulty,  have  postponed  but  to  aggravate  it, 
leaving- the  ever-recurring-  dispute  to  be  ag-ain  "settled  "by 
the  next  g-eneration.  The  difficulties  that  environ  us  to-day 
are  as  well  understood  as  they  can  be  after  another  contest 
of  twenty-five  years.  The  truth  is,  slavery  is  gasping-  for 
breath;  it  is  struggling  for  a  new  lease  of  life;  it  demands 
guarantees  that  shall  make  the  lease  perpetual,  but  if  you 
will  not  give  that,  it  will  ' '  compromise "  with  less.  But 
whether  you  accede  to  its  demands  or  not,  the  logic  of  events 
tells  me  unmistakably  that  slavery  must  die.  The  judgment 
of  the  civilized  and  Christian  world  decrees  it.  Emancipa- 
tion is  the  sentiment  of  all  nations,  and  we  cannot  resist  it  if 
we  would,  and  ought  not  to  do  it  if  we  could.  What  the 
people  of  this  country  want,  what  they  expect  and  demand 
at  our  hands,  is  not  new  truces  with  slavery,  but  a  permanent 
settlement  of  this  question  in  the  only  way  it  ever  can  be 
settled  to  give  peace  and  contentment  to  the  country,  and 
that  is,  to  settle  it,  wherever  the  national  jurisdiction  extends, 
by  the  just  rule  of  right  and  liberty. 

Shall  we  meet  and  solve  this  problem  like  men,  fairly, 
honorably,  and  without  dissimulation,  and  as  the  better 
promptings  of  our  hearts  dictate;  or  shall  we  skulk  and  dodge 
like  the  tricksters  of  an  hour?  Shall  we  meet  the  question 
like  statesmen,  legislating  for  the  generations  to  come  as 
well  as  our  own,  or  shall  we  shift  the  responsibility,  with  all 


—  161  — 

its  accumulated  complications,  upon  those  who  must  succeed 
us? 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  been 
earnestly  strug-g-ling-,  in  one  form  or  another,  with  this  giant 
evil  of  slavery  for  nearly  half  a  century;  and  though  often 
betrayed  by  their  leaders  into  what  were  called  "com- 
promises," the  faith  of  the  masses  has  remained  unshaken, 
and  they  have  continued  hopeful.  Though  often  defeated  in 
their  political  struggles  for  obtaining  possession  of  the  govern- 
ment, they  have  always  been  loyal,  and  never  threatened  or 
attempted  rebellion  or  revolution.  This  struggle  between  the 
people  on  the  one  side,  and  a  privileged  class  on  the  other, 
has  been  such  a  struggle  as  the  world  has  never  witnessed, 
because  it  has  been  conducted  peacefully  and  lawfully.  No 
war,  no  desolated  homes,  no  hatred,  but  a  generous,  noble, 
self-sacrificing  struggle,  that  must  challenge  the  admiration 
of  the  world,  accomplished  as  it  has  been,  by  peaceful  citizens, 
in  the  mode  and  manner  prescribed  by  the  Constitution,  by 
the  silent  but  all-potent  power  of  the  ballot.  No  man  could 
have  been  a  disinterested  witness  to  this  grand  struggle,  and 
beheld  its  first  triumph  without  feeling  that  "peace  hath  her 
victories  no  less  renowned  than  war."  With  the  old  watch- 
word of  "Freedom  and  Peace,"  we  have  conquered,  and  to- 
day the  liberty-loving  men  of  all  nations  join  in  hailing  with 
pride  the  advancing  chief,  the  chosen  of  the  people.  The 
consequences  of  this  peaceful  victory  no  man  can  foresee. 
The  effect  of  its  example  on  the  nations  will  be  incalculable, 
even  though  we  should  have  some  trouble  with  those  who 
are  seeking  to  destroy  the  Government  because  they  cannot 
longer  administer  it.  It  will  reinstate  us  where  we  were  in 
the  days  of  Washington,  in  the  respect  and  affections  of  the 
people  of  Europe,  and  the  American  Government,  if  true  to  the 
ideas  upon  which  the  triumph  of  which  I  am  speaking  has  been 
achieved,  will  from  this  time  forward  hold  the  first  position 
among  the  powers  of  the  earth,  and  as  a  nation  and  people, 
we  shall,  as  we  ought,  hold  the  first  place  in  history  for 
many  generations  to  come.  If,  however,  we  should  fail,  from 
any  cause,  to  carry  out  in  good  faith,  this  grand  decree  of  the 
people;  if  through  fear  deceptive  compromises  are  forced 
11 


—  162  — 

upon  us,  and  the  people  are  ag-ain  betrayed  under  the  pretense 
of  appeasing"  those  whose  whole  history  g"ives  us  the  as- 
surance that  they  will  be  satisfied  with  nothing-  short  of  hav- 
ing" slavery  recog"nized  as  property  by  constitutional  provision, 
those  who  aid  in  accomplishing  this  g-reat  wrong"  will  deserve, 
as  they  will  receive,  the  condemnation  of  all  liberty-loving- 
men. 

But  I  am  told  that  the  people  demand  that  such  con- 
cessions and  compromises  shall  be  g"ranted.  Sir,  I  deny  it. 
I  have  seen  no  evidence  of  it  and  do  not  believe  it.  I  grant 
you,  sir,  that  there  are  some  who  demand  it;  the  leaders  of  the 
party  which  have  just  been  driven  from  power  by  an  indig- 
nant people,  demand  it,  and  are  supported  in  their  imperious 
demands  by  almost  the  entire  slave  interest  of  the  country; 
but  the  great  body  of  the  people,  the  millions,  not  only  do  not 
demand  it,  but  I  tell  you,  sir,  that  they  will  never  tolerate  it. 
Sir,  I  should  be  loath  to  believe  that  those  who,  through  so 
many  long  and  weary  years,  have  struggled  hopefully  on 
amid  disasters  and  defeats,  the  desertions  of  pretended  friends 
and  false  leaders,  could,  in  the  hour  of  their  triumph,  advise 
a  surrender  to  the  minority,  and  consent  to  abandon  that 
cause  which  alone  made  success  in  the  late  campaign  possit?le. 
I  cannot  believe  that  the  people,  under  the  menace  of  dis- 
union and  revolution,  will  ever  take  a  step  backward,  that 
they  will,  in  so  cowardly  a  manner,  give  up  every  principle 
for  which  they  have  been  so  heroically  battling  for  years. 
No,  no;  this  grand  array  of  millions  which  has  withstood  so 
many  defeats  while  battling  for  the  right,  will  march  on 
and  march  on  under  the  banner  of  **  Peace,"  conquering  and 
to  conquer.  No  earthly  power  can  stay  it.  In  its  triumphal 
progress  it  will  know  no  barrier  but  justice,  no  restraint  but 
the  just  restraints  of  the  Constitution.  Missouri  compromises 
and  all  other  compromise  lines  which  you  may  establish  in 
your  puny  efforts  to  secure  new  guarantees  to  slavery,  will 
fade  like  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  vision  before  its  advancing 
tread.  This  Government  was  not  organized  for  the  purpose 
of  making  slavery  universal  and  perpetual;  but  to  *'  establish 

JUSTICE,  INSURE  DOMESTIC  TRANQUII<ITY,  PROVIDE  FOR  THE 
COMMON     DEFENSE,     PROMOTE    THE     GENERAI.    WELFARE,     AND 


—  163  — 

SECURE    THE    BLESSINGS   OF  I^IBERTY  TO  OURSEI^VES  AND   OUR 
POSTERITY." 

This  was  the  cherished  purpose  of  the  fathers  when  they 
launched  this  great  ship  of  state,  the  Constitution,  upon  the 
yet  troubled  waters  which  were  crimsoned  with  the  blood  of 
the  Revolution.  They  firmly  believed  that  she  would  weather 
every  storm.  In  this  faith  they  laid  them  down  to  rest,  and 
committed  to  those  who  should  come  after  them  its  direction 
and  g-overnment.  Shall  we,  their  sons,  falter  and  desert  her 
now,  when  storms  and  tempests  beat  ag-ainst  her,  or  shall 
we,  like  true  mariners,  stand  firmly  at  the  post  of  duty  and 
dang-er?  Shall  we,  with  the  very  dawn  of  the  morning-  beam- 
ing- upon  us,  g-ive  up  all,  and,  without  a  strugg-le,  let  the 
tempest  and  darkness  close  around  her  and  engulf  all  in  one 
common  ruin?  or  shall  we  cling  to  the  good  old  ship,  and 
put  a  new  commander  upon  her  deck,  who  will  go  back  to 
the  old  chart,  put  her  head  to  the  storm,  and  man  her  with 
freemen  instead  of  slaves? 

Mr.  Chairman,  to  a  patriot  and  lover  of  his  country 
there  would  seem  to  be  but  one  course.  The  voices  of  the 
people  echo  but  one  cry,  but  one  command,  and  that  is: 
**Save  the  good  ship  Constitution  from  her  present  peril!" 
If  we  fail  to  do  this  we  are  not  the  men  for  the  hour.  If 
need  be,  party  ties  must  be  severed  and  party  divisions  for- 
gotten; sectional  animosities  must  cease,  and  a  union  of  all 
freedom-loving  men  secured  tor  the  sake  of  liberty  and  the 
Union.  If  while  the  coming  dawn  foreshadows  the  deliver- 
ance of  all  nations  and  the  freedom  of  every  race,  we  alone 
are  found  destroying  the  most  perfect  form  of  government 
ever  given  to  man,  in  a  struggle  to  make  slavery  perpetual, 
of  all  men  we  will  be  the  most  guilty.  Shall  history  record 
this,  the  darkest  of  crimes,  against  our  names?  Shall  our 
children  execrate  our  memories  because  we  were  traitors  and 
cowards,  and,  for  an  hour  of  promised  peace  and  commercial 
prosperity,  consented  to  our  own  and  their  degradation  and 
the  endless  bondage  of  millions?  Shall  it  be  said  that  while 
thrones  throughout  Kurope  are  falling,  and  long  oppressed 
races  are  everywhere  claiming  and  asserting  their  God-given 
rights;  while  a  free  press  is  proclaiming  that  this  is  the  gol- 


—  164  — 

den  ag-e  of  justice  that  precedes  the  year  of  a  universal  jubilee, 
when  the  people  of  all  nations  will  be  marching-  to  the  joyful 
sound  of  liberty  and  independence  —  shall  it  be  said  of  us,  I 
say,  that,  under  our  direction,  the  Republic  established  by 
"Washing-ton,  alone  is  relapsing  into  despotism?  At  a  time 
when  the  sons  of  strug-g-ling-  humanity  are  loosing  the  bonds 
which  have  bound  them  for  ages,  and,  in  obedience  to  the 
Divine  command,  are  '*  permitting-  the  oppressed  to  g-o  free," 
shall  the  freemen  of  this  country  consent  to  rerivet  the  chains 
of  the  slave,  and  thus  aid  those  who  are  seeking-  permanently 
to  establish  and  extend  this  despotism  throug-hout  all  the  free 
Territories  of  the  nation? 

While  Italy,  after  a  struggle  of  centuries,  under  the 
guidance  of  her  brave  Garibaldi  (who  is  to  Italy  to-day  what 
"Washington  was  to  us),  is  marching  in  unity  to  secure  the 
enjoyment  of  constitutional  liberty,  and  Hungary  and  Ger- 
many are  keeping  step  to  the  universal  march  of  nations, 
while  Russia  is  emancipating  her  millions  of  slaves,  and  all 
peoples,  under  every  form  of  government,  are  advancing 
toward  the  dawn  of  that  civilization  which  liberty  always 
brings,  shall  the  people  of  the  United  States,  who  have  the 
grandest  government  committed  to  their  keeping  which  the 
world  has  ever  seen,  alone  be  found  struggling  to  make  the 
rule  of  slavery  universal?  Can  an  American  representative 
in  such  an  hour  as  this,  either  from  motives  of  personal 
ambition  or  sordid  pecuniary  interest,  consent  to  foster  strife, 
division,  and  discord,  and  without  hesitancy  or  remorse  give 
his  vote  to  drive  back  both  citizens  and  government  toward 
the  night  of  despotism  and  barbarism? 

God  grant,  sir,  that  every  representative  may  pause  and 
consider  well  the  momentous  consequences  of  every  vote  he 
may  be  called  upon  to  cast  before  giving  it  in  favor  of  any 
of  the  numerous  compromise  schemes  and  proposed  constitu- 
tional amendments  which  are  sought  to  be  forced  upon  us, 
and  which,  if  adopted,  will  be  but  another  step,  so  far  as  the 
action  of  this  body  can  decree  it,  toward  making  slavery  con- 
stitutional and  perpetual  in  this  so-called  land  of  liberty. 


IMPORTANT  LETTER  FROM  HON.  J.  M.  ASHLEY. 


Washington,  May  24,  1861. 

Editor  Blade:  I  protested  in  my  former  letter,  as  I 
again  protest  in  this,  and  as  I  hope  the  Blade  and  the  peo- 
ple everjrwhere  will  protest,  against  our  soldiers  being  used 
for  the  accursed  purpose  of  slave-catching,  either  in  this  city 
or  elsewhere.  They  did  not  volunteer  for  that  purpose,  and 
it  is  an  assumption  of  power  for  which  there  is  no  authority. 
No  military  officer  has  any  legal  or  moral  right  to  give  such 
commands  or  issue  such  proclamations. 

I  know  of  two  soldiers  in  this  city,  who,  when  placed 
on  guard,  gave  notice  to  the  officer  in  command  that  they 
would  not  comply  with  such  an  order  if  issued;  that  they 
would  not  only  go  to  the  guard-house  and  be  court-martialed, 
but  would  submit  to  any  punishment  before  they  would  do  a 
thing  so  infamous.  I  honor  these  truly  brave  men,  as  will 
every  one  who  reads  this.  They  ought  to  be  in  command 
instead  of  being  in  the  ranks.  I  regret  to  say,  however,  that 
quite  a  number  of  fugitives  have  been  captured  and  returned 
by  the  troops  in  and  about  Washington.  So  long  has  the 
North  been  accustomed  to  do  the  **  dirty  work"  of  the  slave 
barons  that  even  now,  when  these  men  are  in  rebellion  against 
the  government,  some  of  the  northern  volunteers  become  slave- 
catchers  at  the  bidding  of  these  traitors  with  whom  the 
government  is  at  war.  The  sardonic  impudence,  which  en- 
ables these  traitors  to  come  into  the  military  camps  of  the 
nation,  and  order  the  soldiers  of  the  Republic  to  aid  them  in 
capturing  and  returning  their  fugitives  to  slavery,  would  be 
truly  refreshing  were  it  not  for  the  doughfaceism  it  still 
betrays,  and  the  disgrace  and  humiliation  it  must  bring  upon 
us  at  home  and  abroad.  A  case  of  this  kind  occurred  here 
the  other  day.  A  slave  escaped  from  Virginia,  a  State  at 
war  with  the  government  of  the  United  States.  This  slave 
is  called  property  in  Virginia  and  in  all  the  States  in  rebellion 

(165) 


166- 


against  the  government.  If  they  are  property,  then  instead 
of  it  being  the  duty  of  the  government  (it  never  can  be  made 
the  duty  of  the  soldier)  to  catch  and  return  these  slaves,  it 
is  their  duty,  and  the  duty  of  every  soldier,  not  only  to  pre- 
vent their  claimants  from  capturing  them,  but  it  is  their 
duty  to  hold  them  just  as  they  would  any  property,  that  can 
be  used  by  the  rebels  to  destroy  the  lives  and  property  of 
citizens  and  the  government.  The  rebels  are  using  these 
black  men  to  build  fortifications  and  to  do  a  thousand  things 
for  which  we  use  only  white  men.  They  are  made  as  useful 
by  the  rebels  as  if  they  were  soldiers.  Why  should  we  not 
accept  their  services  rather  than  turn  them  back  to  the 
enemy,  and  at  the  end  of  the  war  liberate  all  the  men  with 
their  wives  and  children  who  not  only  refused  to  fight  or  aid 
in  any  way  in  resisting  the  government,  but  absolutely  ran 
into  our  camps  and  demanded  to  work  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  government? 

But  I  am  digressing  from  the  relation  of  a  fact  into  an 
argument  as  to  our  duty. 

That  is  so  clear,  I  will  not  add  another  word.  The 
claimant  of  this  slave  followed  him  into  this  city  and  found 
him.  The  slave,  strange  to  say,  attempted  to  get  away  from 
his  master  and  ran  to  the  quarters  of  a  Pennsylvania  regi- 
ment, where  he  was  brought  up  standing  by  the  bayonets  of 
the  soldiers,  who  detained  him  until  his  pretended  master 
came  up.  The  poor  slave  could  hardly  believe  what  he  saw, 
and  in  a  supplicating  tone  said,  *'Why,  gentlemen,  you  are 
not  going  to  let  this  man  take  me  off  in  this  way,  are  you  ?  " 
This  brave  (?)  band  of  so-called  national  defenders  did  not 
heed  his  appeal,  but  in  violation  of  every  principle  of  honor, 
to  say  nothing  of  duty  and  the  demands  of  humanity,  they 
detained  him  until  the  man  claiming  him  brought  a  carriage 
and  secured  him  and  took  him  back.  This  is  a  fact  which  I 
know,  alas,  to  be  too  true,  and  I  blush  for  my  country  to  say 
that  it  is  not  the  first  one.  In  God's  name  are  we  to  be 
forever  thus  humiliated  and  disgraced  ?  I  trust  the  united 
voice  of  the  nation  will  demand  that  no  such  infamous  act 
shall  be  repeated  by  any  portion  of  the  army,  and  that  every 
soldier  who  shall  hereafter  be  guilty  of  such  an  act,  shall  be 


—  167^ 

drummed  out  of  the  service  disgraced,  and  thus  be  declared 
too  infamous  to  associate  with  the  soldiers  of  the  republic. 
If  any  one  or  two  of  these  very  soldiers  had  gone  into 
Virginia  on  that  very  day,  and  this  slave  master  had  had 
them  in  his  power,  the  chances  are  ten  to  one  that  he  would 
have  had  them  hanged  by  his  order,  as  a  number  of  northern 
men  have  been  by  slave  masters. 

If  they  did  not  share  this  fate,  they  would  hardly  have 
escaped  being  tied  up  by  his  order  to  a  whipping-post  and 
this  very  slave  ordered  to  give  them  from  ten  to  one  hundred 
lashes,  just  as  the  whim  or  caprice  of  the  slave  baron  might 
deem  necessary  to  convert  them  from  their  supposed  hatred 
of  slavery  (because  living  in  the  North)  to  a  love  for  it.  For 
it  is  well  known  that  those  who  profess  to  love  slavery  and 
do  the  bidding  of  slave  masters  are  never  hanged,  burned, 
whipped,  robbed  or  driven  out  of  the  South.  Those  who  do 
not  love  slavery  above  kindred,  country  and  God,  as  the 
rebels  love  it,  are  subject  to  tortures,  imprisonments,  ban- 
ishments, or  death.  No  man  in  the  South  need  have  any  fears 
if  he  will  but  fall  down,  and  worship  loud  enough,  the  god  of 
slavery. 

If  he  interpose  any  conditions  or  doubts,  however,  he  is 
worse  than  an  unbeliever,  and  an  unbelief  in  the  divinity  of 
slavery  is  a  greater  crime  in  the  eyes  of  the  slave  baron  than 
any  offense,  not  even  excepting  murder,  and  they  are 
generally  dealt  with  by  the  Christian  process  of  tarring 
and  feathers,  whipping  and  hanging.  If  this  infamous 
oligarchy  thus  treat  men  and  women  born  on  their  own 
soil,  and  guilty  of  no  crime,  what  ought  northern  men  to  ex- 
pect who  do  not  yield  to  every  demand  of  these  men,  how- 
ever monstrous  ?  No  northern  man,  however,  need  have  any 
trouble  with  the  slave  barons  of  the  South,  if  he  will  only 
consent  to  obey  implicitly  the  demands  they  make  upon  him. 
And  if  this  nation  would  but  submit  to  all  the  demands  of 
the  southern  oligarchy  to-day,  there  need  be  no  war,  no  loss 
of  life,  and  no  expenditure  of  hundreds  of  millions. 

Have  you  heard  of  any  cowardly  doughface  lately  de- 
manding that  twenty-five  millions  of  free  men  shall  submit 
to  the  mild  and  easy  yoke  of  the  three  hundred  thousand 
slave  barons  of  the  South?     Do  you  know  of  any  who  will 


—  168  — 

say  now  what  the  so-called  ** Peace  Commissioners"  said, 
when  they  were  in  Washing-ton  in  secret  session,  bowing-  like 
slaves  before  the  eyes  of  their  masters  and  declaring  as  some 
of  them  did,  "that  they  did  not  want  any  backbone,  that 
they  intended  to  do  whatever  their  southern  brothers  asked, 
for  they  knew  that  they  would  only  ask  for  that  which  was 
honorable  and  right.'* 

By  the  by,  what  has  become  of  all  northern  compro- 
misers, who  were  members  of  the  "Peace  Congress?"  I 
hear  nothing  of  them  or  from  them.  I  certainly  hope  that 
their  extraordinary  mental  labors  while  here  attempting  to 
secure  a  peace  by  an  unconditional  surrender,  has  not  pro- 
duced a  softening  of  the  brain.  Above  all,  I  sincerely  trust 
that  the  war  has  not  frightened  them  any  worse  than  they 
appeared  to  be  frightened  when  closeted  in  secret,  misrepre- 
senting and  betraying  the  people  by  voting  with  such 
traitors  as  John  Tyler  &  Co.  If  they  are  as  badly  frightened 
now  as  they  claimed  to  be  then,  they  have  probably  left  the 
country.  If  they  have,  I  shall  regret  it  very  much,  for  we 
shall  need  (now  that  it  is  so  scarce)  some  such  doughy  ma- 
terial for  future  use. 

These  frightened  old  fossils  voted  with  the  southern 
rebels,  first  to  exclude  the  public  from  their  deliberations  and 
then  to  exclude  all  reporters  for  the  press,  hoping  thereby  to 
prevent  the  public  from  ever  getting  at  the  record  of  their 
base  and  cowardly  acts,  only  so  far  as  they  should  consent 
to  make  it  up  for  their  inspection. 

Fortunately  for  the  people  and  the  future  of  the  country, 
there  were  earnest  and  competent  men,  members  of  that  body, 
who  kept  a  faithful  record  of  every  word  and  act,  and  I  am 
happy  to  state  that  it  will  soon  be  given  to  the  public.  When 
it  is  published  I  have  no  doubt  but  what  we  shall  hear  from 
some  of  the  "Peace  Commissioners"  in  efforts  to  explain 
certain  votes  and  speeches.  While  I  cannot  help  regretting 
that  bad  and  corrupt  men  have  forced  our  country  to  a  civil 
war,  I  cannot  but  rejoice  to  know  that  the  logic  of  events 
has  stripped  bare  the  logic  of  northern  doughfaced  poli- 
ticians and  proved  how  false  were  all  their  declarations. 

More  than  a  year  ago,  I  declared  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, that  in  case  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  election  the  South 


—  169  — 

*  *  would  be  m  rebellion  against  the  government  and  enemies 
of  the  Constitution  and  the  Union."  I  said  further,  that 
which  is  now  generally  admitted  by  all  parties,  although 
these  words  were  then  thought  to  be  too  strong,  **that  we 
never  should  have  peace  until  the  present  noisy  advocates 
of  slavery  here  and  elsewhere  were  reduced  to  insignificance 
and  silence,  and  everywhere  beneath  the  national  ensign 
the  rights  of  humanity  were  fully  recognized  and  respected, 
and  our  lawmakers  and  general  and  state  governments 
should  again  be  directed  by  the  genius  of  universal  eman- 
cipation." I  insisted  list  winter  in  all  my  letters  to  you  and 
others,  that,  compromise  or  no  compromise,  there  would  be 
war,  and  that  we  might  as  well  prepare  for  it  first  as  last. 

If  I  have  not  understood  this  question  from  the  first, 
then  I  never  have  and  never  can  understand  any  political 
question,  and  I  think  my  votes  on  all  the  cunningly  devised 
propositions  of  traitors  and  doughfaces,  which,  in  the  last 
Congress  were  attempted  to  be  forced  upon  the  people,  justify 
me  in  saying  this  much  of  myself. 

One  of  the  most  important  of  all  political  questions  ever 
presented  for  the  consideration  of  any  administration  in  this 
country,  is  about  to  be  forced  upon  this  administration,  and 
I  rejoice  that  it  must  come  now.  I  have  long  contemplated 
it,  and  find  but  one  course  of  action  practicable  or  honorable. 
I  allude  to  the  disposition  of  the  slaves,  who,  as  our  army 
penetrates  into  the  South,  will  desert  from  the  camps  and 
plantations  of  the  rebels  and  join  our  ranks.  If  we  send 
them  back  we  strengthen  the  enemy.  If  we  permit  them  to 
come,  we  destroy  the  enemy.  They  are  using  these  slaves 
to  erect  fortifications  to  destroy  our  troops,  using  them  to 
raise  grain,  etc.,  to  support  their  armies. 

Shall  the  government  use  its  military  power  to  weaken 
itself  and  strengthen  its  enemies  ?  Would  any  nation  en- 
gaged in  a  war  with  another  nation  thus  act  ?  These  ques- 
tions answer  themselves.  Then  again,  if  the  slaves  are  once 
fairly  convinced  that  the  North,  whom  they  have  been  taught 
by  their  masters  to  believe  were  their  friends,  are  as  hostile 
to  them  as  their  masters,  we  will  have  done  just  what  these 
southern  traitors  ask.     If  we  take  the  only  practical  course. 


—  170  — 

the  backbone  of  this  rebellion  is  already  broken,  and  the  in- 
tegrity of  the  nation  will  be  maintained. 

On  our  part  this  is  not  a  war  for  the  conquest  or  subju- 
gation of  the  South,  or  the  enslavement  of  any  people,  but  a 
war  for  their  liberation  rather  —  a  war  to  relieve  them  of  the 
military  despotism  and  mob  law  with  which  they  are  cursed, 
a  war  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union  and  our  national  ex- 
istence as  a  free  g-overnment. 

A  cause  so  holy  and  so  just  cannot  fail  to  enlist  the  sym- 
pathies of  the  people  of  all  nations,  and  if  the  Administra- 
tion but  discharges  its  duty,  as  I  have  faith  it  will,  that 
cause  will  triumph.  Depend  upon  it,  however,  that  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States  will  never  consent  to  fight  against 
the  slave  barons  and  at  the  same  time  fight  to  make  slavery 
perpetual.  You  cannot  make  a  free  people  fight  for  and 
against  a  great  crime  at  the  same  time.  You  cannot  put 
down  this  rebellion  and  at  the  same  time  build  up  and  main- 
tain that  which  caused  the  rebellion.  Every  man  concedes 
that  if  there  had  been  no  slavery  in  the  nation,  there 
would  have  been  no  such  rebellion  as  we  have  to-day .  Every 
man  knows  that  if  slavery  is  strengthened  by  any  act  of  the 
government,  either  by  fighting  to  maintain  it,  or  by  com- 
promising to  give  it  a  new  lease  of  life,  just  such  rebellions 
as  we  now  have,  are  as  certain  to  follow  if  the  slave  barons 
are  defeated  by  the  people  in  another  election.  Who,  then, 
is  willing  and  anxious  to  strengthen  slavery  to-day,  by  fight- 
ing for  it  or  giving  to  it  new  constitutional  guarantees? 
Where  are  the  compromisers?  If  there  are  any,  let  us  hear 
from  them,  that  we  may  know  who  and  where  they  are  — 
that  the  people  may  write  down  opposite  their  names  that 
which    shall     properly    characterize     their    weakness    and 

DEPRAVITY. 

I  leave  for  Fortress  Monroe  to-morrow.     If  I  can,  I  will 
write  you  from  there.  J.  M.  A. 


ADDRESS 

OF  HON.  JAMES  M.  ASHLEY. 


Delivered  at  College  Hall  in  the  City  of  Toledo, 
Tuesday  Evening,  Nov.  26,  1861. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


Hon.  J.  M.  Ashley — 

Dear  Sir:  The  undersigned  request  you  to  address  the 
citizens  of  Toledo  on  the  subject  of  the  present  rebellion,  at 
Colleg-e  Hall,  at  such  time  as  suits  your  convenience,  prior  to 
your  leaving  for  Washington. 

Toledo,  Nov.  19,  1861. 
R.  C.  Lemmon,  Charles  Kent, 

A.  W.  Gleason,      M.  R.  Waite, 
Valentine  Braun,  W.  Baker, 

James  Myers, 

Jonathan  Wyn^t, 


D.  A.  Pease, 

Alex.  Reed, 

Horace  Thatcher,  Lyman  Parcher, 

Wm.  Kraus,  a.  H.  Hathaway, 


W.  W.  Jones, 
F.  A.  Jones, 
Peleg  T.  Clark, 
Dan.  Segur, 
and  many  others. 


Toledo,  Nov.  21,  1861. 
Gentlemen:     In  reply  to  your  favor  of  the  19th  inst., 
inviting  me  to  address  the  people  of  this  city  on  the  subject 
of  the  present  rebellion,  I  will  name  Tuesday  evening  next, 
Nov.  26.  Respectfully, 

J.  M.  Ashley. 
To  R.  C.  Lemmon,  Esq.,  and  others. 


Letter  from  Hon.  N.  W.  Cuney,  Galveston,  Texas. 
After  g-iving  Mr.  Ashley's  patriotic  letter  on  page  ;i6S,  and  his 
speech  on  pag-e  172  a  careful  perusal,  I  am  free  to  say  that  in  so 
much  as  his  utterances  on  the  subject  of  the  manumission  of  the 
slaves  of  the  South  antedated  Mr.  Lincoln's  proclamation,  they  had 
much  to  do  with  influencing-  the  administration  with  a  trend  of 
opinion,  favorable  to  the  consummation  of  what  I  consider  the  most 
g-lorious  and  human  act  of  any  administration  in  our  history. 

Mr.  Ashley's  presentation  of  facts  is  cog-ent-and  accurate,  his 
deductions  logical,  and  the  spirit  of  truth  and  fairness  apparent  from  start  to  finish, 
as  all  f  airminded  men  will  attest. 

In  my  opinion  there  can  be  no  question,  with  the  intelligent  reader,  of  how  Mr. 
Ashley  stood  over  thirty  years  ago  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  and  no  one  acquainted 
with  his  public  record  of  later  years,  will  deny  him  his  proper  place  in  history  and  in 
the  hearts  of  the  colored  people.  N.  W.  Cuney 

(171) 


N.  W.  CUNEY. 


—  172- 

The  demand  for  this  speech  has  been  so  great  that  the 
first  edition  was  soon  exhausted,  and  a  larger  one  is  now 
issued  to  supply  the  continued  demand.  The  following  are 
a  few  of  the  many  commendatory  notices  taken  from  leading 
Union  papers: 

*'"We  have  read  this  thrilling  speech  with  unmingled 
satisfaction.  Of  all  the  expositions  of  the  causes  of  the 
rebellion,  and  the  consequences  which  are  to  follow  in  its 
train,  this  is  by  far  the  richest  in  fact,  the  clearest  in  state- 
ment, and  the  ablest  and  most  demonstrative  in  argument,  of 
anything  that  the  rebellion  has  called  forth.  Nothing  but 
its  length  precludes  its  publication  in  the  Telegraph,  and 
want  of  time  prevents  a  longer  notice  this  week. 

"We  thank  the  author  for  the  copy  of  the  address  sent 
to  us,  and  we  thank  him  again  and  again,  in  the  name  of  all 
loyal  and  right-minded  men,  for  the  true  and  manly  senti- 
ments to  which  he  has  given  a  voice  in  fitting  words,  that 
will  make  it  one  of  the  few  speeches  which  will  outlive  their 
authors." — Mkigs  Co.    (Ohio)  Tki^KGraph. 

"The  speech  delivered  by  Hon.  J,  M.  Ashley,  at  Col- 
lege Hall,  Toledo,  by  request  of  a  number  of  his  con- 
stituents, on  the  Causes  of  the  Rebellion,  is  one  of  the  best 
expositions  that  has  yet  appeared.  It  is  convincing  in  argu- 
ment, mild  in  tone,  replete  with  historical  facts,  and  should 
be  read  by  every  man,  especially  by  such  as  entertain  any 
doubt  as  to  the  origin  and  purposes  of  the  Rebellion." — Ohio 
State  Journai.. 

"An  able  and  valuable  speech." — N.  Y.  Evening  Post. 

Letter  from  Bishop  J.  A.  Handy,  D.  D.,  Washington,  D.  C. 
No  one  could  have  listened  to  tLe  address  of  the  Hon.  J.  M. 
Ashley,  of  Toledo,  Ohio,  Nov.,  1861,  without  being-  thrilled.  No  one 
to-day  can  rise  up  from  its  reading-  without  the  conviction  that  it 
exposes  the  causes  which  made  the  Rebellion  possible.  The  duty  of 
the  nation  now  is  to  see  to  it,  that  this  g-reat  country  shall  be  pre- 
served free,  and  that  a  government  of  the  whole  people,  for  the 
whole  people,  by  the  whole  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth. 
The  dreadful  results  of  dismemberment  were  averted,  and  the  two 
J.  A.  HANDY.  doctrines  presented  to  the  people  before  the  war,  are  settled.  The 
doctrine  of  the  South  was,  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  is  a  federal 
union  of  sovereign  States.  The  doctrine  of  the]  rest  of  the  country  was  that  it  is  a 
national  republic.  While  the  war  did  not  change  the  facts  as  to  the  doctrine  held,  it 
settled  the  issue.  Incidentally  slavery  went  out,  and  the  slave  walked  out  of  chattel- 
hood  up  into  manhood,  a  citizen— a  member  of  the  body  politic— while  all  the  States 
entwined  around  one  common  centre,  the  national  Constitution.  J.  A.  Handy. 


THE  REBELLION  — ITS  CAUSES  AND  CON- 
SEQUENCES. 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  :  In  response  to  an  in- 
vitation from  a  number  of  my  fellow-citizens,  I  appear  before 
you  to-nig-ht  to  present  as  briefly  as  I  can  my  views  of  the 
rebellion,  its  causes  and  consequences.  And  here  let  me  say 
that  the  observations  which  I  propose  to  make,  will  be  in  the 
main,  but  a  recitation  of  historial  facts.  Facts  are  stubborn 
things,  and  I  prefer  to  use  them  in  examining-  the  question 
upon  which  I  am  to  speak  to-nig-ht,  rather  than  to  resort  to 
declamation.  I  do  it  as  a  duty,  and  to  demonstrate  to  you 
beyond  all  dispute  that  the  cause  for  which  we  were  fig-hting 
is  the  cause  of  Justice,  Union,  and  Constitutional  Liberty.  If 
I  could  not  do  this  I  would  ask  no  man  to  join  the  army,  for  I 
could  not  ask  a  man  to  enter  the  army  to  fight  for  injustice 
and  oppression. 

THIS  REBELLION  WITHOUT  PARALLEL. 

I  need  hardly  say  to  you  that  we  are  in  the  midst  of  a 
rebellion  unlike  any  which  has  preceded  it,  in  the  history  of 
the  world. 

There  have  been  many  rebellions  and  revolutions  since 
the  establishment  of  civilized  governments,  but  this  is  the 
first  attempted  revolution  having  for  its  avowed  object  the 
extension  and  perpetuity  of  human  slavery.  All  rebellions 
which  have  preceded  this  have  been  professedly  to  secure  the 
rights  and  liberties  of  the  people.  Therefore  of  all  rebellions 
this  is  the  most  causeless  and  criminal. 

The  seeds  of  this  rebellion  were  first  sown  as  long  ago 
as  the  year  1620,  when  a  Dutch  ship  entered  the  mouth  of 
James  River  in  the  then  infant  colony  of  Virginia,  and  com- 
mitted the  infamous  crime  of  selling  twenty  black  men  as 
slaves.  The  British  Government  fostered  and  protected  by 
law  the  seed  then  sown,  and  added  yearly  to  it,  more  than  an 
hundredfold,  by  fresh  importations*  up  to  the  date  of  the 
establishment  of  our  independence. 

( 173  ) 


—  174 


JEFFERSON  AND  THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 

The  leading*  men  of  the  Revolution  saw,  and,  like  true  men, 
acknowleged  the  inhumanity,  the  injustice  and  the  crime  of 
slavery.  Jefferson  said,  when  speaking-  of  it,  that  **he 
trembled  for  his  country  when  he  thoug-ht  of  the  neg-ro  and 
remembered  that  God  was  just."  In  the  orig-inal  draft  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  he  charg-ed  as  one  of  the 
g-rievances  of  which  we  justly  complained  at  the  hands  of  the 
mother  country,  that  of  forcing-  slavery  upon  us.  These  are 
his  precise  words : 

"He  has  wag-ed  a  cruel  war  ag-ainst  human  nature  itself, 
violating-  the  most  sacred  rig-hts  of  life  and  liberty  in  the 
persons  of  a  distant  people,  who  never  offended  him,  capti- 
vating and  carrying-  them  into  slavery  in  another  hemisphere, 
or  to  incur  a  miserable  death  in  transportation  thither.  This 
piratical  warfare,  the  opprobrium  of  infidel  powers,  is  the 
warfare  of  the  Christian  King-  of  Great  Britain,  determined 
to  keep  open  a  market  where  men  shall  be  boug-ht  and  sold. 
He  has  prostituted  his  neg-ative  by  suppressing-  every  leg-is- 
lative  attempt  to  prohibit  or  restrain  this  execrable  com- 
merce, and  that  this  assemblage  of  horrors  might  want  no 
fact  of  distinguished  dye,  he  is  now  exciting  these  very 
people  to  rise  in  arms  among  us,  and  to  purchase  that  liberty 
of  which  he  has  deprived  them,  by  murdering  the  people  on 
whom  he  also  obtruded  them;  thus  paying  off  former  crimes 
committed  against  the  liberties  of  one  people  with  crimes 
which  he  urges  them  to  commit  against  the  lives  of  another." 

That  this  truthful  count  in  the  indictment  against  Great 
Britain  was  stricken  out  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
on  demand  of  the  slave  barons,  I  regret,  as  all  liberty-loving 
men  have  regretted,  but  that  it  was  stricken  out,  and  at  such 
a  time  and  under  the  circumstances,  tells  you  better  than  I 
can  tell  you,  of  the  danger  which  imperils  the  life  of  a  nation 
that  fosters  and  protects  a  privileged  class. 


FEELING  AGAINST  SLAVERY  SINCE  THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF 
INDEPENDENCE. 

Since  the  establishment  of  our  independence,  the  exis- 
tence and  growing  strength  of  this  slaveholding  privileged 
class,  has  been  a  source  of  anxious  solicitude  on  the  part  of 


leading"  patriots  and  statesmen,  not  only  in  the  North,  but 
also  in  the  South.  To  the  careful  study  and  investig-ation 
of  the  question  which  has  caused  the  present  rebellion  I  have 
given  all  the  early  years  of  my  life,  and  with  most  men  who 
have  impartially  examined  it,  I  have  been  satisfied  for  many 
years,  that  the  day  was  speedily  approaching,  when  the 
question  was  to  be  settled  by  the  American  people  whether 
slavery,  to  use  the  lang-uag-e  of  President  Lincoln —  *'  should 
be  put  where  the  people  would  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  was 
in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction,"  or  the  United  States 
become  a  slaveholding-  empire. 

That  I  have  been  disappointed  in  some  of  my  conclusions 
touching-  the  final  disposition  of  this  question  and  the 
ultimate  action  of  the  slave  barons  themselves,  I  am  frank  to 
admit.  Certainly  ten  or  twelve  years  ag-o  I  did  not  suppose 
it  possible  that  the  old  Democratic  party,  to  which  I  then 
belonged,  and  which  I  venerated  for  its  great  leaders  and 
liberal  principles,  could  ever  be  divided  and  defeated  as  it 
has  been,  by  the  slave  barons,  and  I  felt  confident  until  after 
I  took  my  seat  in  Congress  for  the  first  time,  that  whatever 
disposition  might  be  made  of  this  question,  it  would  at  last 
find  a  peaceful  solution.  Before  the  close  of  the  36th  Con- 
gress, I  changed  my  mind  and  came  reluctantly  to  the  con- 
clusion, that  .nothing  but  the  direct  interposition  of  Provi- 
dence, could  save  us  as  a  nation  and  a  people  from  a  bloody 
civil  and  perhaps  servile  war.  In  the  first  speech  which  I 
made  in  that  Congress,  speaking  of  the  slave  baron  conspir- 
ators, I  said  that  — 

' '  Their  professed  devotion  to  law  and  order  —  the  decis- 
ions of  courts  and  their  fidelity  to  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union  simply  meant  that  they  would  obey  such  laws  as  they 
desired  enacted,  submit  to  such  decisions  of  courts  as  they 
could  dictate,  and  be  faithful  to  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union  so  long  only  as  they  were  entrusted  by  the  people  with 
the  administration  of  the  government  and  the  interpretation 
of  the  Constitution."     And  I  added  : 

"When  this  ceases,  as  I  trust  and  believe  it  will  cease,  on 
the  4th  of  March,  1861,  their  fidelity  to  law  will  cease,  their  love 
of  the  Union  will  cease,  and  their  new-born  veneration  for 
that  '  AUGUST  TRIBUNAL '  of  which  we  have  heard  so  much 
of  late— the  Supreme  Court— will  also  cease;  and  they  will 


—  176- 


be,  if  their  threats  are  put  into  execution,  in  open  rebellion 
ag-ainst  the  Government,  and  enemies  of  the  Constitution  and 
the  Union." 


COMPROMISKS  UNAVAILING. 

No  careful  observer  of  events,  could  have  failed  to  fore- 
see for  the  past  few  years,  that  both  in  the  North  and  in  the 
South,  public  opinion  has  been  g-radually  but  surely  under- 
g-oing-  such  a  change  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  that  sooner  or 
later  the  question  would  have  to  be  met  and  fairly  settled. 
All  compromises  in  the  shape  of  the  most  humiliating-  con- 
cessions made  by  the  North  to  the  South  had  failed  to  satisfy 
the  imperious  demands  of  the  slave  barons,  and  I  need  hardly 
add  that  the  present  rebellion  and  attempted  revolution  was 
inevitable  without  absolute  submission  on  the  part  of  the 
North.  The  change  of  public  opinion  throug-hout  the  two 
sections  is  in  itself  a  revolution.  On  the  part  of  the  loyal 
citizens  it  has  been  a  revolution  of  peace  and  g-ood-will  by  the 
mode  pointed  out  and  prescribed  by  the  Constitution,  a 
revolution  by  means  of  the  ballot-box.  On  the  part  of  the 
conspirators  and  rebels  it  has  been  from  the  first  a  revolution 
of  force  and  fraud,  and  now  ends  in  an  appeal  to  arms. 

LIBERTY   AND   SLAVERY  THE   ONLY   QUESTIONS   INVOLVED. 

It  is,  then,  as  I  shall  show  you,  a  contest  that  has  for 
its  motive  power  on  one  side  liberty,  and  on  the  other  slavery. 
It  presents  a  question  to  which  there  can  be  but  two  sides, 
and  he  who  is  not  for  liberty  and  the  Union  is  against  them. 
Politicians  and  even  cabinet  ministers  may  declare  as  they 
have  done  and  are  doing-,  that  there  is  no  connection  between 
slavery  and  this  rebellion,  but  I  tell  you,  and  hope  before  I 
take  my  seat  to  prove  to  those  of  you  who  do  not  now 
acknowledge  it,  that  slavery  is  the  g-erm  from  which  this 
rebellion  sprang- — the  motive  power  and  mainspring-  of 
its  action —  and  that,  but  for  slavery,  there  had  been  no  such 
rebellion  in  the  United  States  to-day.  Most  of  you  understand 
this,  I  trust,  already — the  leading- men  of  Europe  understand 
it,  and  I  believe  the  time  is  close  at  hand,  when  compromising- 


—  177— 

editors  and  politicians  will  be  unable  longer  to  deceive  any 
respectable  number  of  the  people. 

SI^AVERY  THB  CAUSE  OF  THE  REBELWON  AS  PROVED  BY 
SOUTHERN  MEN. 

For  more  than  thirty  years  the  slave  bzirons  of  the  South 
have  been  plotting-  treason  and  preparing-  for  this  rebellion. 
In  the  convention  which  passed  the  ordinance  of  secession  in 
South  Carolina,  this  was  openly  proclaimed,  and  the  boast 
repeatedly  made  that  for  thirty  years  they  had  been  looking- 
to  the  consummation  of  the  treason  they  were  then  enacting. 
I  will  read  you  two  or  three  extracts  from  the  speeches  made 
by  their  leading  men  in  that  convention. 

Mr.  Rhett  said :     "It  is  nothing  produced  by  Mr.  Lincoln's . 
election  or  the  non-execution  of  the  fugitive  slave  law.     It  is 
a  matter  which  has  been  gathering  head  for  thirty  years." 

Mr.  Parker  said:  "It  is  no  spasmodic  effort  that  hsus 
come  suddenly  upon  us,  but  it  has  been  gradually  culminating 
for  a  long  series  of  years." 

Mr.  English  said:  "Most  of  us  have  had  this  subject 
under  consideration  for  the  past  thirty  years." 

Mr.  Keitt  said:  "  I  have  been  engaged  in  this  movement 
ever  since  I  entered -political  life." 

This  testimony  ought  at  least  to  be  good  as  against  the 
conspirators  and  their  Northern  allies. 

If  their  own  statements  are  to  be  credited,  from  the  day 
General  Jackson  crushed  the  South  Carolina  nullification 
rebellion  of  1831-2  to  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion  of  1861, 
the  slave  barons  of  the  rebel  States  have  been  conspiring  to 
destroy  this  government.  To  the  truth  of  history  I  appeal 
to  make  good  their  own  declarations  and  to  sustain  this 
charge. 

Calhoun's  defection  in  1836. 

During  the  second  administration  of  General  Jackson, 
the  hostility  of  Calhoun  to  that  great  and  good  man,  became 
open  and  undisguised,  and  when  Mr.  Van  Buren  was  nomi- 
X2 


—  178— 

nated  for  the  Presidency  in  1836,  by  the  friends  of  General 
Jackson,  Mr.  Calhoun  and  his  friends,  although  claiming-  to 
be  Democrats,  opposed  his  election,  and  South  Carolina  under 
his  lead,  voted  for  Mr.  Mangum  of  North  Carolina,  then,  and 
for  many  years  thereafter,  a  Whig-  U.  S.  Senator  from  that 
State.  This  defection  of  Calhoun  and  his  friends  alarmed 
all  the  Northern  Presidential  aspirants  and  the  whole  race  of 
small  politicians  who  always  hang  upon  their  skirts  for  the 
sake  of  place  and  power.  This  alarm  must  have  become 
almost  a  panic,  for  even  Mr.  Van  Buren,  who  was  triumph- 
antly elected  in  1836  and  desired  a  re-election,  became  quite 
as  anxious  as  Buchanan  and  that  class  of  Northern  Presi- 
dential candidates  to  conciliate  Mr.  Calhoun  and  the  small 

but  powerful  class  of  whom  he  was  the  chosen  representative. 

• 

GENKRAI,  JACKSON'S  PROPHKCY. 

General  Jackson  said  when  he  put  down  the  nullifiers  of 
1832,  that  their  next  effort  to  break  up  the  Union  would  be 
on  the  slavery  question.  That  prophetic  prediction  is  now 
a  historical  fact.  The  Northern  Presidential  aspirants  of 
both  the  old  parties,  and  all  the  leading  politicians,  under- 
stood this  matter  well,  and  under  the  pretext  of  saving  the 
Union,  they  united  in  declaring  that  such  concessions  as  the 
South  asked  on  the  slavery  question  ought  to  be  granted. 

MR.   VAN  BUREN'S  CONCESSION,  AND  ITS  EFFECT. 

These  concessions  were  agreed  upon  by  politicians  on 
the  plea  of  saving  the  Union,  so  when  Mr.  Van  Buren  was 
inaugurated,  he  seized  that  occasion  to  give  in  his  adhesion 
to  the  demands  of  the  slave  baron  conspirators,  by  declaring 
that  if  Congress  passed  any  law  designed  to  interfere  with 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  he  would  veto  it.  This 
shameless  pledge,  unasked  as  it  was  by  any  Democratic  con- 
vention, or,  indeed,  by  any  body  of  men,  publicly,  startled 
the  thinking  men  of  the  nation,  who  saw  in  it  a  bold  and 
unscrupulous  bid  for  the  united  vote  of  the  slave  interest. 
This  fnovement  was  not  without  its  desired  effect,  for  Mr. 
Calhoun  returned  nominally  to  the  Democratic  party,    sup- 


— 179  — 

ported  Mr.  VanBuren's  administration,  and  South  Carolina 
voted  for  him  in  1840,  when  he  was  defeated  by  General 
Harrison. 

THE  ATHBRTON   **GAG"  ON  THB  RIGHT  OF  PETITION. 

The  Atherton  ^^gag-,"  as  it  was  justly  termed,  a  rule 
known  as  the  21st  rule,  was  adopted  by  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives on  demand  of  the  slave  barons.  This  rule  refused 
to  allow  any  petitions  from  the  people  on  the  subject  of  slavery 
to  be  received  by  their  own  representatives,  and  completed 
the  humiliation  of  the  North  during*  the  administration  of 
Mr.  Van  Buren,  and  opened  wide  the  g-ate  which  led  to  the 
fatal  road  down  which  '^e  have  been  traveling  as  a  nation 
and  people  at  a  frig"htful  pace  ever  since. 

EFFECT  OF  THE  DEATH  OF  GENERAI.  HARRISON. 

The  death  of  General  Harrison  in  one  short  month  after 
his  inaug"uration,  and  the  accession  of  John  Tyler,  then  Vice- 
President,  to  the  Presidency,  afforded  an  opportunity  which 
was  eagerly  embraced  by  the  slave  baron  nullifiers,  to  take 
possession  of  the  Government  and  administer  it  for  their  ex- 
clusive benefit.  That  John  Tyler  proved  a  traitor  to  the 
party  which  elected  him,  is  recorded  im  history.  That  he 
is  a  traitor  to  his  country  to-day,  wii.1,  be  recorded  in  his- 
tory. This  weak  and  unscrupulous  man  became  the  willing 
tool  of  the  slave  baron  conspirators,  and  permitted  them  to 
dictate  and  control  the  policy  of  his  administration. 

CAI.HOUN  AS  SECRETARY  OF  STATE. 

On  the  death  of  Abel  P.  Upshur,  of  Virginia,  who  suc- 
ceeded to  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State,  after  the  resignation 
of  Mr.  Webster,  John  C.  Calhoun,  the  admitted  chief  and  ablest 
of  the  slave  baron  conspirators,  was  called  by  Mr.  Tyler  from 
his  seat  in  .the  Senate  of  the  United  States  to  take  Mr. 
Upshur's  place.  You  who  are  familiar  with  political  history, 
will  remember  that  when  Mr.  Calhoun  went  into  that  office, 
he  astonished  and  shocked  the  moral  sense  of  the  civilized 
world,   by   declaring  that  he  only  accepted  the   position  in 


—  180  — 

order  that  lie  might  with  g-reater  certainty  consummate  the 
grand  scheme  of  the  slave  barons,  to  retain  control  of  the 
country  by  the  successive  annexations  of  Texas,  Cuba, 
Mexico,  and  Central  America,  or  to  divide  it  in  case  of 
failure.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  make  public  and  defend  his 
scheme  of  annexing-  Texas  to  secure  it  to  slavery.  In  his 
dispatches  to  our  Ministers  in  England  and  France  he  de- 
clared this  to  be  the  policy  of  our  government.  That  Mr. 
Calhoun  was  a  bold  and  able  man  all  admit,  and  he  went  at 
his  work  with  a  directness  of  purpose  that  places  in  unen- 
viable contrast  the  dodging  and  cowardly  conduct  of  North- 
ern statesmen,  who,  while  professing  to  represent  the  inter- 
ests of  free  labor  and  the  rights  of  man,  did  not  hesitate  to 
sacrifice  them  without  scruple  at  the  bidding  of  the  slave 
barons. 

WARNING  OF  JOHN   QUINCY  ADAMS. 

John  Quincy  Adams  warned  the  nation  before  Mr. 
Calhoun  became  Secretary  of  State  of  this  scheme.  But  the 
North  was  so  absorbed  in  the  pursuit  of  wealth  and  new  en- 
terprises that  it  did  not  heed  the  warning  of  that  able,  pure 
and  far-sighted  statesman,  and  by  the  votes  of  Northern  men 
claiming  to  represent  free  labor  Texas  was  annexed  with 
slavery,  and  this  p^t  of  Mr.  Calhoun's  scheme  to  strengthen 
and  perpetuate  the  rule  of  a  privileged  class  and  increase 
their  influence  in  the  Government  was  consummated  on  the 
night  of  the  3d  of  March  which  closed  the  memorable  ad- 
ministration of  John  Tyler. 

CAMPAIGN  OF  1844  AND  DEFEAT  OF  H^NRY  CLAY. 

By  the  management  of  Mr.  Calhoun  the  question  of  the 
annexation  of  Texas  was  made  to  enter  largely  into  the  cam- 
paign of  1844.  It  decided  the  fate  of  candidates  in  the 
Baltimore  convention  of  that  year  and  defeated  Henry  Clay 
because  he  yielded  to  the  importunities  of  slavg  barons  and 
wrote  the  never-to-be-forgotten  Alabama  letter.  Although 
I  had  not  then  attained  my  majority,  I  attended  the  Demo- 
cratic convention  which  met  in  Baltimore  in  1844  and  wit- 
nessed the  political  movements  by  which  the  slave  barons 


—  181  — 

triumphed  in  that  convention.  I  did  not  then  fully  compre- 
hend how  or  why  Mr.  Van  Buren  was  there  defeated,  when 
every  Democratic  State  convention  in  the  United  State,  with 
but  three  or  four  exceptions  (and  those  the  smallest  States), 
had  instructed  its  deleg-ates  to  vote  for  the  re-nomination  of 
Van  Buren  and  Johnson,  the  old  ticket  defeated  by  Harrison 
and  Tyler  in  1840.  I  never  fully  comprehended  it  until  after 
the  Presidential  election  of  1848;  then,  after  making  the  mat- 
ter a  subject  of  dilig-ent  search  and  inquiry,  I  became  satis- 
fied that  the  slave  barons  were  the  power  behind  the  throne, 
and  that  none  but  a  spurious  Democracy  could  sustain  and 
defend  the  rig-htf ulness  of  human  slavery. 

In  1850  the  country  had  forced  upon  it  the  so-called  com- 
promises of  that  year.  The  action  o  f  Southern  conventions 
and  the  position  assumed  by  Southern  statesmen  and  parties 
in  many  of  the  States  in  1851,  and  the  action  of  the  Demo- 
cratic and  Whig-  national  conventions  of  1852,  confirmed  me 
in  my  convictions,  and  I  declined  longer  to  act  with  the  party 
of  my  choice. 

INTERESTING  AND  IMPORTANT  HISTORICAI,  INCIDENT. 

There  is  a  historical  incident  of  importance  connected 
with  the  canvass  of  the  year  1844  to  which  I  wish  to  call 
your  special  attention  as  throwing*  some  lig"ht  on  the  present 
movement.     In  order  that  we  may  understand  the  matter 
clearly,  I  invite  you  to  g^o  back  with  me  and  look  into  the 
Democratic  national  convention  of  1844,  and  also  the  Tyler 
convention,  composed  of  g-overnment  officials  and  slave-baron 
conspirators.     Both  of  these  conventions  assembled  on  the 
same  day  in  the  city  of  Baltimore.     The  Democratic  National 
CoUivention  was  reg-ularly  called  by  the  Democratic  National 
Committee.     The  Tyler  Convention  was  called  by  the  direc- 
tion of  Mr.  Calhoun.     Althoug-h  I  then  thoug-ht,  as  everybody 
seemed  to  think,  that  the  Tyler  movement  was  a  g-reat  farce 
and  a  g-ood  joke,  the  sequel  will  prove  that  it  was  one  of  the 
most  important   and  wily  moves  of  the  conspirators.     This 
convention  nominated  John  Tyler  for  President,  and  adjourned 
without  making-  any  nomination  for  Vice-President.     In  the 
reg-ular  Democratic  convention   there   was   a  bitter   contest 


-182  — 

over  the  adoption  of  the  rules.  Hon.  R.  M.  Sanders,  of  North 
Carolina,  moved  the  adoption  of  the  rule  known  as  the  two- 
thirds  rule.  The  honest  Van  Buren  men  opposed  and  the 
conspirators  and  their  allies  supported  the  motion  and  finally 
carried  it.  The  convention  was  thus  placed  completely  in 
the  power  of  the  conspirators,  although  they  were  larg-ely  in 
the  minority. 

You  know  the  history  of  that  convention.  Mr.  Van 
Buren  had  written  a  letter  ag-ainst  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
and  for  that  he  was  defeated  in  a  convention  where  nearly 
four-fifths  of  the  delegates  were  instructed  to  vote  for  him. 
Thus  you  see  how  formidable  these  conspirators  were  so  long 
ago  as  1844.  After  three  or  four  days  balloting,  in  which 
these  men,  with  consummate  tact,  so  divided  their  votes  be- 
tween Cass,  Buchanan,  Woodbury  and  others,  as  to  prevent  a 
nomination  and  to  blind  the  country  to  their  true  purposes, 
the  convention  at  last  yielded,  utterly  worn  out,  and  the  con- 
spirators succeeded  by  threats  and  promises  in  fairly  driving 
the  convention,  a  majority  of  which  had  voted  to  nominate 
Mr.  Van  Buren,  into  the  nomination  of  James  K.  Polk,  and 
forcing  it  to  adopt  such  a  platform  as  they  dictated. 

This  accomplished,  the  master  spirit  who  moved  the 
main  springs  of  both  conventions,  now  set  himself  to  work  to 
secure  an  endorsement  from  Polk  of  their  pro-slavery  schemes. 
For  this  purpose  a  distinguished  Southerner  was  dispatched 
on  a  secret  mission  to  Knoxville,  Tennessee,  to  see  Mr.  Polk 
and  present  him  the  alternative  of  adopting  their  policy  or  of 
being  defeated.  He  was  told  that  unless  he  gave  in  his 
adhesion  to  their  schemes,  an  electoral  ticket  with  John 
Tyler  at  its  head  would  be  formed  and  voted  for  in  all  the 
States,  securing  by  the  patronage  of  the  government  and  the 
influence  of  the  conspirators,  sufficient  strength  in  each  of 
the  close  or  pivotal  States  to  hold  the  balance  of  power, 
and  by  thus  dividing  the  Democratic  vote,  Mr.  Clay  would 
obtain  a  plurality  and  be  elected.  Mr.  Polk  saw  this 
clearly  and,  as  subsequent  events  proved,  yielded  to  their 
demands.  On  the  return  of  the  messenger  to  whom  I  have 
referred,  Mr.  Tyler  withdrew  from  the  canvass,  and  the 
whole  power  and  patronage  of  his  administration  were  openly 


183— 


used  to  secure  the  election  of  Mr.  Polk,  who,  with  all  this 
combination  to  favor  him,  was  barely  elected,  and  would 
have  been  defeated  without  it. 

I  have  thus  shown  you  that  the  farce,  as  it  was  called,  of 
nominating-  John  Tyler  was  not  so  g-reat  a  farce  after  all, 
but  that  it  was  one  of  the  shrewdest  and  most  successful 
moves  ever  made  by  a  desperate  minority  on  the  political 
chessboard  in  this  country. 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  Mr.  Polk  after  his  accession  to 
power,  was  to  comply  with  the  prog-ramme  of  the  nuUifiers, 
who  demanded  a  new  organ  in  place  of  the  Globe,  which 
was  edited  by  Francis  P.  B.lair,  the  bosom  friend  of  Jackson 
and  the  enemy  of  the  nullifiers.  For  this  purpose  the 
Madisonian,  the  late  Tyler  org-an,  was  purchased,  its  name 
chang-ed  to  the  Union,  and  Mr.  Ritchie,  the  editor  of  the 
Richmond  Enquirer,  then,  as  now,  the  org-an  of  the  con- 
spirators, was  selected  as  its  editor-in-chief.  Mr.  Calhoun, 
and  all  the  nullifying-  conspirators,  who  were  driven  from 
the  Democratic  party  by  General  Jackson,  were  now  received 
into  full  fellowship,  and  from  that  day  to  the  meeting-  of  the 
Charleston- Baltimore  Convention,  these  men  dictated  and 
controlled  its  policy. 


CAUSES  OF  AI,ARM  THAT  WKRK  OVERLOOKED  BY  THE  NORTH. 

The  cession  to  Great  Britain  of  one-half  of  the  territorj^ 
of  Oregon,  tog-ether  with  the  beautiful  island  of  Vancouver, 
in  violation  of  the  Democratic  platform  of  1844,  and  the 
public  pledge  of  Mr.  Polk  who,  with  the  entire  party,  decldired 
our  title  to  the  whole  **  clear  and  indisputable,"  the  war  with 
Mexico,  the  acquisition  of  California,  and  the  offer  by  this 
government  to  Spain,  of  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars  for 
the  island  of  Cuba,  were  acts  which,  separately,  ought  to 
have  alarmed  the  country  as  to  the  ultimate  designs  of  the 
slave  barons,  but  when  taken  in  connection  with  all  the  acts 
of  the  Polk  administration,  ought  to  have  aroused  every 
patriot  in  the  nation,  as  one  man,  to  resent  and  prevent  its 
treasonable  schemes. 


EFPECTOFTHE  ELECTION  OF  GENERAI.  TAYI.OE  UPON  THE  SOUTH. 
HIS  DEATH  AND  THE  CONSEQUENCES. 

The  election  of  General  Taylor  in  1848  was  a  severe  and 
unexpected  blow  to  the  hopes  of  the  nullifiers.  That  stern 
old  patriot  could  neither  be  intimidated  nor  persuaded  to 
favor  their  schemes,  and  the  celebrated  batch  of  compromises 
known  as  the  '*  Omnibus  Bill,"  was  defeated  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  by  his  influence.  Unfortunately  for  the 
country  in  this  important  crisis  of  our  history,  General 
Taylor  died  and  Mr.  Fillmore  became  the  acting-  President. 
Under  his  administration  the  compromise  measures  which 
had  just  been  defeated  under  General  Taylor,  were  revived 
and  passed  in  separate  bills.  I  need  not  now  refer  to  the 
means  by  which  the  passag-e  of  these  odious  and  obnoxious 
acts  was  obtained,  nor  to  the  motives  which  prompted 
Northern  men  to  give  them  their  support  —  suffice  it  to  say, 
these  acts  bore  their  leg^itimate  fruit,  and  justly  destroyed 
both  the  men  and  the  parties  that  supported  and  indorsed 
them. 

FIRST  SCHEME  TO  ORGANIZE  A  SOUTHERN  CONFEDERACY. 

On  the  7th  of  May,  1849,  at  the  city  of  Jackson,  in  the 
State  of  Mississippi,  a  meeting-  of  slave  baron  conspirators 
was  held  upon  the  sugg-estion  of  Mr.  Calhoun.  The  scheme 
to  form  a  Southern  Confederacy  there  took  form  and  shape 
and  the  secession  party  was  formally  organized.  The  pro- 
gramme then  laid  down,  the  conspirators  of  1860-61  have 
attempted  to  carry  out. 

CALHOUN'S  DEATH.      JEFF.  DAVIS  HIS  SUCCESSOR  AS  CHIEF 
CONSPIRATOR. 

Mr.  Calhoun  died  about  the  close  of  the  long  session  of 
the  ever-memorable  compromise  Congress.  Immediately 
after  his  death,  Jefferson  Davis  and  his  confederates  in  the 
Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  met  together  in  the 
city  of  Washington  and  agreed  upon  a  constitution  for  a 
Southern  Confederacy.  That  constitution  was,  in  the  main, 
just  such   a  constitution  as   the  traitors  have  adopted   at 


—  185—- 

Montg-omery,  Alabama,  except  that  the  constitution  agreed 
upon  in  1850  specially  provided  for  the  acquisition  of  Cuba, 
Mexico  and  Central  America,  while  the  Montgomery  consti- 
tution is  silent  on  these  points.  At  the  meeting-  to  which  I 
have  alluded,  Mr.  Davis  was  selected  by  the  conspirators  as 
the  first  President  of  the  new  Confederacy. 

GEN.  QUITMAN  AND  OTHERS  OPENI^Y  ADVOCATE  SECESSION. 

I  intend  in  a  moment  or  two  to  quote  larg-ely  f rctn  General 
Quitman,  of  Miss.,*  because,  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Calhoun, 
he  was  regarded  by  me  as  the  ablest  and  boldest  man  in  the 
South  who  was  eng-ag-ed  in  the  then  contemplated  rebellion. 
He  was  a  politician  of  the  strictest  Southern  rig-hts  school,  a 
defender  of  every  filibustering*  conspiracy,  a  professed  believer 
in  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  rig-ht  of  the  stronger  to  enslave 
the  weaker,  and  an  open  advocate  of  a  Southern  confederacy. 
He  was  the  intimate  friend  of  Calhoun  and  the  most  active 
and  untiring  of  the  secession  leaders.  It  is  now  over  two 
years  since  his  death,  but  the  present  and  future  policy  of 
the  conspirators,  so  far  as  can  be  judged,  is  exactly  what  he 
urged.  Let  me  now  read  to  you  some  important  extracts 
from  a  few  of  the  many  letters  written  and  received  by  him, 
more  than  ten  years  ago.  These  letters  speak  for  themselves 
and  develop  fully  the  policy  of  the  conspirators.  General 
Quitman,  on  the  28th  of  September,  1850,  only  eighteen  days 
after  the  passage  of  the  compromises  of  that  year,  thus  writes 
to  ex-Governor  McRae,  of  Mississippi,  then  a  member  of 
Congress: 

*' I  have  not  acted  without  first  looking  at  the  ground 
before  me,  and  I  take  the  privilege  of  communicating  to  you 
in  confidence,  thus  early,  a  hasty  programme  of  our  future 
movements.  First,  then,  I  believe  there  is  no  effective 
remedy  for  the  evils  before  us  but  secession.     ,     .     . 

*'My  idea  is,  that  the  legislature  should  call  a  convention 
of  delegates,  elected  by  the  people,  fully  empowered  to  take 
into  consideration  our  federal  relations,  and  to  change  or 
annul  them,  to  adopt  one  organic  law  to  suit  such  new  rela- 

*The  quotations  here  made  from  the  writings  of  leading-  Southern  consp'-ato's 
may  be  found  in  the  "  Life  and  Correspondence  of  John  A.  Quitman,  Majo^  General 
U.  S.  A.,  and  Governor  of  the  State  of  Mississippi,  by  J.  F.  H.  Claiborne.  Harper  «fe 
Brothers,  publishers.  2  vols.,  1860."  Books  which  ought  to  be  in  the  hands  of  every 
Northern  apologist  for  this  pro-slavery  rebellion. 


—  186  — 

tions  as  they  mig-ht  establish,  to  provide  for  making"  com- 
pacts with  other  States,  and  that  in  the  meanwhile  an  effective 
MILITARY  SYSTEM  be  established,  and  patrol  duties  most 
rigidly  enforced." 

'  *  In  the  meantime,  every  patriot  should  leave  no  point 
untouched,  where  his  influence  can  be  exerted.     Cheer  on 

THE  FAITHFUL,    STRENGTHEN  THE   WEAK,    DISARM  THE  SUBMIS- 

sioNisTs;  send  a  fiery  cross  through  the  land;  and  every 
gallant  son  of  Mississippi  to  the  rescue." 

You  will  see  by  this  that  while  the  North  was  being 
humiliated  and  demoralized  by  shamelessly  surrendering  to 
the  demands  of  the  slave  barons,  they  were  secretly  plotting 
the  overthrow  of  the  nation. 

On  the  29th  of  September  of  that  year  (only  nineteen 
days  after  the  passage  of  the  compromise  measures  which  we 
were  told  were  to  be  the  last,  and  that  the  South  would  never 
again  exact  any  additional  guaranties  for  slavery).  General 
Quitman,  in  writing  to  Governor  Seabrook,  of  South  Carolina, 
said: 

' '  Without  having  fully  digested  a  programme  of  measures 
which  I  shall  recommend  to  the  Legislature,  it  may  be  of 
service  to  you  to  know  that  I  propose  to  call  a  regular  con- 
vention,   to   take   into   consideration  our   federal   relations, 

with  FULL  POWERS  TO  ANNUL  THE  FEDERAL  COMPACT,  ESTAB- 
LISH RELATIONS  WITH  OTHER  STATES,  AND  ADAPT  OUR  ORGANIC 
LAW  TO  SUCH  NEW  RELATIONS." 

"  Having  no  hope  of  an  effectual  remedy  for  existing 
and  prospective  evils  but  in  separation  from  the  Northern 
States,  my  view  of  State  action  will  look  to  '  secession. 


>  ?> 


On  the  17th  of  December,  1850,  Governor  Seabrook,  in 
answering  General  Quitman,  said: 

"  I  candidly  confess  to  you  that  I  am  advocating  the 
immediate  action  of  the  legislature  in  order  to  suggest  the 
first  Monday  in  December  next  for  the  time,  and  Montgomery, 
Alabama,  as  the  place  of  meeting  of  Congress.  I  am 
rejoiced  that  the  House  resolved  to  suggest  to  our  Southern 
States  the  propriety  of  meeting  in  Congress  at  Montgomery 
on  the  2d  of  January,  1852.     .     .     . 

"For  arming  the  State  $350,000  has  been  put  at  the 
disposal  of  the   Governor.     .     .     . 

"  I  shall  be  happy  to  know  that  the  time  and  place  of  the 
proposed  Congress  will  be  agreeable  to  Mississippi. 

"If  our  movement  be  seconded  by  her,  I  have  good  reason 


187  — 


for  the  belief  that  Alabama,  Florida  and  Arkansas  will  soon 
follow  the  PATRIOTIC  example." 

General  Quitman  thus  writes  to  Colonel  John  S.  Preston 
of  South  Carolina,  on  the  29th  of  March,  1850; 

**The  plan  proposed  by  the  address  of  the  Central  Com- 
mittee, which  I  have  forwarded  to  you,  is,  that  the  Committee 
DEMAND  REDRESS  for  past  ag-gfressions  and  guaranties 
ag-ainst  future  assaults  upon  our  rights;  and  in  the  meantime 
to  provide  for  meeting-  our  sympathizing-  sister  States  in  a 
Southern  Congress.     The  proposed  redress  is: 

"  1st,  A  repeal  of  the  law  suppressing  the  slave  trade 
in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

*'2nd.  Opening  of  the  Territories  to  the  admission  of 
slaves. 

**3d.  The  permission  of  slavery  in  California,  south  of 
36  deg.  30  min." 

*'The  guaranties  to  be  amendments  to  the  Constitution 
explicitly  protecting  slavery  from  hostii^e  interference  by 
Congress  or  States,  and  to  restore  equal  taxation,  direct 
and  indirect." 

**  In  case  the  address  and  guaranties  be  refused,  the  State 
to  make  formal  propositions  to  her  Southern  sisters  for  a 
separate  confederacy,  and  to  unite  with  any  number  of  them 
sufficient  to  secure  nationai«  independence." 

**I  concur  with  you  in  the  opinion  that  the  political 
equality  of  the  slaveholding  States  is  incompatible  with 
the  present  confederation  as  construed  and  acted  on  by  the 
majority,  and  that  the  present  Union  and  slavery  cannot 

CO- EXIST." 

Governor  Means,  of  South  Carolina,  thus  writes  to  Gen- 
eral Quitman  on  the  15th  of  May,  1851: 

**  There  is  now  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  the  next 
legislature  will  call  the  convention  together  at  a  period  dur- 
ing the  ensuing  year,  and  when  that  convention  meets  the 
State  will  secede.  .  .  .  We  are  anxious  for  co-operation,  and 
also  desire  that  some  other  State  should  take  the  lead, 
but  from  recent  developments  we  are  satisfied  that  South 
Carolina  is  the  only  State  in  which  sufficient  unanimity 
exists  to  commence  the  movement.  We  will  therefore  lead 
off,  even  if  we  are  to  stand  alone." 

Colonel  Gregg,  of  South  Carolina,  in  writing  to  General 
Quitman   on   the   15th   of   May,    1851,  thus  encourages  the 


—  188  — 

secession  party,  who  were  straining-  every  nerve  to  elect 
Jefferson  Davis  Governor  of  Mississippi  on  the  direct  issue  of 
secession: 

**Let  them  (the  secessionists)  contend  manfully  for 
success,  and  if  beaten  in  the  election  they  will  form  a  minority 
so  powerful  in  moral  influence,  that  when  South  Carolina 
secedes,  the  first  drop  of  blood  that  is  shed  will  cause  an 
irresistible  popular  impulse  in  their  favor,  and  the  submis- 
SIONISTS  will  be  crushed.  Let  the  example  be  set  in  Missis- 
sippi, and  it  will  be  followed  in  Alabama  and  Georgia. 
Imparting-  and  receiving-  courage  from  each  other's  efforts, 
the  Southern  rights  men  will  be  ready  to  carry  everything 
before  them,  in  all  the  three  States,  the  moment  the  FIRST 

BLOW  IS  STRUCK  IN  SoUTH  CAROLINA." 

General  Quitman  thus  writes  to  Governor  Means,  of 
South  Carolina,  on  the  25th  of  May,  1851: 

"Experience  has  fully  demonstrated  that  united  action 
cannot  be  had;  the  frontier  slave  States  are  even  now  indi- 
cating a  disposition  to  cling  to  the  Union  at  all  hazard  of 
their  slave  institution.  They  will  not  in  my  opinion  unite 
in  an  effective  remedy,  unless  forced  to  choose  between  a 
Northern  and  Southern  confederacy." 

On  the  9th  of  ^une,  1851,  Governor  Seabrook,  of  South 
Carolina,  thus  writes  to  General  Quitman: 

^'  The  course  of  the  convention  will  depend  somewhat  on 
our  sister  Southern  States.  If  they  affirm  the  right  of  seces- 
sion and  the  non-existence  of  a  power  to  prevent  a  State 
FROM  EXERCISING  IT.  .  .  .  Should  South  Carolina  strike  a 
decisive  blow,  may  she  confidently  rely  on  the  undivided  sup- 
port of  her  present  friends  in  your  State?" 

And  again  on  the  15th  of  July  of  the  same  year,  Gover- 
nor Seabrook  thus  discourses  to  General  Quitman: 

"  If  this  scheme  fail,  what  then?  Let  the  State  proclaim 
to  the  world  that  at  a  time  to  be  designated,  say  six  months, 
she  will  withdraw  from  the  Union.  If  Mississippi  be  not  pre- 
pared to  follow  her  example,  a  simple  annunciation  on  her 
part  that  any  hostile  attempt,  direct  or  indirect,  by  Congress, 
to  prevent  her  (South  Carolina)  from  exercising  the  rights  of 
an  independent  nation,  or  to  keep  her  in  the  Confederacy, 
would  be  considered  by  your  Commonwealth  a  subversion  of 
the  fundamental  principles  on  which  the  States  confederated, 
and  consequently  a  full  release  from  her  obligations  in  the 
Union." 


—  189  — 


CONSPIRACY   TO   SECEDE  OP  LONG  STANDING. 

You  see  by  these  quotations  that  this  conspiracy  is  of 
no  recent  date.  Ten  or  fifteen  years  ago,  General  Quitman 
conceived  and  confided  to  others  the  scheme  which  the  rebels 
of  1861  have  attempted  to  enact,  and  I  lay  these  facts  before 
you  for  your  serious  reflection,  and  to  prove  to  you  that  the 
destruction  of  our  Constitution  and  Union  has  been  seriously 
contemplated  for  many  years,  and  that,  too,  without  refer- 
ence to  any  of  the  pretended  grievances  now  complained  of 
by  the  South. 

DISUNION  CANDIDATES  FIRST  NOMINATED  IN  SOUTHERN  STATES. 

In  1851  Open  and  avowed  disunion  candidates  were 
nominated  and  run  for  governors  in  the  States  of  Georgia 
and  Mississippi,  and  one  or  two  other  Southern  States.  In 
Mississippi,  Jefferson  Davis,  who  was  then  a  Democratic 
United  States  Senator  from  that  State,  resigned  his  seat  in 
the  Senate,  went  home  to  Mississippi,  and  became  the  dis- 
union candidate  for  governor,  on  an  open  and  avowed  dis- 
union platform.  Senator  Foote,  also  a  Democratic  Senator 
from  that  State,  resigned  his  seat  and  became  the  Union 
candidate.  Davis  was  defeated  by  a  small  vote,  as  were  also 
the  open  disunion  candidates  in  all  the  States,  except  in  the 
State  of  South  Carolina,  which  elects  her  governor  and 
State  officers  by  the  legislature. 

DEATH  OP  THE  WHIG  PARTY. 

In  1852  General  Pierce  was  elected  President  over 
General  Scott.  In  this  contest  the  Whig  party  breathed  its 
last,  because  false  to  the  principles  of  freedom.  The  success 
of  the  so-called  Democratic  party  with  Pierce  as  its  chief 
was  almost  as  fatal.  It  lingered  along  in  a  sickly  condition 
until  1860,  when  it,  too,  gave  up  the  ghost. 

JEFF.    DAVIS   SECRETARY  OF  WAR,    AND   HIS   ACTS. 

Jefferson  Davis  was  selected  by  President  Pierce  for  his 
Secretary  of  War,  although  it  was  well  known  to  Mr.  Pierce, 
and  to  the  whole  country,  that  Mr.  Davis  was  an  avowed 


190 


secessionist,  and  had  just  been  defeated  for  Governor  of 
Mississippi  on  that  issue.  Davis,  by  his  position,  was 
enabled  to  advance  the  schemes  of  the  conspirators  by- 
appointments,  by  favoritism  in  the  army,  and  by  his  counsels 
in  the  Cabinet.  And  in  1856,  had  Fremont  been  elected, 
Davis  would  have  attempted  to  seize  the  g-overnment. 

BUCHANAN   AS   PRESIDENT,    AND   HIS   CABINET. 

Unfortunately  for  the  country,  Buchanan  was  elected 
President,  and  a  majority  of  the  Cabinet  he  called  around 
him  were  either  avowed  secessionists,  or  willing-  instruments 
in  the  hands  of  the  conspirators.  By  this  act  of  Mr. 
Buchanan,  the  old  Democratic  party  was  completely  demor- 
alized by  the  domination  of  the  disunion  element  in  its  coun- 
sels, so  that  at  the  Charleston-Baltimore  Convention,  it  was 
disrupted  and  the  organization  divided  and  defeated. 

DEATH   STRUGGLE  OF  THE   SI.AVE   BARONS  TO   CONTROI. 
I.EGISLATION. 

The  long-  and  bitter  contest  for  the  Speakership  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  at  the  opening-  of  the  36th  Con- 
g-ress,  was  the  death  strug-gle  of  the  slave  barons  to  keep 
possession  of  the  leg-islative  department  of  the  g-overnment 
during-  the  residue  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  term  of  office,  so  that 
in  case  of  defeat  in  the  Presidential  election  of  1860,  which 
the  conspirators  had  then  resolved  upon  —  unless  they  could 
dictate  the  candidate  at  Charleston,  they  mig-ht  by  having- 
control  of  the  House  committees,  as  they  had  of  the  com- 
mittees in  the  Senate,  be  fully  prepared  for  every  movement 
necessary  to  consummate  their  treason. 

PLANS   OF  THE   CONSPIRATORS   LAST  WINTER. 

It  is  now  conceded  by  those  whom  it  is  admitted  oug-ht 
to  know,  that  the  conspirators  discussed  and  ag-reed  upon  a 
plan  for  a  provisional  g-overnment  last  winter  at  Washing-ton; 
that  their  plan  was  to  seize  the  Capitol  and  public  archives, 
and  prevent  by  force  the  inauguration  of  Mr.  Lincoln  at  the 
seat  of  government;  and  by  thus  getting  possession  of  the 


—  191  — 

National  Capitol  and  inaug-urating-  Mr.  Davis  at  Washing-- 
ton,  they  hoped  to  secure  an  early  recognition  of  their 
government  by  some  of  the  resident  foreig-n  ministers,  many 
of  whom  they  believed  then  and  still  believe  to  be  favorable 
to  their  schemes. 

SYMPATHY  BETWEEN    THE    DIPI.OMATIC    CORPS    AND    SOUTHERN 
MEMBERS    OP    CONGRESS. 

And  here  let  me  mention  a  fact  worthy  of  note.  The 
foreign  resident  ministers  at  Washington  are  mostly  from 
the  aristocratic  and  wealthy  European  families,  and  sympa- 
thize and  associate  with  that  class  everywhere. 

A  majority  of  the  Southern  Senators  and  Representatives, 
while  professing  to  be  democrats,  are  if  possible  more  aristo- 
cratic than  these  foreign  ministers.  The  result  is,  that  their 
social  intercourse  at  Washington  is  almost  exclusively  with 
Southern  members,  who  do  not  hesitate  openly  to  denounce 
all  Northern  men  as  cowards,  poltroons  and  money-getters, 
who  can  be  bought  as  cheap  as  their  own  slaves. 

CHARACTER   AND   POSITION   OF   NORTHERN    MEMBERS. 

The  great  body  of  Northern  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives are  poor,  and  owing  to  the  short  time  they  remain  or 
expect  to  remain  in  Congress,  they  do  not,  with  few  excep- 
tions, care  to  form  the  acquaintance  of  foreign  ministers. 
So  you  see  that  our  government  at  home  has  not  only  been 
controlled,  and  our  foreign  policy  cunningly  shaped  by 
Southern  men,  but  the  minds  of  the  resident  foreign  minis- 
ters have  been  prepared  for  this  rebellion,  and  also  for  its  suc- 
cess; and  this  is  the  secret  of  the  ill-disguised  sympathy  of  so 
many  resident  foreign  ministers  with  the  rebels. 

This  infamous  conspiracy  was  defeated  by  unlooked-for 
dissensions  in  its  own  ranks,  and  by  no  sagacity,  foresight 
or  precaution  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Buchanan  or  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  people. 

MAJOR   ANDERSON  AND  THE  REBEI^S  — HIS  REMOVAI,  TO 
FORT   SUMTER. 

Fortunately  for  the  cause  of  the  Union,  but  unfortunately 
for  the  conspirators,   dissensions  arose  in  the  cabinet  on  the 


192 


question  of  reinforcing"  Fort  Sumter.  Major  Anderson, 
a  loyal  and  patriotic  citizen  of  Kentucky,  with  about  seventy 
men,  forced  this  unexpected  question  upon  the. President  and 
Cabinet.  You  all  remember  that  Major  Anderson  was  in 
command  at  Fort  Moultrie;  that  his  position  was  such  that 
a  land  attack  by  the  rebels  could  not  be  prevented.  He  had 
no  orders  from  his  government  to  remove  to  Fort  Sumter, 
and  could  obtain  no  reinforcements,  although  he  asked  for 
them.  So  he  assumed  the  responsibility  in  the  face  of  a 
government  which  he  must  have  regarded  as  false  to  its 
highest  duties,  and  whose  commands  he  also  knew  he  must 
obey. 

The  conspirators  in  Charleston  had  approached  Major 
Anderson  in  every  conceivable  manner;  they  had  feasted  and 
flattered  him;  but  he  could  not  be  seduced  from  his  allegiance. 
He  was  watched  by  them,  and  could  make  no  movement. 
The  public  arms  and  property  of  the  government  in  the  city 
of  Charleston  they  would  not  permit  him  to  touch,  and  he 
saw  that  if  any  movement  was  made  to  save  the  honor  of  the 
government,  it  would  have  to  be  done  by  strategy  and  on  his 
own  responsibility  —  a  responsibility  which  you  and  I  most 
heartily  thank  him  for  having  assumed.  [Applause.]  He 
was  invited  to  dine  with  a  number  of  the  chief  conspirators 
on  Christmas  last,  and  accepted.  After  dinner,  toasts  and 
speeches  were  the  order  of  the  evening.  All  the  power  of  the 
conspirators  was  exhausted  to  induce  the  Major  to  become  a 
traitor,  but  to  no  purpose.  Report  has  it  that  he  feigned 
intoxication  so  well,  that  he  was  conveyed  in  a  carriage  to  his 
headquarters  at  Fort  Moultrie.  The  rebel  conspirators 
returned  to  concoct  new  schemes  to  seduce  this  loyal  and 
patriotic  soldier,  and  while  they  were  thus  conspiring,  in  the 
darkness  of  night  he  quietly  gave  his  orders,  and  a  few  small 
boats  are  made  ready;  all  the  provisions  and  munitions  they 
can  carry  are  put  on  board,  and  after  spiking  the  cannon  in 
Fort  Moultrie,  he  and  his  little  band  of  brave  spirits  step  on 
board  their  boats,  and  with  muffled  oars  pull  off  to  Fort 
Sumter,  and  when  the  conspirators  awoke  in  the  morning, 
the  National  flag  was  seen  floating  from  that  supposed  impreg- 
nable fortress.     [Loud  applause.]     When  the  rebels  saw  this, 


—  193  — 

they  were  amazed,  and  swore  more  terribly  than  **our  army 
in  Flanders."  The  telegraph  soon  brought  this  glorious 
news  to  Washington,  and  I  need  not  tell  you  how  it  made 
glad  the  hearts  of  all  true  Union  men.  Party  was  thought 
of  no  longer.  The  rebels  telegraphed  to  Mr.  Buchanan  and 
demanded  an  order  for  Major  Anderson's  immediate  return 
from  Fort  Sumter  to  Fort  Moultrie,  and  to  our  shame  be  it 
told  that  many  Northern  men  united  with  the  rebels  in 
seconding  their  demands.  Among  this  class  of  men  none 
^was  more  offensively  conspicuous  than  Senator  Bright,  of 
Indiana. 

SECRETARY   CASS   RESIGNS. 

On  the  simple  proposition  of  reinforcing  Major  Anderson 
and  preserving  the  national  honor,  a  division  arose  in  the 
cabinet  —  a  majority  voting  with  the  President  not  to  rein- 
force. You  will  agree  with  me,  I  know,  when  I  say  that 
every  man  who  so  voted  was  either  a  rebel  conspirator  or  a 
tool  in  their  hands.  When  this  disgraceful  decision  was 
made,  General  Cass,  to  his  honor  be  it  said,  refused  longer  to 
remain  in  the  cabinet  of  a  President  who  proved  himself  to 
be  either  a  traitor  or  a  coward,  and  perhaps  both.     [Applause.] 

COBB,    FI^OYD    AND    THOMPSON    FOLLOW — DIX,     HOLT,    STANTON 
AND   KING  APPOINTED. 

This  unexpected  resignation  of  Secretary  Cass  was  soon 
followed  by  the  resignation  of  the  traitor  Cobb,  and  subse- 
quently by  the  resignation  of  Floyd  and  Thompson,  owing 
to  the  disclosures  made  by  a  confidential  clerk  of  the  theft 
of  the  $800,000  of  Indian  bonds.  Happily  for  the  country, 
Dix  and  Holt,  Stanton  and  King,  loyal  and  true  Democrats, 
were  called  to  fill  these  unexpected  vacancies  in  the  cabinet, 
and  thus  the  scheme  to  seize  Washington  City  and  inaugu- 
rate their  rebel  government  there  was  defeated,  because  the 
patriot  Holt  was  Secretary  of  War,  and  a  majority  of  the 
cabinet  were  now  true  to  the  Union.  [Applause.] 
13 


—  194  — 

ABANDONMENT  OF  THE  PLAN  OF    LAST  WINTER. 

Being"  thus  unexpectedly  foiled,  the  conspirators  aban- 
doned their  design  of  seizing  Washington,  and  preventing 
the  inauguration  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  resorted  to  every  ex- 
pedient to  deceive  the  country,  and  throw  the  people  off  their 
guard  as  to  their  real  intentions.  For  this  purpose,  the 
most  noisy  and  unscrupulous  did  not  hesitate  to  declare  in 
the  House  and  at  the  public  hotels,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  the 
constitutionally  elected  President,  and  should  be  inaugurated 
if  it  had  to  be  done  over  their  lifeless  bodies. 

JOHN   C.    BRECKENRIDGE  THEN   AND    NOW. 

Mr.  Breckenridge  also  united  with  them  in  declaring 
publicly  that  he  would  not  only  count  the  electoral  votes  as 
prescribed  by  law  (you  will  remember  that  the  secession 
papers  North  and  South  declared  that  they  would  not  be 
counted),  and  proclaim  Mr.  Lincoln  the  constitutionally 
elected  President,  but  that  he  intended  to  take  his  seat  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  to  which  he  had  just  been 
elected  by  the  loyal  State  of  Kentucky,  and  swear  to  support 
the  Constitution  and  the  Constitutional  Government,  and  I 
saw  him  with  uplifted  hand  take  that  oath. 

This  deception  blinded  many  of  the  Northern  represen- 
tatives and  people,  who  unitedly  praised  Mr.  Breckenridge 
for  his  patriotism  and  loyalty.  How  worthily  it  was  be- 
stowed, let  his  subsequent  conduct  in  the  Senate  and  else- 
where, and  his  present  position  speak. 

INAUGURATION   OF  MR.    LINCOLN. 

At  last  the  4th  of  March  came,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
peacefully  inaugurated  on  the  eastern  portico  of  the  national 
Capitol,  in  the  presence  of  thousands  of  loyal  citizens  and 
friends . 

THE  CONSPIRATORS  AND  THE  NEW  PRESIDENT. 

The  conspirators  now  resorted  to  new  stratagems  to 
deceive  and  mislead  the  government.  They  approached 
Mr.  Lincoln  as  Union  men,  professing  devotion  to  the  Consti- 
tution and  great  anxiety  for  the  success  of  his  administra- 


—  195  — 

tion.  But  they  all,  with  one  voice,  united  in  declaring-  that 
any  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  g-overnment  to  send  soldiers 
to  any  part  of  the  South  to  protect  the  national  property, 
would  precipitate  them  all  into  a  revolution.  The  President 
was  told  that  he  must  not  attempt  to  reinforce  Fort  Sumter 
—  that  he  must  not  send  troops  to  protect  the  Norfolk  Navy 
Yard  with  its  millions  of  property,  that  troops  must  not  be 
sent  to  Harper's  Ferry  to  guard  the  National  Armory,  and  if 
he  did,  the  whole  State  of  Virginia  would  be  driven  into  a 
revolution.  For  six  long-  and  weary  weeks  these  men  de- 
ceived and  prevented  the  g-overnment  from  doing-  as  I  think 
it  would  have  done,  but  for  them.  I  need  not  tell  you  how  I 
protested  ag-ainst  the  g-overnment  listening-  to  the  counsels  of 
these  men  — much  less  heeding-  them.  You  know  the  result — • 
the  Norfolk  Navy  Yard  was  lost.  Harper's  Ferry  was  lost,  and 
the  very  Capitol  of  the  nation  was  imperiled. 

THE   CABINET  AND    PRESIDKNT — PATRIOTISM    OF    THE   I.ATTER. 

The  cabinet  under  the  advice  of  General  Scott,  voted  to 
withdraw  Major  Anderson  from  Fort  Sumter  and  thus  sur- 
render it  to  the  rebels. 

On  the  part  of  some  of  our  best  military  men,  this 
course  was  urged  because  the  Buchanan  administration  had 
permitted  the  fort  to  be  so  environed  with  armed  batteries^ 
that  it  was  said  reinforcements  could  not  be  put  into  the 
fort  with  less  than  40,000  men.  In  this  trying  emergency^ 
everything  now  depended  on  the  decision  of  the  President^ 
and  nobly  did  he  meet  the  responsibility.  You  and  I  honor 
him  for  his  decision.     He  said  :     '*  Never  by  an  order  from 

MY   HAND,    WHII.E    I   AM   PRESIDENT,    SHAI.I,    THE   STARS    AND 

Stripes  be  struck  to  a  rebei.  foe  I"  [Long  applause.]  This 
impulsive  and  patriotic  declaration  of  the  President,  in  my 
judgment  saved  the  life  of  the  nation,  and  whatever  blunders 
he  may  have  committed,  or  shall  hereafter  commit,  this  brave 
and  noble  act  ought  to  excuse,  and  with  me,  shall  excuse  a 
multitude  of  mistakes. 

**STAR   OF  THE  WEST"     FIRED   UPON  BY  THE   REBEI«S. 

When  asked  what  he  proposed  to  do,  he  answered,  that 

**THE  WORI.D  WII.I,   EXPECT  US   TO   PROVISION    OUR    SOI^DIERS, 


—  196  — 

WHILS    IN    THE)   FAITHFUI.  DISCHARGE   OF  THFIR   DUTY,    AND  I 
INTEND  TO  NOTIFY  THE  AUTHORITIES    AT    ChARI^ESTON   THAT 

THE  TROOPS  IN  Fort  Sumter  wili.  be  fully  provisioned  by 

SENDING  AN  UNARMED  VESSEL  TO  THE  FORT."      The  vessel  WaS 

despatclied,  and  when  within  sig-ht  of  the  fort  she  was  fired 
upon  from  the  rebel  batteries,  and  compelled  to  put  to  sea. 

SUMTER  COMPELLED  TO  SURRENDER. 

Thus  day  after  day  all  hope  of  a  peaceable  solution  of 
our  difS-Culties  was  dispelled,  and  when  all  hope  of  reinfor- 
cing- the  fort  seemed  to  be  g-iven  up  and  Major  Anderson 
only  had  one  or  two  days'  rations  of  salt  pork  for  his  hand- 
ful of  men,  at  the  expiration  of  which  time  the  rebels  knew 
he  must  surrender,  they  opened  their  fire  upon  that  patriotic 
band,  and  compelled  them  to  surrender.  This  act  sealed  the 
doom  of  the  traitors.  The  North,  heretofore  divided,  was 
now  united,  and  every  patriotic  Union  man  gave  up  party 
for  country. 

CALL  FOR  TROOPS  BY  THE   PRESIDENT  AND   THE   RESPONSE. 

I  need  not  detail  to  you  the  stirring-  events  which  fol- 
lowed—  the  call  of  the  President  for  75,000  men,  and  the 
alacrity  with  which  hundreds  of  thousands  of  all  parties 
patriotically  volunteered  to  defend  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union.  Until  then,  I  did  not  know  how  full  the  nation  was 
of  the  old  leaven  of  1776.  Until  then.  I  had  no  idea  of  the 
immense  moral  power  of  the  bayonet. 

EXTRA  SESSION   OF  CONGRESS. 

The  President  called  Congress  together  on  the  4th  of 
July,  and  asked  for  400,000  men  and  $400,000,000  of  money 
to  put  down  the  rebellion,  and  we  gave  him  500,000  men  and 
$500,000,000.  How  the  citizens  in  the  loyal  States  have 
responded  to  the  call  of  Congress  and  the  President,  you 
know.  Never,  in  all  the  history  of  the  world,  from  the  days 
of  Alexander  and  Caesar  to  Napoleon,  has  any  nation  of 
eighteen  millions  of  people  been  able  to  put  an  army  of 
500,000  men  into  the  field,  armed  and  equipped,  as  we  have 
done,  in  five  months.  This  fact,  of  itself,  is  a  guarantee  of 
our  success  if  the  government  but  does  its  duty. 


—  197— 


CONDUCT  OF  REBEL  MEMBERS. 


The  conduct  of  Breckenridg-e,  Bright  and  others,  in  the 
Senate,  of  Burnet  and  others  in  the  House  after  the  new 
administration  came  into  power,  is  proof  positive  that  these 
men  were  either  in  sympathy  or  complicity  with  the  traitors 
who  were  conspiring-  to  destroy  the  government,  at  the  very 
moment  they,  with  uplifted  hand,  were  swearing  to  support 
and  defend  it. 

REBEI.  TESTIMONY  THAT  SlyAVERY  IS  THE  CAUSE  OF  TH« 
REBELWON. 

I  might  quote  by  the  hour  from  speeches  of  the  leading 
rebels  since  the  outbreak  of  this  rebellion,  to  sustain  the 
position  which  I  have  so  elaborately  fortified  by  fact  after 
fact;  but  I  am  sure  you  will  agree  with  me,  that  it  is  unneces- 
sary. I  will  only  detain  you  long  enough  on  this  point  to 
make  two  or  three  short  quotations  which  I  think  it  important 
to  submit  in  this  connection.  The  first  is  from  Alexander  H. 
Stephens,  the  Vice-President  of  the  rebel  government.  Mr. 
Stephens  I  suppose  you  all  know  to  be  one  of  the  fairest  and 
most  conservative  men  in  the  entire  South,  and  a  man  of  the 
first  order  of  talents.  In  speaking  of  the  principles  on  which 
the  Southern  Confederacy  was  formed  this  summer,  he  said: 

"  That  its  foundations  were  laid — that  its  corner-stone 
rested  on  the  great  truth  that  slavery,  subordination  to  the 
superior  race  —  was  the  negro's  natural  condition;  that  the 
confederacy  was  founded  on  these  principles,  and  that  this 
stone,  which  was  rejected  by  the  first  builders,  had,  in  their 
new  edifice,  become  the  chief  stone  of  the  corner." 

The  foundation  stone  upon  which  Washington  and  the 
patriots  of  the  Revolution  built,  is  rejected  by  the  leaders  in 
this  rebellion,  and  if  Mr.  Stephens  speaks  truly,  the  founda- 
tion upon  which  the  conspirators  build,  is  slavery.  Yet  in 
the  face  of  such  statements,  and  all  the  facts  I  have  enumer- 
ated, politicians  and  newspaper  editors  attempt  to  deceive  and 
mislead  the  people  by  declaring  that  slavery  has  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  this  rebellion. 

Senator  Brown,  of  Mississippi,  a  colleague  of  Jefferson 
Davis,  openly  declared  that  he  not  only  demanded  a  Southern 


198- 


Confederacy,  but  that  lie  wanted  *'  Cuba,  Mexico,  and  Central 
America  for  the  planting-  and  spread  of  slavery,  so  that  like 
the  religion  of  our  divine  Master,  it  may  spread  to  the 
uttermost  ends  of  the  earth." 

Mr.  Clay,  of  Alabama,  declared  in  a  speech  at  Mont- 
g-omery,  last  winter,  that, 

"A  cordon  of  free  States  must  never  be  permitted  to 
surround  the  God-g-iven  institution  of  slavery  —  the  beautiful 
tree  must  not  be  thus  g-irdled  that  it  may  wither  and  die." 

And  the  leading-  organ  of  the  conspirators *f or  May  of 
this  year,  DeBow's  Review,  not  only  declares  *'that  the 
foundation  of  the  new  Confederacy  had  for  its  corner-stone, 
slavery,"  but  defends  and  justifies  the  enslavement  everywhere 
of  the   entire  laboring-  population,    declaring-   "that  thk 

SOCIAI,  CONDITION  OF  ENGI.AND  AND  THB  WORI.D  WOULD  BE 
INFINITELY  BETTER  IF  THE  LABORING   CLASSES  WERE  DOMESTIC 


NORTHERN  POLITICIANS  TO  BLAME  FOR  CONCEALING  FACTS 
FROM  THE  PEOPLE. 

Are  these  startling-  facts  new  to  you?  They  are  old 
familiar  acquaintances  of  mine,  and  I  have  repeated  most  of 
them  over  and  over  again,  many  times  in  this  Congressional 
District.  Do  you  ask  in  wonder,  how  such  unholy  combina- 
tions could  be  made  against  the  very  life  of  the  Nation, 
without  exciting  the  open  hostility  of  every  patriot  and  true 
Union  man  in  the  Republic  ?  I  answer  that  it  has  been  and 
is  mainly,  the  fault  of  Northern  politicians  who  have  either 
been  ignorant  of  the  existence  of  such  treasonable  movements, 
or  with  a  guilty  knowledge  have  kept  them  from  the  people. 

It  is  not,  however,  improbable  that  the  great  body  of 
Northern  representatives  have  been  entirely  ignorant  for  the 
past  twenty  years  of  these  acts,  although  often  acting  and 
voting  with  the  conspirators  and  in  aid  of  their  ulterior 
designs.  This  could  not  well  be  otherwise  as  long  as  the 
two  sections  should  adhere  to  their  present  policy,  or  rather 
their  want  of  policy  in  selecting  and  continuing  their  repre- 
sentatives at  Washington.     The  South  selects  her  best  men, 


- 199  — 

men  of  talents  and  ability,  who  are  true  to  her  interest,  and 
retains  them  as  long-  as  they  are  faithful.  They  thus  become 
acquainted  with  the  entire  workings  of  the  g-overnment. 
The  North  sends  with  rare  exceptions  an  entire  new  set  of 
men  every  two  or  four  years.  Many  of  these  men  are  not 
only  without  ability,  but  what  is  still  more  lamentable,  men 
who,  under  the  pretext  of  party  necessity,  sacrifice  the  interest 
of  their  own  constituents.  If  rejected  by  the  people  at  the 
close  of  one  term  for  their  treachery,  a  pro-slavery  adminis- 
tration has  always  provided  them  with  some  compensation 
for  their  services,  and  thus  from  year  to  year,  the  North  has 
been  used  and  disgraced,  simply  because  of  the  inefficiency 
OR  WANT  OF  FiDKi<iTY  of  its  representatives. 

The  South  understands  this  matter  better.  She  selects 
men  who  are  not  only  true,  but  able;  and  retains  them  in 
position  until  they  become  familiar  with  the  working-s  of 
every  department  of  the  government,  and  in  time  they  not 
only  become  representative  men,  but  absolutely  control,  as 
they  have  done  for  years,  the  entire  legislation  of  the  country, 
although  their  section  is  largely  in  the  minority. 

A  CHANGE  MUST  BE  MADE. 

The  North  will  have  to  change  this  custom  and  adopt 
such  a  one  as  prudence  and  common-sense  dictates.  States- 
men are  not  extemporized  out  of  the  ablest  men  in  a  day. 
Our  greatest  generals  worked  their  way  up  gradually  from 
the  ranks,  and  our  safest  and  best  railroad  men  commenced  at 
the  foot  of  the  ladder.  All  American  statesmen,  worthy  of 
the  name,  have  come  up  from  the  ranks  of  the  people,  and 
the  South  has  produced  the  largest  number,  simply  because 
she  has  pursued  the  policy  of  retaining  her  representatives 
until  by  education  and  experience,  they  became  statesmen. 
Do  you  suppose  that  a  Northern  conspiracy  against  the 
government  could  have  been  as  successfully  inaugurated  and 
put  into  execution  as  this  Southern  conspiracy  has  been — 
that  we  could  have  held  Northern  conventions,  elected  North- 
ern State  governors  on  the  direct  issue  of  dissolving  the 
Union  or  compelling  the  South  to  adopt  such  a  National 
Constitution  as  we  might  dictate,  without  the  entire  South 


—  200  — 

being-  familiar  with  every  movement,  and  unitedly  prepared 
to  resist  it?  In  addition  to  all  this,  do  you  believe  the  South 
would  ever  have  been  gfuilty  of  voting*  for  Northern  men  who 
were  her  open  and  undisg-uised  enemies?  that  they  would 
ever  have  placed  them,  as  we  have  done,  in  the  most  honorable 
and  responsible  positions  in  the  g-overnment?  I  ask  if  you 
believe  it  possible  for  the  North  with  all  her  boasted  knowl* 
edg-e,  to  have  done  all  the  South  has  done  for  the  past  twenty 
years,  without  being-  understood  in  every  movement,  not  only 
by  every  Southern  representative,  but  by  the  entire  Southern 
population,  which  would  have  instructed  their  representa- 
tives to  meet  and  defeat  the  issue  upon  the  threshold,  not 
with  compromise,  but  with  open,  manly,  persistent  opposition, 
and  exposure  of  the  traitors  eng-aged  in  it? 

But  this  secession  movement  has  been  openly  advocated 
for  years,  and  its  champions  have  been  placed  by  Northern 
votes  and  Northern  Presidents  not  only  in  the  cabinets  but 
in  the  most  honorable  and  responsible  positions  of  the  g-ov- 
ernment. If  able  and  true  men  pointed  out  the  danger,  as 
did  John  Quincy  Adams,  their  voices  would  be  drowned  by 
the  din  of  commerce  and  the  cry  of  demag-og-ues,  who  either 
for  the  sake  of  party  or  office,  or  the  promise  of  office,  would 
in  proportion  to  their  ig-norance,  denounce  with  increased 
vehemence,  all  such  statements  as  unqualifiedly  false  and 
only  made  to  injure  their  party.  For  the  sake  of  party  and 
the  hope  of  securing-  some  petty  office  for  two  or  four  years, 
ignorant  and  corrupt  men  have  usurped  in  the  name  of  the 
people  the  management  of  political  conventions,  and  the 
great  interests  of  the  country  have  been  made  subordinate  to 
the  ambitions  of  men  whose  whole  lives  gave  assurances  of 
their  unfitness  for  responsible  positions. 

Because  of  this  state  of  things,  the  North,  although 
superior  in  point  of  wealth,  population  and  intelligence 
have  been  made  the  ** hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water" 
for  the  South.  Do  you  ask  when  this  state  of  things  shall 
forever  cease  ?  I  answer  that  it  will  cease  as  this  rebellion 
will  cease,  whenever  a  united  people  earnestly  wills  it,  and. 
not  before. 


—  201  — 


THE   NORTH   INDICTED   AT  THE   BAR   OF   PUBLIC   OPINION. 

That  the  overprudent,  the  timid  and  the  indifferent,  with 
the  trickster  and  demag-og-ue,  will  join  with  cowardly 
Hunkerism  in  condemning-  the  manner  in  which  I  am  treating^ 
this  subject  I  do  not  doubt,  and  I  do  not  object.  In  my 
opinion,  this  is  no  time  for  honeyed  phrases,  and  I  have 
therefore  called  thing-s  by  their  rig-ht  names.  This  is  a  war 
about  slavery  and  you  and  I  know  it.  The  South  declare  that 
our  unconstitutional  interference  with  slavery  is  the  cause  of 
this  rebellion.  Kor  this  we  are  indicted  at  the  bar  of  public 
opinion  and  required  to  plead  ''g-uilty"  or  "not  guilty. *•" 
Instead  of  responding-  promptly,  and  manfully,  and  truthfully ,^ 
**not  g-uilty,"  all  Hunkerdom  holds  its  breath  for  fear  of 
offending"  its  Southern  brethren,  and  demands  that  we  shall 
plead  to  anything-  else  rather  than  that  with  which  we  are 
charg-ed  in  the  rebel  indictment.  Will  any  lawyer  tell  me 
how  we  are  to  defend  ourselves?  What  shall  be  our  reply  to 
this  charge?  We  may  plead  all  our  sins  of  omission  and 
commission,  but  that  will  not  do.  Silence  on  the  only  distinct 
charg-e  made  in  the  indictment  ag-ainst  us  is  an  admission  of 
our  g-uilt.  It  is  all  any  rebel  can  ask.  It  is  substantiallj^  say- 
ing- to  the  world  that  the  South  is  rig-ht  and  the  North  is 
wrong-.  Therefore  for  one  I  plead  *'not  g-uilty,"  and  "put 
myself  upon  the  country."  Suppose,  instead  of  the  charg-e 
of  improper  interference  with  slavery,  the  North  were  charged 
in  the  rebel  indictment  with  unconstitutionally  interfering 
with  the  rights  of  the  South  on  the  question  of  the  tariff,  or 
Pacific  Railroad,  or  the  question  of  representation,  or  any 
one  of  the  many  questions  which  have  divided  political  parties 
in  this  country?  Would  prudent  but  timid  friends  be  found 
then,  as  now,  uniting  with  the  political  trickster  and  the 
demagogue  in  seconding  the  demand  of  Hunkerism  that  we 
should  not  only  not  plead  to  that  with  which  we  were  charged, 
but  that  we  should  not  even  discuss  or  publicly  allude  to  the 
matter  at  issue?  How  can  a  statesman  who  is  guided  by 
the  principles  of  justice,  or  even  by  political  expediency,, 
demand  of  any  rational  people  anything  so  irrational  or 
idiotic  as  debate  and  answer  to  charges  without  any  reference 
to  the  subject  matter  of  the  charges? 


—  202  — 

If  this  rebellion  had  resulted  from  a  conspiracy  on  the 
part  of  the  g-reat  body  of  railroad  corporations,  or  banks,  or 
manufacturing-  interests,  in  the  United  States,  because  the 
General  or  State  Governments  had  refused  to  comply  with 
their  demands,  do  you  suppose  there  would  have  been  any 
such  hesitation  on  the  part  of  the  g-overnment  as  to  their 
duty  as  there  has  been  towards  the  present  rebels?  The  old 
bank  of  the  United  States  had  a  capital  of  only  fifty  millions 
of  dollars,  and  yet  General  Jackson  thoug-ht  its  continued 
existence  dang-erous  to  the  liberties  of  the  people,  because  he 
knew  it  subsidized  the  public  press,  controlled  party  conven- 
tions, and,  with  its  g"old,  corrupted  statesmen  and  divided  the 
nation's  chosen  g-uardians  and  counselors.  He  thereupon 
crushed  it,  and  the  nation  applauded  him.  The  number  of 
rebel  slave  barons  in  the  United  States  does  not  exceed  250,000 
men,  all  told.  Of  this  number  not  more  than  200,000  are 
voters,  and  yet  they  claim  that  their  capital  in  slaves  is  worth 
two  thousand  millions  of  dollars.  If  fifty  millions  of  dollars 
in  the  hands  of  a  bank  were  dang-erous  to  the  liberties  of  the 
people,  how  much  more  dang-erous  are  two  thousand  millions 
of  dollars  in  the  hands  of  slave  barons,  who  are  enemies  to 
the  g-overnment?  For  the  protection  of  this  property,  as 
they  claim  it  to  be,  they  have  demanded  special  leg-islation 
and  constitutional  g-uarantees  which  the  people  would  not 
g-rant,  and  because  of  the  refusal,  this  small  but  powerful 
class  have  made  this  war  upon  the  g-overnmeiit.  Suppose  the 
g-reat  majority  of  the  bankers  of  the  United  States  (and  the 
bank  stockholders  are  a  more  numerous  class  than  the 
rebel  slave  barons)  were  to  combine  and  demand  an  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution,  g-ranting-  them  perpktuai,  char- 
ters, with  the  rig-ht  to  suspend  specie  payment  whenever,  in 
their  opinion,  the  interests  of  the  banks  demanded  it,  and 
suppose  the  people  should  refuse  to  g-ive  them  such  a  dan- 
g-erous grant  of  power,  and,  because  of  this  refusal,  they 
should  unite  in  a  conspiracy  to  destroy  the  government  by 
making  war  upon  it  as  the  rebel  slave  barons  are  now  doing, 
what  would  you,  as  practical  men  do,  if  they,  instead  of  the 
slave  barons,  were  the  rebels?  I  know  what  you  would 
demand,   and   it  would  be  done  —  the  leading  conspirators 


—  203  — 

would  be  arrested  and  their  property  confiscated  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  putting-  down  the  rebellion,  and  thus  make  it  im- 
possible for  them  to  get  up  another  such  rebellion.  I  would 
do  the  same  with  the  railroad  conspirators,  who  have  more 
wealth  and  more  men  interested  with  them  than  all  the 
slave  baron  rebels.  I  would  do  the  same  with  any  combina- 
tion of  men  under  the  same  circumstances.  The  banking-, 
railroad  and  manufacturing-  interests  of  the  United  States 
each  separately  controls  more  wealth  than  all  the  conspirators 
now  engaged  in  the  rebellion,  and  their  institutions  are  of 
more  importance  to  commerce,  to  civilization  and  good 
government,  than  all  the  slave  barons,  whether  loyal  or 
rebel;  and  yet,  if  any  one  or  all  of  these  interests  were  to 
combine  against  the  government,  what  would  be  their  fate? 
Would  there  be  any  division  among  us  on  the  question  of 
conducting  the  war  against  them?  Why,  then,  as  practical 
men,  should  we  hesitate  as  to  the  course  to  be  pursued 
towards  rebel  slave  barons? 

The  truth  is,  prejudice  has  blinded  us,  as  a  nation,  so 
that  we  will  not  see  our  duty,  and  this  is  the  secret  of  our 
inefficiency  and  our  reverses.  How  many  men  are  there 
before  me  who  would  hesitate  at  confiscating  the  entire  wealth 
of  all  the  corporations  in  the  country  — whether  banks,  rail- 
roads or  manufactories  —  if  they  were  combined  and  in  rebel- 
lion against  the  government  and  they  believed  such  action 
was  necessary  to  save  the  nation's  life?  If  you  would  do 
this,  would  you  not  also  confiscate  and  deprive  the  present 
slave  baron  conspirators  of  every  slave  they  possessed,  if 
you  believed  it  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the  Consti- 
tution and  the  Union?    I  have  no  doubt  of  it, 

THE  ONI.Y  QUESTION  BETWEEN  RADICAL  AND  CON-      • 
SERVATIVE  MEN. 

The  only  question,  then,  is  a  diiference  of  opinion  as  to 
the  time  when  this  necessity  begins.  When,  in  the  judgment 
of  each  man  individually,  that  time  has  come,  we  are  unani- 
mous. At  present  some  are  convinced  that  the  time  is  now; — 
others  think  differently —  all,  I  doubt  not,  honestly.  Instead, 
therefore,  of  finding  fault  and  denouncing  each  other  for 


-204  — 

honest  differences  ot  opinion,  would  it  not  be  better  ror  all  to> 
maintain  their  opinions  without  criminating-  each  other  and 
without  denouncing-  the  government,  which  is  undoubtedly 
honestly  endeavoring-  to  do  its  duty?  We  are  so  constituted 
that  we  must  see  differently.  If  twenty  men  were  selected 
from  this  audience  to-nig-ht  and  a  proposition  was  submitted 
to  them,  which  to  each  was  entirely  new,  whether  in  philoso- 
phy or  politics,  you  know  that  their  opinions  would  not  only 
differ  widely,  but  that  some  would  be  much  quicker  than 
others  in  coming-  to  their  conclusions.  If,  then.  Union  men 
differ  on  the  proper  disposition  of  this  slavery  controversy, 
let  us  ag-ree  to  disag-ree,  but  stand  firmly  by  the  g-overnment. 
Is  not  the  man  who  forms  an  honest  judg-ment  and  frankly 
expresses  it,  entitled  to  the  confidence  of  all  true  men,  rather 
than  he  who  either  forms  no  fopinions  at  all,  or  if  he  does, 
fears  to  express  them?     In  short,  is  not  thk  man  who,  if- 

HE  BLUNDERS,  DOES  SO  ON  THE  SIDE  OP  HUMANITY  AND  JUSTICE, 
BETTER  ENTITLED  TO  THE  RESPECT  AND  CONFIDENCE  OF  MEN 
THAN  THE  MAN  WHO  IS  HEARTLESSLY  INDIFFERENT  OR  CRAFTILY 
SILENT? 

RECAPITULATION  OF  PROOF. 

I  have  demonstrated,  I  trust,  to  your  satisfaction,  by 
facts  which  cannot  be  controverted,  that  slavery,  and  sla- 
very ALONE,  is  the  cause  of  this  rebellion.  I  have  shown 
you  that  every  compromise  and  humiliating-  concession  made 
by  the  North  to  the  South  but  emboldened  and  made  more 
insulting-  the  demands  of  the  conspirators.  They  demanded 
at  the  Charleston  and  Baltimore  conventions  the  uncondi- 
tional surrender  of  the  Doug-las  Democrats,  and  because  this 
was  refused,  broke  up  both.  Their  representatives  pro- 
claimed LAST  winter  in  BOTH  HoUSES  OF  CONGRESS,  THAT  IF 

THE  Northern  representatives  were  to  sign  and  seal  a 

BOND  ON  A  BLANK  SHEET  OF  PAPER,  AND  AUTHORIZE  THE  CON- 
SPIRATORS TO  FILL  UP  THE  TERMS  AND  CONDITIONS  OF  OUR  SUR- 
RENDER, THEY  WOULD  NOT  ACCEPT  IT.  They  publicly  declared 
tl^at  if  the  people  elected  any  other  man  for  President  than 
the  one  dictated  by  themselves,  they  would  secede  and  break 
up  the  Union,  thus  refusing-  long-er  to  adhere  to  the  demo- 


—  205  — 

cratic  principle  that  the  majority  shall  govern.  I  have  shown 
you  by  their  own  public  declarations,  that  the  election  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  the  causk,  but  only  a  pretext  for  this 
rebellion;  that  for  thirty  years  the  traitors  have  been  foment- 
ing- treason,  and  have  been  awaiting-  a  favorable  opportunity 
to  inaug-urate  it.  I  have  shown  that  but  for  the  fatal  folly 
and  wicked  indifference  of  the  North,  this  rebellion  would 
never  have  come  upon  us.  That  we  have  fed  and  fostered 
the  viper  which  is  now  at  our  throats,  every  candid,  reflect- 
ing* Northern  man  must  admit.  When  it  was  an  infant,  or 
^ven  when  it  was  but  half-g-rown,  the  nation  might  easily  have 
destroyed  it,  but  now  by  our  own  fault  and  g-uilt  it  has  g-rown 
until  it  has  become  formidable  and  defiant.  For  years  wc 
nursed  it  most  tenderly  and  g-ave  it  all  the  succor  and  food  it 
demanded.  No^,  outraged  justice  demands  either  that  we 
shall  destroy  it,  or  be  ourselves  destroyed  by  it.  There  is  a 
law  of  compensation,  a  law  which  is  above  all  human  enact- 
ments,   irrepealable  because   Divine,    which   proclaims  that 

"THE  NATION  OR  PEOPI.E  WHO  DO  NOTRUI<E  IN  RIGHTEOUSNESS 

SHAI.L  PERISH  FROM  THE  EARTH,"  and  I  believe  we  are  now 
-passing-  through  the  trying  ordeal  which  will  either  establish 
us  a  nation  of  freemen,  ruling  in  righteousness,  or  destroy  us. 

STATE    SOVEREIGNTY. 

You  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  "State  Sovereignty" 
and  the  "sacred soil  of  Virginia"  and  other  States,  and  the 
"  right  of  secession."  I  will  not  now  detain  you  with  a  dis- 
cussion on  the  abstract  right  of  secession.  Last  winter  I 
examined  this  subject  thoroughly  in  a  speech  which  I  made 
in  the  House,  and  I  have  nothing  now  to  add  to  or  take  from 
what  I  then  said.  The  claim  set  up  by  these  conspirators, 
that  a  State  is  "sovereisrn"  and  owns  the  soil  within  its 
geographical  limits,  is  an  assumption  as  arrogant  as  it  is 
ignorant.  No  State  of  the  American  Union  is  sovereign 
or  has  any  ownership  of  the  soil,  except*  that  which  the 
Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States  give  her. 
The  National  Constitution  guarantees  to  each  State  a  re- 
publican form  of  government,  with  a  right  to  make  its  own 
municipal  laws,  subject  only  to  that  Constitution. 


-^206  — 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  is  the  supreme 
law  of  the  land,  anything-  in  the  laws  or  constitutions  of 
the  States  to  the  contrary,  notwithstanding*.  The  assumed 
"right  of  secession"  is  an  absurd  and  visionary  dream  of  a 
monomaniac.  As  well  might  a  man  say  he  would  release 
himself  from  any  contract  he  had  made,  because  he  had 
determined  not  to  pay  his  honest  debts.  Such  a  doctrine 
will  do  only  for  pirates.  As  well  mig-ht  Lucas  County,  Ohio, 
set  up  that  she  is  a  * '  sovereign  "  county,  and  therefore  has 
the  "right"  to  secede  from  both  the  National  and  State 
Governments,  and  establish  herself  as  an  independent  nation. 
If  this  were  true,  our  National  Constitution  would  not  be 
worth  the  paper  on  which  it  is  written. 

ABSURD  DOCTRINE  OF  MR.  BUCHANAN. 

Absurd,  however,  as  this  doctrine  is.  It  is  not  half  so  absurd 
as  the  course  pursued  by  Buchanan,  who,  while  permitting 
our  national  fortifications  to  be  environed  by  rebel  batteries, 
formally  announced  in  his  last  message  to  Congress  that  not 
only  was  there  no  "right  of  secession  "  under  the  Constitu- 
tion, BUT  THAT  ALI.  ATTEMPTS  ON  THE  PART  OF  THE  NaTIONAI* 

Government  to  restrain  or  prevent  a  State  from  seced- 
ing WERE  AI.SO  UNCONSTITUTIONAI.. 

WHAT  WOUI.D  HAVE   BEEN  THE  EFFECTS  IF  THIS  QUESTION  HAD 
BEEN  SETTlvED  IN  THE  MISSOURI  CONTROVERSY. 

Had  the  nation  heeded  the  warning  voices  of  her  purest 
patriots  and  statesmen  at  the  time  of  the  Missouri  controversy, 
that  State  would  never  have  been  admitted  into  the  Union 
with  slavery,  and  the  so-called  Missouri  compromise  would 
never  have  been  made.  The  deadly  viper  ^/ould  then  have 
received  its  death-blow,  and  the  nation  been  delivered  from 
the  rule  of  the  slave  barons.  Slavery  would  not  then  have 
been  nationalized* by  Congressional  protection.  There  would 
have  been  no  cruel,  bloody  and  costly  war  in  Florida  for  the 
enslavement  of  negroes,  half-breeds  and  Indians,  who  were 
free  when  we  purchased  the  territory  from  Spain,  and  whose 
rights  we  guaranteed  by  the  treaty  of  purchase  and  unblush- 


—  207  — 

ing-ly  violated  by  that  war.  There" would  have  been  no  war 
made  upon  the  weak  and  distressed  republic  of  Mexico  for  the 
purpose  of  wresting-  free  territory  from  her,  on  which  to  plant 
human' slavery.  There  would  have  been  no  ceding*  of  one-half 
of  Oregon  to  Great  Britain  to  prevent  the  erection  of  free 
States  out  of  that  territory.  The  compromises  of  1850,  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  acts  of  1854,  and  the  justly  infamous 
Lecompton  Constitution  of  1857,  would  never  have  disg-raced 
the  records  of  our  country.  In  short,  the  crimes  and  murders 
in  Kansas  which  havs  been  committed,  never  could  have  been 
committed  —  much  less  could  this  wicked  rebellion  have  been 
born. 

A  BOI,D,  EARNEST,  VIGOROUS  POLICY  DEMANDED. 

Our  duty  as  a  nation,  in  connection  with  this  rebellion, 
has  seemed  to  me  from  the  first  so  plain  that  I  have  been 
not  a  little  amazed  at  the  apparent  hesitancy  and  want  of 
policy  on  our  part.  You  know  I  have  claimed,  and  still  claim, 
that  we  cannot  march  into  the  South  with  our  armies  and  suc- 
cessfully strike  down  the  conspirators  with  one  hand  while 

UPHOLDING  THE   CAUSE  OF  THE   REBELLION   WITH   T^E   OTHER. 

From  the  first  I  have  insisted  on  the  adoption  of  a  bold,  earnest 
and  vigorous  policy.  I  have  insisted  that  all  persons  who 
are  not  unqualifiedly  for  the  government,  whether  in  or  out 
of  office,  should  be  treated  as  its  enemies  —  that  every  person 
who  was  even  suspected  of  disloyalty,  should  be  dismissed  from 
the  army  and  from  every  branch  of  the  public  service,  and  I 
have  classed,  and  shall  continue  to  class,  every  man  whether 
at  the  North  or  South,  who  is  for  the  government  with 
an  **if"  or  a  **but,"as  a  traitor.  [Applause.]  Thus 
far  in  this  controversy  we  have  acted  with  the  tenderest 
solicitude  for  the  welfare  of  rebel  slave  barons.  We  have 
sanctioned  the  taking  of  his  horse,  his  cattle,  his  money  and 
his  life,  but  seldom  his  man  chattels.  On  this  point  we  have 
been  inconsistent  and  vacillating,  while  the  rebels  have  been 
consistent  and  defiant.  I  know  it  is  said  by  those  who  have 
counseled  the  policy  or  rather  want  of  policy  which  we  have 
thus  far  pursued,  that  "the  war  will  be  the  end  of 
SLAVERY,"  and  that  so  far  from  having  any  objections,  they 


—  208  — 

Avould  be  g-lad  to  see  it.  This  may  be  true,  but  you  and  I 
know  that  the  overthrow  of  slavery  will  not  only  end  the 
war,  but,  beyond  all  doubt,  save  the  Union  and  preserve  con- 
stitutional liberty,  by  making-  us  what  we  ought  "bo  be,  a 
homogeneous  people. 

It  is  claimed  by  many  that  the  people  should  not  criticise 
the  acts  of  the  goverment  at  such  a  time  as  the  present.  I 
dissent  from  this  theory.  If  the  people  do  not  demand  from 
the  government  what  they  want,  pray  how  is  the  government 
to  know  the  wishes  and  sentiments  of  the  people  which  it 
professes  to  represent?  I  have  supported  and  voted  for 
every  necessary  measure  asked  by  the  Administration,  and 
shall  continue  to  do  so  as  long  as  these  demands  seem  to  me 
right.  Of  that  I  am  to  be  the  judge,  and  not  another  for 
me.  As  I  never  have  been,  so  I  never  shall  be,  the  blind  fol- 
lower either  of  men  or  parties.  [Applause.]  In  the  present 
controversy  I  have  made  everything  subordinate  to  the  one 
great  wish  of  my  heart  —  the  preservation  of  the  Constitu- 
tion and  the  Union.  Neither  men  nor  party,  the  allurements 
of  power,  nor  the  hope  of  future  preferment  have  swayed  or 
shall  sway  me  in  the  discharge  of  my  duty.  As  I  have  done 
since  I  have  had  the  honor  to  represent  you,  so  I  shall  con- 
i:inue  to  vote  and  act  on  all  questions  as  though  there  were, 
as  now  there  ought  to  be,  but  one  party  in  the  country,  and 
that  the  party  for  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.  In  such 
a  contest  as  the  present,  men  are  nothing;  parties  are  but  as 
dust  in  the  balance;  but  the  Lfe  of  the  nation  is  above  all 
price,  and  must  be  preserved.  I  have,  as  all  have,  the 
strongest  motives  for  standing  firmly  by  the  President,  for 
he  is  certainly  an  honest  and  earnest  man,  and  these  are 
noble  and  indispensable  qualifications.  Believing  the  Presi- 
dent to  be  thus  earnest  and  honest,  I  can,  as  you  can,  afford 
to  overlook  many  of  the  blunders  and  mistakes  which,  of 
necessity,  he  must  commit  in  his  present  embarrassing  posi- 
tion. But  while  I  say  this,  I  will  not  consent  to  remain 
silent  and  quietly  permit  any  policy  to  be  adopted  which,  in 
my  judgment,  would  be  fatal  to  the  success  of  that  cause 
which  all  true  patriots  have  first  at  heart.  The  old  adage 
lias  it  that  ' '  it  will  do  no  harm  to  watch  even  an  honest 


—  209  — 

man,"  and  all  history  proclaims  that  **  eternal  vigilance  is 
the  price  of  liberty."     [Applause.] 

CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  REBELLION. 

The  consequences  of  this  rebellion  are  dif&cult  of  solution. 
I^o  man  can  tell  when  or  how  it  will  end,  and  any  theory 
relating-  to  it  must  be  continually  modified  by  constantly 
changing-  events.  It  requires  no  prophet,  however,  to  foresee 
that  unless  we  change  our  policy  we  shall  have  the  whole 
outside  world  against  us.  We  may  have  them  for  us  by 
simply  doing  that  which  our  own  self-preservation  demands. 
It  has  been  our  policy  as  a  nation  for  many  years  to  recognize 
DE  FACTO  rebel  governments,  if  they  gave  evidence  of  their 
ability  to  maintain  a  government.  We  cannot,  then,  justly 
■complain  if  foreign  nations  do  the  same  with  us.  If  England, 
France  and  Spain,  recognize  the  confederate  government  by 
the  4th  of  March  next,  as  the  moneyed  and  commercial 
classes  of  those  countries  are  now  demanding,  what  will  be 
the  result?  Of  necessity,  a  violation  of  our  blockade  and 
probably  a  foreign  war.  That  there  is  a  hostile  feeling 
towards  us  among  the  aristocratic  classes  of  the  countries 
named,  all  understand.  In  addition,  the  commercial  and 
manufacturing  interests  of  Great  Britain  and  France  are 
favorable  to  an  early  recognition  of  the  rebel  government 
in  order  that  free  trade  treaties  may  be  secured,  and  they  may 
obtain  the  Southern  cotton  and  sell  in  return  their  manu- 
factured fabrics.  These  two  interests  combined  exercise  a 
wonderful  control  in  those  governments.  Indeed,  commerce 
itself,  which  is  a  mighty  power  in  the  world,  will  soon  de- 
masid  that  its  interests  shall  no  longer  be  obstructed  by  this 
war.  Here  is  this  demand  of  the  aristocracy  (who  hate  our 
government)  and  the  manufacturing  and  commercial  classes 
against  the  great  mass  of  their  people,  who  love  liberty  and 
Republican  institutions,  and  believe  we  are  lighting  to 
maintain  them.  As  soon,  however,  as  the  mass  of  tl;ie  moral 
and  religious  people  of  England  and  France  shall  be  made  to 
believe  that  the  North  is  fighting  to  maintain  slavery  AS  IT 
IS,  and  the  South  are  only  fighting  to  secure  additional 
14 


—  210  — 

constitutional  guarantees  for  the  protection  of  slavery,  they 
will  say  it  is  a  ''distinction  without  a  difference,"  and  will 
unite  with  the  privileg-ed  classes  in  demanding*  an  early 
recog-nition  of  the  rebel  g-overnment.  And  whenever  their 
people  are  thus  united,  the  independence  of  the  rebel  States- 
will  be  acknowledg-ed  by  their  g-overnments.  Thus  far  in 
this  controversy  we  have  done  much  to  alienate  all  foreig-n 
sympathy,  and  unless  we  chang-e  our  policy  we  shall,  in  my 
judg-ment,  lose  the  support  of  all  the  liberty-loving-  people  of 
Europe.  If  this  be  lost,  we  surely  can  expect  no  support 
from  the  aristocratic  element.  As  a  nation  we  are  in  a  criti- 
cal condition,  and  it  depends  alone  upon  our  own  action 
whether  we  are  to  draw  to  us  the  support  of  the  moral  and 
Christian  powers  of  the  world,  or  permit  them  to  become  in- 
different or  openly  hostile. 

EFFECT  OF  A  FOREIGN  RECOGNITION   OF  THE   REBEI.S   UPON 
THE  NORTH. 

As  soon  as  the  g-overnments  of  Kng-land  and  France  shall 
have  recog-nized  the  rebel  confederacy,  a  powerful  anti-war 
and  anti-tax  party  will  spring"  up  in  the  North  in  favor  of 
peace  and  the  recog-nition  of  the  independence  of  the  traitors. 
Thus,  we  shall  be  divided  at  home  and  at  war  with  the  great 
military  powers  abroad,  unless  we  jaeld.  We  have  those 
among  us  now  who  contend  that  we  cannot  put  down  this 
rebellion.  How  many  shall  we  then  have  who  will  openly 
demand  the  separation  of  the  States?  They  will  say,  ''If 
you  could  not  put  down  this  rebellion  single-handed,  how 
can  you  expect  to  do  it  with  England  and  France  in  the 
balance  against  you?  "  They  tell  us  now  that  if  we  withdraw 
our  armies  from  Maryland,  Virginia,  Kentucky  and  Missouri, 
the  secessionists  will  at  once  carry  those  States  over  to  the 
rebel  government,  and  I  am  not  sure  but  they  would.  How 
certainly  would  it  be  the  case  if  we  were  compelled  to  with- 
draw our  armies  to  fight  a  foreign  enemy.  Let  us  look  the 
truth  squarely  in  the  face.  We  may  have  a  united  nation  of 
thirty  millions  of  free  men  and  the  whole  moral  power  of  the 
world  to  sustain  us,  if  we  but  wilIv  it,  or  we  may  alienate 
this  power  and  be  broken  into  fragments,  never  again  to  be 
united. 


—  211  — 

UNION   OF  SENTIMENT   AND   EFFORT  NECESSARY. 

With  these  facts  before  us,  what  is  our  duty?  You  know 
'What  I  think.  Let  us  then,  forgetting-  all  past  differences, 
unite  earnestly  in  adopting*  the  only  practical  solution  of  this 
question  —  that  of  striking-  the  enemy  in  his  most  vulnerable 
point.  [Applause.]  In  this  g-rand  battle  let  us  cling-  with 
unfaltering-  faith  and  hope  to  the  flag-  of  our  fathers,  and 
fig-ht  on  and  fig-ht  ever,  without  concealment  of  our  purposes, 
and  without  ag-ain  compromising-  with  wrong-,  until  we  lift 
■bhe  whole  Union,  *'  one  and  indivisible,"  above  the  ruin  which 
to-night  environs  it  —  and  the  nation,  thus  purified,  invig-o- 
rated,  and  strengthened  by  the  stern  ordeal  of  battle,  shall 
again  shine  out  as  the  beacon  light  of  liberty  to  the  oppressed 
of  the  world,  with  no  spot  to  darken  her  fair  escutcheon,  but 
shining  out  as  beautiful  as  the  morning,  giving  light  and 
hope  and  joy  to  the  struggling  millions  of  the  earth. 
[Applause.]  To  fight  for  such  a  government  and  such 
principles  I  have  asked  men  all  over  my  district  to  volunteer 
in  the  liberating  ar*my  of  the  Republic.  Who  would  not  feel 
proud  to  belong  to  such  an  army?  Who  does  not  feel  thank* 
f  ul  that  Providence  has  cast  his  lot  where  he  may  be  an  actor 
in  such  a  contest?     For  — 

**We  are  living,  we  are  dwelling, 
In  a  grand  and  awful  time. 
In  an  age  on  ages  telling. 
To  be  living  is  sublime. 
Will  ye  play,  then,  will  ye  dally, 
With  your  music  and  your  wine? 
Up!  It  is  Jehovah's  rally  ! 
God's  own  arm  hath  need  of  thine  I** 

Fellow-citizens,  I  have  spoken  to  you  to-night  freely  and 
frankly.  Much  that  I  have  said  might  have  been  omitted, 
and  my  own  convictions  and  opinions,  had  I  chosen,  could 
have  been  entirely  concealed.  I  have  felt  it  be  my  duty, 
however,  as  I  did  last  spring,  when  I  apprised  you  in  my 
letters  of  the  formidable  proportions  of  this  rebellion,  and 
the  danger  that  beset  the  life  of  the  nation,  to  call  your 


—  212  — 

attention  to  the  facts  upon  which  I  then  based  mj  opinions. 
I  leave  these  facts  with  you  for  your  judg-ment.  When  you 
have  fully  and  impartially  examined  them,  as  I  have,  I  will 
have  no  fear  of  your  verdict.  In  a  day  or  two  more  I 
go  to  "Washing-ton,  and  I  confess  to  you  that  I  never  went  to 
the  discharge  of  a  duty  with  more  distrust  in  my  own  abili- 
ties nor  with  a  more  sincere  desire  for  the  aid  and  counsel  of 
friends  and  the  guidance  of  Him  "who  doeth  all  things 
well."  Earnestly  desiring  above  all  things  the  restoration 
of  peace,  the  Union  and  the  Constitution,  I  shall  continue  to 
urge  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war,  to  resist  _all  attempts 
at  compromise  or  surrender  to  the  enemy  by  patching  up  a 
peace,  knowing  full  well,  as  I  do,  that  no  peace  can  be  honor- 
able or  enduring  which  is  made  over  the  prostrate  form  of 
Justice.  [Applause.]  Confident  that  the  nation  or  people 
who  do  not  rule  in  righteousness  shall  perish  from  the  earth, 
I  believe  every  citizen  has  a  sacred  duty  to  perform,  in  this 
trying  hour  of  our  country's  peril,  which  is  to  aid  by  every 
means  in  his  power  in  restoring  the  government  to  the  princi- 
ples and  policy  of  its  founders.  I  believe  that  the  first  and 
highest  duty  of  government  is  to  secure  every  loyal  inhabi- 
tant in  his  person,  his  liberty,  and  his  property,  *' protecting 
all  and  granting  special  favors  to  none."  This  is  the  sum 
and  substance  of  my  political  faith.  It  is  an  exceedingly 
simple  one,  but  is  all  the  platform  I  ask,  and  I  intend,  with 
God's  blessing,  to  be  faithful  to  it  in  the  midst  of  this  rebel- 
lion, the  dissolution  of  parties  and  the  desertion  of  men,  so 
that  for  my  own  honor  and  that  of  my  children  it  shall  never 
be  truthfully  said  or  written  of  me  that  I  was  an  apostate  to 
that  faith,  or  that  I  abandoned  the  sacred  cause  of  Liberty 
for  the  sake  of  place  and  power.  [Long  continued  ap- 
plause.] 


SPEECH 

OF  HON.  J.  M.  ASHLEY,  OF  OHIO, 
In  thk  Housk  of  Represejntativks,  Aprii.  11,  '1862. 


ON  THE)  BILIv    FOR    THK    RELEASE)  OF    CERTAIN  PERSONS  HELD 
TO   SERVICE   OR   LABOR  IN  THE  DISTRICT   OF  COLUMBIA. 


"INITIATE  EMANCIPATION." 


Mr.  Ashley  said:' 

Mr.  Chairman:  I  intend  to  vote  for  this  bill  as  a 
national  duty,  and  not  as  the  representative  of  a  locality.  I 
shall  vote  for  it  without  apolog"y,  and  without  disclaimer.  I 
have  no  excuses  to  offer  here,  or  elsewhere,  for  doing*  an  act 
which  even-handed  justice  demands.  From  the  first  I  have 
been  earnest  and  persistent  in  pressing-  this  question  of 
emancipation.  It  became  my  pleasing"  duty,  in  obedience  to 
the  request  of  the  District  Committee,  to  meet  and  confer 
with  the  senator  who  had  charg-e  of  this  subject  in  the  other 
branch  of  the  national  legislature,  and  I  may  say,  I  trust, 

Letter  from  Prof.  J.  P.  Shorter,  A.  M.,  LL.  D.,  Wilberforce,  O. 
On  page  329  will  be  found  a  copy  of  the  bill  for  the  Abolition  of 
Slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  as  originally  introduced  by  Mr. 
Ashley,  with  a  brief  history  of  its  amendment  and  final  passage,  so 
^^^  as  to  compesnate  loyal  slave-owners.  This  speech  and  his  masterly 
effort  on  page  333  in  favor  of  the  Thirteenth  Constitutional  Amend- 
ment, prohibiting  slavery  in  the  United  States  forever,  will  be  read 
with  unflagging  interest.  As  we  look  back,  we  are  amazed  when 
reading  Mr.  Ashley's  unanswerable  arguments,  his  denunciations 
J.  P.  SHORTER,  and  prophecies.  All  can  see  that  he  had  that  clear  vision,  which  is 
only  given  to  him  whose  heart  is  in  the  right  place,  and  who  is  born  to  be  "  a  leader  of 
hopes  forlorn  that  must  be  led."  And  this  is  not  strange  nor  miraculous,  for,  as  the 
poet  has  beautifully  expressed  it,  "When  the  heart  goes  before  like  a  lamp  and  il- 
lumines the  pathway,  many  things  are  made  clear,  that  else  lie  hidden  in  darkness.'* 

J,  P.  Shorter. 

(213) 


214 


without  impropriety,  that   the  Senate  could  not  well  have 
confided  it  to  a  truer  and  more  earnest  friend  of  the  measure. 

After  several  meeting's  and  consultations  with  leading* 
members  of  both  Houses,  and  citizens  of  the  District,  we 
ag-reed  upon  a  bill,  which  was  approved  by  each  committee, 
and  ordered  to  be  reported  in  both  Houses.  This  was  the 
bill  which  I  reported  to  the  House  on  the  12th  day  of  March 
last.  I  deem  it  due  to  myself,  in  this  connection,  to  say  that 
the  bill  then  reported  by  me  was  not  in  all  respects  what  I 
could  desire;  and  I  need  hardly  add  that  some  of  the  Senate 
amendments  are  of  a  character  to  make  it  still  more  objec- 
tionable. But  1  am  a  practical  man,  and  shall  support  this 
bill  as  the  best  we  can  g-et  at  this  time.  I  have  been  shown 
a  number  of  amendments  which  some  of  my  friends  on  this 
side  of  the  House  desire  to  offer,  and  which  I  would  prefer 
to  the  provisions  which  are  proposed  to  be  amended;  but  if 
offered  I  shall  vote  ag-ainst  them,  as  their  adoption  would 
greatly  delay,  if  not  endanger  the  passage  of  the  bill  at  this 
session,  because  their  adoption  would  necessarily  return  the 
bill  to  the  Senate  for  their  concurrence.  I  trust,  therefore, 
that  all  friends  of  emancipation  will  decide  to  accept  the 
Senate  bill  as  it  is,  and  .vote  against  all  amendments,  so  that 
the  practical  end  aimed  at  by  the  earnest  men  of  this  House, 
the  immediate  liberation  of  all  slaves  in  this  District,  shall 
at  once  be  accomplished.  The  object  to  be  attained,  and  not 
its  particular  mode  of  attainment,  is  what  we  ought  all  to 
have  most  at  heart. 

If  I  must  tax  the  loyal  people  of  the  nation  $1,000,000 
before  the  slaves  at  the  national  capital  can  be  ransomed,  I 
will  do  it.  I  would  make  a  bridge  of  gold  over  which  they 
might  pass  to  freedom,  on  the  anniversary  of  the  fall  of 
Sumter,  if  it  could  not  be  more  justly  accomplished.  The 
people  of  the  United  States  must  be  relieved  from  all  respon- 
sibility for  the  existence  or  longer  continuance  of  human 
slavery  at  the  capital  of  the  Republic.  The  only  question 
which  I  conceive  I  am  called  upon  as  a  representative  to 
decide  is,  has  Congress  the  power  and  is  it  our  duty  to  pass 
such  a  bill  as  the  one  before  us? 

Part  of  the  sixteenth  clause  of  the  eighth  section  of  the 
first  article  of  the  Constitution  reads  thus: 


—  215  — 

**  Congress  shall  have  power  to  exercise  exclusive  legis- 
lation in  all  cases  whatsoever  over  such  district  (not  exceed- 
ing- ten  miles  square)  as  may,  by  cession  of  particular  States 
and  the  acceptance  of  Congress,  become  the  seat  of  g-overn- 
ment  of  the  United  States. '» 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  need  not  go  into  a  labored  argument  to 
show  that  Congress  has  power  to  banish  slavery  from  this 
district.  It  is  not  necessary  to  be  a  constitutional  lawyer  to 
comprehend  the  extent  of  the  power  here  granted.  The 
meaning  is  plain  enough.  The  clause  confers  upon  Congress 
all  the  legislative  power  that  can  be  exercised  by  both 
National  and  State  Governments  combined.  If  Congress 
cannot  abolish  slavery  in  this  District,  no  power  on  earth  can. 

A  few  years  ago,  one  of  freedom's  distinguished  orators 
startled  the  country  by  declaring  **that  Congress  had  no 

MORE  POWER  TO  MAKE  A  SI.AVE  THAN  TO  MAKE  A  KING."   If, 

then,  there  is,  as  I  claim,  no  constitutional  power  in  Congress 
to  reduce  any  man  or  race  to  slavery,  it  certainly  will  not  be 
claimed  that  Congress  has  the  power  to  legalize  such  regula- 
tions as  exist  to-day,  touching  persons  held  as  slaves  in  this 
district,  by  re-enacting  the  slave  laws  of  Maryland,  and 
thus  doing  by  indirection  what  no  sane  man  claims  authority 
to  do  directly.  I  know  it  is  claimed  by  some  that  if  Congress 
lias  power  to  abolish,  it  must  necessarily  have  power  to 
<istablish  slavery.  I  will  not  insult  the  intelligence  of  this 
House  by  discussing  such  a  proposition.  If  Congress  could 
not  constitutionally  re-enact  the  slave  laws  of  Maryland  for 
this  District,  then  slavery  could  not  exist  even  for  a  single 
hour  after  the  cession  of  the  territory  became  complete. 
But  whether  slavery  constitutionally  exists  in  this  district  or 
not,  that  it  does  exist  is  a  fact,  and  because  it  exists  and  has 
existed  by  the  sufferance  and  sanction  of  the  National 
Government,  for  which  the  entire  people  of  the  United  States 
are  justly  responsible,  it  is  more  than  ever  the  imperative 
duty  of  this  Congress  to  abolish  at  once  and  forever  so 
unnatural,  and  unjustifiable  a  wrong.  And,  sir,  if  it  be 
necessary  to  employ  gold  to  do  it,  let  gold  be  employed. 
Gold  — which  has  corrupted  statesmen,  perverted  justice,  and 
enslaved  men,  can  never  be  more  righteously  used  than  when 
it  contributes  to  re-establish  justice  and  ransom  slaves. 


—  216  — 

It  is  claimed  by  the  opponents  of  emancipation  that  the 
proper  and  natural  condition  of  all  colored  races  is  that  of 
slavery  to  the  white  race;  that  the  people  of  color,  not  only 
in  this  district,  but  throughout  the  country,  are  unfit  for 
freedom;  that  they  cannot  take  care  of  themselves,  and  must, 
of  necessity,  if  liberated,  become  a  public  charg-e.  We  are 
asked  with  apparent  horror,  and  an  air  of  sincerity,  *'if  we 
intend  to  let  this  slave  population  loose  among*  the  whites;'* 
and  we  are  told  if  we  do  that,  it  will  be  destructive  alike  of 
the  interests  of  both  races;  that  the  prejudices  ag-ainst  per- 
sons of  color  are  so  implacable  they  cannot  live  in  peace,  and 
a  war  of  races  will  be  the  inevitable  result  of  freeing*  them 
among-  the  whites  —  evils  far  more  to  be  dreaded  than  any 
which  can  ensue  from  their  continued  enslavement.  I  have 
no  such  apprehension.  Experience  teaches  me  that  all  such 
fears  are  g-roundless.  While  I  deny  the  doctrine  that  the 
normal  condition  of  any  race  is  that  of  slavery,  or  that  there 
can  be  rig-htfully  such  a  thing*  as  property  in  man,  under  any 
government  or  constitution,  I  will  not  and  cannot  believe 
that  the  restoration  of  any  race  to  freedom  will  produce 
antagonisms  that  shall  culminate  in  a  war  between  those 
whose  relationships  are  changed  from  that  of  gross  injustice 
and  oppression  to  that  of  self-dependence  and  freedom.  God 
made  of  one  blood  all  the  nations  that  dwell  together  on  the 
face  of  the  earth,  and  gave  man  *  *  dominion  over  the  fish  of 
the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  every  living 
thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth;"  but  man  over  man^ 
never. 

The  distinction  here  made  between  persons  and  animals 
is  clear  and  marked.  It  is  the  distinction  recognized  in  the 
jurisprudence  of  all  civilized  and  Christian  nations;  and 
when  a  slave  baron  stands  up  here,  and  claims  that  his  title 
to  his  fellowman  rests  upon  the  same  recognized  rights  that 
give  him  a  title  to  his  horse,  I  see  and  feel  the  blighting^ 
effects  of  slavery,  and  realize  the  justice  of  the  remarks 
which  I  submitted  on  this  floor  two  years  ago,  when  I  said 
that— 

*'I  exempt,  with  pleasure,  from  any  sweeping  denuncia- 
tions which  I  may  make,  thousands  of  good  and  true  men 


—  217  — 

who  find  themselves  born  to  this  inheritance,  and  whose 
whole  lives  give  assurance  to  the  world  that  their  hearts  are 
better  than  the  system.  Intrust  a  class  of  men  in  any 
society  or  g-overnment  with  absolute  power  over  a  servile 
race,  and  the  bad  men  will  not  only  use  it  and  abuse  it,  as  I 
shall  show,  but,  by  their  clamorous  cry  of  danger  to  the 
State,  will  perpetrate  and  give  sanction  to  outrages  that 
good  and  true  men  will  be  powerless  to  prevent.  It  is  not 
that  southern  men  and  slaveholders  are  worse  than  other 
men,  but  because  they  are  no  better,  that  it  is  unsafe,  if  it 
were  not  in  itself  an  indefensible  wrong,  to  intrust  them 
with  absolute  power  over  any  part  of  the  human  race." 

Sir,  the  origin  and  authority  for  all  the  dominion  man 
of  right  possesses  in  this  world  comes  direct  from  the  Father 
of  all,  and  has  been  so  recognized,  not  only  by  the  great 
English  commentator,  but  by  the  law-givers  of  every  civilized 
nation  on  earth.  There  is  no  right  outside  of  His  authority, 
much  less  in  violation  of  it. 

The  great  epic  poet  of  England  writes — 

*'  He  gave  us  only  over  beast,  fish,  fowl, 
Dominion  absolute  ;  that  right  we  hold 
By  his  donation  ;  but  man  over  man 
He  made  not  lord  ;  such  title  to  himself 
Reserving,  human  left  from  human  free." 

I  ask  the  indulgence  of  the  House  while  I  read  a  few  ex- 
tracts from  the  writings  of  the  great  men  of  the  past,  which 
will  suffice  to  show  how  slavery  was  regarded  by  them. 

'*  Slavery  is  a  system  of  the  most  complete  injustice.'* 
— Plato. 

'*  Slavery  is  a  system  of  outrage  and  robbery." — Soc- 
rates." 

**  By  the  grand  laws  of  nature  all  men  are  born  free,  and 
this  law  is  universally  binding  upon  all  men." 

*'  Eternal  justice  is  the  basis  of  all  human  laws." 

''Whatever  is  just  is  also  the  true  law  ;  nor  can  this  true 
law  be  abrogated  by  any  written  enactment." 

''If  there  be  such  a  power  in  the  decrees  and  commands, 
of  fools,  that  the  nature  of  things  is  changed  by  their  votes^ 
V7hy  do  they  not  decree  that  what  is  bad  and  pernicious  shall 
be  regarded  as  good  and  wholesome,  or  why,  if  the  law  can 
make  wro'ng  right,  can  it  not  make  bad  good  ?  " 


218- 


**  Those  who  have  made  pernicious  and  unjust  decrees, 
have  made  anything  rather  than  laws."  —  Cicero. 

*'The  law  which  supports  slavery  and  opposes  liberty 
must  necessarily  be  condemned  as  cruel,  for  every  feeling- 
of  human  nature  advocates  liberty.  Slavery  is  introduced 
by  human  wickedness  ;  but  God  advocates  liberty  by  the 
nature  which  he  has  implanted  in  the  breast  of  every  man." 

— FORTESCUE. 

'*If  neither  captivity  nor  contract  can,  by  the  plain  law 
of  nature  and  reason,  reduce  the  parent  to  a  state  of  slavery, 
much  less  can  they  reduce  the  offspring*." 

*'The  primary  aim  of  society  is  to  protect  individuals  in 
the  enjoyment  of  those  absolute  rig-hts  which  were  vested  in 
them  by  the  immutable  laws  of  nature.  Hence  it  follows  that 
the  first  and  prime  end  of  human  laws  is  to  maintain  those 
absolute  rig"hts  of  individuals." 

"If  any  human  law  shall  require  us  to  commit  crime,  we 
are  bound  to  transg-ress  that  human  law,  or  else  we  must 
offend  both  the  natural  and  divine." — Blackstone. 

"What  the  Parliament  doth  shall  be  holden  for  naug-ht 
whenever  it  shall  enact  that  which  is  contrary  to  the  rig-hts 
of  nature." — Lord  Coke. 

"The  essence  of  all  law  is  justice.  What  is  not  justice 
is  not  law,  and  what  is  not  law  oug-ht  not  to  be  obeyed." — 
Hampden. 

"No  man  is  by  nature  the  property  of  another.  The 
rig-hts  of  nature  must  be  some  way  forfeited  before  they  can 
justly  be  taken  away." — Dr.  Johnson. 

"  If  you  have  the  right  to  make  another  man  a  slave,  he 
has  the  right  to  make  you  a  slave." — Dr.  Price. 

"It  is  injustice  to  permit  slavery  to  remain  a  single 
hour." — Pitt. 

"  American  slavery  is  the  vilest  that  ever  saw  the  sun  ; 
it  constitutes  the  sum  of  all  villainies." — John  Wesley. 

"Man  cannot  have  property  in  man.  Slavery  is  a 
nuisance,  to  be  put  down,  not  compromised  with,  and  to  be 
assailed  without  cessation  and  without  mercy,  by  every 
blow  that  can  be  leveled  at  the  monster." 

"  Ireland  and  Irishmen  should  be  foremost  in  seeking  to 
effect  the  emancipation  of  mankind. " 

"The  Americans  alleged  that  they  had  not  perpetrated 
the  crime  (that  of  enslaving  the  blacks),  but  inherited  it 
from  England.  This,  however,  fact  as  it  was,  was  still  a 
paltry  apology  for  America,  who  asserting  liberty  for  herself, 
still  used  the  brand  and  the  lash  against  others." — Daniel 

O'CONNELL. 

"In  regard  to  a  regulation  of  slavery,  my  detestation 
of  its  existence  induces  me  to  know  no  such  thing  as  a  regula- 


—  219  — 

tion  of  robbery  or  a  restriction  of  murder.  Personal  freedom  is 
a  rig-ht  of  which  he  who  deprives  a  fellow-creature  is  criminal 
in  so  depriving  him,  and  he  who  withholds  is  no  less  crimi- 
•nal  in  withholding-." — Charles  James  Fox. 

**  I  would  never  have  drawn  my  sword  in  the  cause  of 
America,  if  I  could  have  conceived  that  thereby  I  was  found- 
ing- a  land  of  slavery." — LaFayette. 

'*I  never  mean,  unless  some  particular  circumstances 
should  compel  me  to  it,  to  possess  another  slave  by  purchase, 
it  being-  among  my  first  wishes  to  see  some  plan  adopted  by 
which  slavery  in  this  country  may  be  abolished  by  law. 

' '  But  there  is  only  one  proper  and  effectual  mode  by  which 
it  can  be  accomplished,  and  that  is  by  legislative  authority, 
and  this,  as  far  as  my  suffrage  will  go,  shall  never  be  want- 
ing."— Washington. 

**The  abolition  of  domestic  slavery  is  the  greatest  object 
of  desire  in  these  colonies,  where  it  was  unhappily  introduced 
in  their  infant  state." — Jefferson. 

**  It  is  wrong  to  admit  into  the  Constitution  the  idea  that 
there  can  be  property  in  man." — Madison. 

* '  We  have  found  that  this  evil  has  preyed  upon  the  very 
vitals  of  the  Union,  and  has  been  prejudicial  to  all  the  States 
in  which  it  has  existed." — Monroe. 

''Is  it  not  amazing  that  at  a  time  when  the  rights  of 
humanity  are  defined  and  understood  with  precision,  in  a 
country  above  all  others  fond  of  liberty,  that  in  such  an  age 
and  in  such  a  country,  we  find  men  professing  a  religion  the 
most  mild,  humane,  gentle  and  generous  adopting  such  a 
principle  as  repugnant  to  humanity  as  it  is  inconsistent  with 
the  Bible,  and  destructive  to  liberty?  " — Patrick  Henry. 

"  Sir,  I  envy  neither  the  heart  nor  the  head  of  that  man 
from  the  North  who  rises  here  to  defend  slavery  on  principle." 
— John  Randolph. 

"  The  sacred  rights  of  mankind  are  not  to  be  rummaged 
for  among  old  parchments  or  musty  records.  They  are  writ- 
ten as  with  a  sunbeam  in  the  whole  volume  of  human  nature 
by  the  hand  of  Divinity  itself,  and  can  never  be  erased  or 
obscured  by  mortal  power." — Alexander  Hamilton. 

"  Little  can  be  added  to  what  has  been  said  and  written 
on  the  subject  of  slavery.  I  concur  in  the  opinion  that  it 
ought  not  to  be  introduced  or  permitted  in  any  of  the  new 
States,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  gradually  diminished  and 
finally  abolished  in  all  of  them." — John  Jay. 

*'It  is  among  the  evils  of  slavery,  that  it  taints  the  very 
sources  of  moral  principle.  It  establishes  false  estimates  of 
virtue  and  vice  ;  for  what  can  be  more  false  and  more  heartless 
than  this  doctrine,  which  makes  the  first  and  holiest  rights 


—  220  — 

of  humanity  depend  upon  the  color  of  the  skin  ?  " —  John 
QuiNCY  Adams. 

Thus,  sir,  spoke  some  few  of  the  great  men  of  the  past,  and 
the  just  principles  by  them  proclaimed  control  and  direct  to- 
day all  the  civilized  governments  of  Europe.  Shall  the 
American  government  be  less  just  than  monarchical  govern- 
ments ?  Shall  we  alone  cling  to  slavery  and  the  dead  past, 
while  all  Christian  nations  are  keeping  step  to  the  march  of 
human  progress,  and  the  demands  of  a  higher  civilization  ? 
Let  us  hope  not,  and  so  act  and  vote  as  to  secure  a  realization 
of  that  hope. 

I  am  for  the  liberation,  not  only  of  all  slaves  in  this 
District,  but  wherever  national  jurisdiction  extends  and  the 
national  Constitution  confers  the  power.  I  am  for  it,  because 
I  believe  it  an  act  of  justice  to  white  as  well  as  black,  to 
master  as  well  as  slave;  and,  if  no  other  reason  could  be 
given,  I  am  for  it  because,  in  the  language  of  the  distin- 
guished Senator  from  Massachusetts,  "thky  ark  mkn  by 
THE  GRACK  OP  God,  and  this  is  enough."  Free  institutions- 
will  gain  strength  everywhere  by  a  decree  of  emancipation 
at  the  national  capital,  while  slave  institutions  will  every- 
where be  weakened.  Such  a  triumph  for  the  cause  of  free- 
dom as  the  passage  of  this  act  to-day,  will  be  welcomed  with 
gratitude  not  only  by  the  ransomed  slave,  but  with  joy  by 
the  people  everywhere  in  the  loyal  portions  of  our  country. 
In  Europe  it  will  be  hailed  by  the  friends  of  liberty  and  prog- 
ress as  the  dawning  of  a  new  era  in  the  United  States,  and 
it  will  make  the  line  of  demarcation  at  home  more  distinct 
between  the  supporters  and  opponents  of  the  government. 

I  rejoice  that  I  am  about  to  be  permitted  to  record  my 
vote  in  favor  of  this  humane  and  beneficent  measure.  It  is  a 
day  which,  in  common  with  millions  of  my  countrymen,  I 
have  long  hoped  to  see;  and  if  I  never  give  another  vote  in 
this  House  or  elsewhere,  I  shall  not  have  lived  in  vain, 
especially  if  I  have  hastened,  even  a  single  hour,  the  adoption 
by  Congress  of  this  act  of  national  justice  and  national 
liberation.  I  shall  have  the  satisfaction  of  leaving  the  endur- 
ing record  of  an  action  of  which  my  children  cannot  but  be 
proud,  and  of  which  no  true  man  in  any  Christian  nation 
could  be  ashamed. 


-221  — 

It  is  said,  if  the  slaves  in  this  District  are  at  once  eman- 
cipated, that  society  and  domestic  reg-ulations  will  be  greatly 
deranged;  that  peace,  order,  security,  industry  and  content- 
ment will  vanish,  and  violence,  disorder,  robbery,  idleness  and 
crime  will  increase;  that  such  an  act  can  do  no  possible  good, 
while  it  would  be  unjust  and  a  great  hardship  to  both  master 
and  slave.  Such  is  not  my  view  of  this  act,  nor  such,  sir,  as 
I  read  it,  the  history  of  emancipation  in  the  British  or  Danish 
West  Indies.  Such,  I  am  sure,  will  not  be  the  result  in  this 
District.  Why,  sir,  with  all  the  disabilities  imposed  upon 
the  colored  population  of  this  District  by  congressional  enact- 
ments, municipal  regulations,  and  blind  prejudices — and 
they  are  sufficient  to  weigh  down  and  destroy  the  worthy  and 
energetic,  and  encourage  the  vicious  and  indolent  —  with  all 
these  disabilities,  without  a  parallel  in  any  nation  on  earth, 
our  colored  population  here  will  compare,  advantageously  to 
themselves,  with  the  colored  population  of  any  city  in  the 
free  States.  They  have  amassed  property  beyond  belief. 
Their  church  property  alone,  as  I  am  informed,  will  exceed 
in  value  one  hundred  thousand  doi.i.ars.  They  are  taxed 
for  the  support  of  schools  from  which  their  children  are  ex- 
cluded, and  maintain  separate  schools  of  their  own.  They 
have  societies  for  the  support  of  their  sick  and  disabled,  and 
never  permit  one  of  their  number  to  be  buried  at  public  ex- 
pense. In  thirty  years  not  one  of  their  number  has  been  con- 
victed of  a  capital  offense.  As  a  body,  they  are  industrious, 
frugal,  orderly,  trustworthy  and  religious.  Instead  of  an 
increase,  I  venture  to  predict,  as  one  of  the  results  of  this  great 
measure,  a  decrease  in  disorder,  theft,  idleness  and  crime;  and 
as  an  earnest  that  this  prediction  is  not  made  without  some 
foundation,  let  me  read  to  you  the  preamble  and  resolution 
adopted  the  other  day  at  a  meeting  of  the  colored  ministers 
and  leading  members  of  the  several  colored  churches  in  this 
city: 

**Whereas  we  have  learned  by  the  published  proceedings 
of  Congress  that  there  is  u,  probability  of  the  peaceful  and 
final  abolishment  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia: 
Therefore, 

**Be  it  resoi^ved.  That  we  recommend  to  the  churches 
and  congregations  we  represent  that  they  set  apart  Sunday, 


—  222  — 

the  13th  day  o^  April,  1862,  in  connection  with  the  usual 
religious  services,  as  a  day  of  special  prayer  to  Almig-hty 
God,  that  if  this  g-reat  boon  of  freedom  is  vouchsafed  to  our 
people,  we  may  receive  it  in  a  becoming-  manner,  and  by  our 
orderly  behavior,  our  devotion  to  our  Christian  duties,  our 
obedience  to  the  laws,  we  may  show  how  worthy  we  are  ta 
enjoy  it;  and  that  He  would  be  pleased,  in  His  own  way  and 
in  His  own  time,  to  proclaim  liberty  throughout  all  the  land^ 
unto  all  the  inhabitants  thereof." 

Need  I  say  to  this  House  and  the  country  that  the  men 
who  could  draft  and  adopt  such  a  preamble  and  resolution 
will  receive  their  freedom  with  heartfelt  joy,  and  not  with 
riotous  and  offensive  demonstrations?  Before  the  President 
can  sign  this  bill,  they  will  have  assembled  in  all  their 
churches  to  receive  with  prayer  and  thanksgiving  to  the 
Almighty  this  ransom  at  your  hands,  and  tears  of  gratitude 
will  obliterate  from  their  hearts  the  memory  of  many  and 
grievous  wrongs  they  have  suffered  from  this  government 
and  their  masters,  and  mingling  with  the  echoing  shouts  on 
the  sea  and  on  the  land,  their  voices  will  unite  in  gladness 
with  the  generous  hearts  who  everywhere  will  join  the  grand 
anthem,  "Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  peace  on  earth,  and 
good-will  to  men." 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  bill  which  we  are  about  to  pass  could 
not  have  passed  but  for  this  pro-slavery  rebellion.  The  sa- 
gacity and  wisdom  of  many  of  our  statesmen,  who  in  vain 
warned  the  nation  that  slavery  and  freedom  could  not  forever 
live  together  peaceably,  is  being  practically  demonstrated. 
Jefferson  and  Jay,  Franklin  and  the  Adamses,  Garrison  and 
Calhoun,  have  all  warned  the  people  of  the  impossibility  of 
long-continued  peace  with  slavery.  Speaking  of  the  prob- 
able occurrence  of  a  rupture  between  the  North  and  the  Souths 
some  ten  or  twelve  years  ago,  in  the  United  States  Senate,^ 
John  C.  Calhoun  said: 

*'  The  war  will  last  between  the  two  sections  while  there 
is  a  slave  in  the  South.  The  conflict  will  never  terminate. 
The  South,  I  fear,  will  not  see  it  until  it  is  too  late.  They 
will  become  more  feeble  every  year,  while  the  North  will 
grow  stronger  and  stronger." 

No  longer  ago  than  in  1858,  in  a  speech  at  Springfield, 
Illinois,   Abraham   Lincoln,    now   president   of    the    United 


—  223  — 

States,   made  this  prophetic  declaration,  which  is   passing* 
into  history: 

"*A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.*  I  be- 
lieve the  government  cannot  endure  half  slave  and  half  free. 
I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved.  I  do  not  expect 
the  house  to  fall,  but  I  do  expect  that  it  will  cease  to  be 
divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other. 
Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread 
of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  will  rest  in  the 
belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction,  or  its 
advocates  will  push  it  forward  until  it  shall  alike  become  law- 
ful in  all  the  States,  old  as  well  as  new.  North  as  well  as 
South." 

How  truly  prophetic!  To  a  man  who  comprehends  that 
slavery,  and  slavery  alone,  is  the  cause  of  this  rebellion,  the 
duty  of  the  government  is  plain.  Such  a  man  understands 
that  there  can  be  no  permanent  or  lasting  peace  until  the 
people  of  the  free  States  are  no  longer  responsible  for  the 
existence  and  continuance  of  slavery,  either  at  the  national 
capital,  or  in  any  territory  or  place  where  Congress  has  con- 
stitutional power  to  abolish  it.  Hence  I  rejoice  at  the  intro- 
duction and  certain  passage  of  this  timely  measure.  Others, 
I  doubt  not,  will  soon  follow,  and  the  people.  North  and 
South,  will  gradually  array  themselves  on  the  side  of  free- 
dom or  on  the  side  of  slavery.  There  is,  and  there  can  be, 
but  this  one  all-absorbing  question  in  our  national  politics 
until  it  is  disposed  of,  and  that  will  continue  to  be  agitated 
until  the  people  "  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of 
ultimate  extinction."  Until  that  time  there  can  be  but  two 
great  parties  in  this  nation.  The  great  mass  of  a  free  peo- 
ple, in  a  government  such  as  ours,  must  of  necessity  be 
divided  into  two,  and  into  but  two,  leading  political  parties; 
and  in  the  present,  as  in  all  coming  contests  on  the  question 
of  slavery,  we  can  have  but  two  formidable  parties  struggling 
for  the  ascendency  and  control  of  the  government.  The  one, 
no  matter  what  its  name  or  designation,  will  be  the  represen- 
tative of  nationality  and  freedom;  the  other,  that  of  privi- 
lege and  slavery.  As  to  other  parties,  representing,  or  pro- 
fessing to  represent,  the  various  shades  of  political  opinions 
existing  in  the  country,  they  cannot  long  continue,  but  must, 
as  the  Whig,  American,  and  other  parties  have,  in  all  the 


—  224  — 

States,  fade  away  before  the  advancing-  parties  representing* 
the  cherished  sentiments  of  a  pro-slavery  privileged  class  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  aspirations  of  the  people  for  liberty  on 
the  other. 

Individuals,  however  disting-uished  and  worthy  in  all 
their  relations  in  private  life,  who  fail  to  co-operate  earnestly 
with  either  the  one  or  the  other  of  the  leading-  parties  repre- 
senting justice  and  freedom,  or  privilege  and  slavery,  will 
continue  to  disappear,  as  they  have  done,  from  public  life, 
and  new  and  bolder  leaders  will  be  chosen  by  the  people;  for 
no  generous  and  noble  people  will  ever  knowingly  trust 
timid  and  time-serving  leaders,  understanding  full  well,  as 
they  do,  that  in  such  a  contest  as  the  party  of  privilege  and  slav- 
ery have  forced  upon  this  nation  by  their  treason  and  rebellion, 
there  can  be  but  two  armies  and  two  battle-fields  and  two 
banners,  that  of  the  stars  and  stripes,  representing  liberty 
and  union,  or  that  of  the  serpent  and  pelican,  representing 
slavery  and  disunion.  There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the 
position  which  the  people  occupy.  Let  us,  then,  pro- 
crastinate no  longer  the  hour  which  they  have  so  long  in  vain 
looked  for.  Let  the  news  go  forth  on  the  wings  of  the  wind 
that  the  national  capital  is  ransomed  from  slavery,  and  it 
shall  nerve  the  arms  of  your  soldiers,  and  strengthen  the 
hold  of  the  government  in  the  hearts  of  the  people. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  struggles  and  hopes  of  many  long  and 
wear}^  years  are  centered  in  this  eventful  hour.  The  cry  of 
the  oppressed,  *'how  long,  O  Lord,  how  long?'*  is  to  be 
answered  to-day  by  the  American  Congress.  A  sublime  act 
of  justice  is  now  to  be  recorded  where  it  will  never  be  obliter- 
ated, and,  so  far  as  the  action  of  the  representatives  of  the 
people  can  decree  it,  the  fitting  words  of  the  President,  spoken 
in  his  recent  special  message,  "  initiate  and  km ancip ate," 
shall  have  a  life  coequal  with  the  Republic.  God  has  set  his 
seal  upon  these  priceless  words,  and  they,  with  the  memory 
of  him  who  uttered  them,  shall  live  in  the  hearts  of  the  people 
forever.  The  golden  morn,  so  long-  and  so  anxiously  looked  for 
by  the  friends  of  freedom  in  the  United  States,  has  dawned. 
A  second  national  jubilee  will  henceforth  be  added  to  our 
calendar.     The  brave  words  heretofore  uttered  in  behalf  of 


^225  — 

humanity  in  this  Hall,  like  **  bread  cast  upon  the  waters,'' 
are  now  **to  return  after  many  days"  and  find  vindication  of 
their  purposes  in  a  decree  of  freedom.  The  command  of  God 
to  let  the  oppressed  go  free,  is  declared  to  be  our  duty,  not 
only  by  our  patriotic  President,  but  by  both  branches  of  our 
national  Congress;  and  let  us  hope  that  from  this  time  hence- 
forth and  forever,  this  nation  is  never  again  to  be  humil- 
iated and  disgraced  by  being  responsible  for  the  existence  and 
continuance  of  human  slavery.  No  longer  within  our  national 
jurisdiction,  where  Congress  has  constitutional  power  to  pro- 
hibit it,  shall  slavery  be  tolerated.  The  nation  is  to-day 
entering  upon  a  policy  which  cannot  be  reversed;  and  justice 
is  vindicated,  humanity  recognized,  and  God  obeyed.  In  the 
words  of  Mrs.  Howe's  patriotic  anthem; 

"'*He  has  sounded  forth  the  trumpet  that  shall  never  call 

retreat ; 
He  is  sifting  out  the  hearts  of  men  before  His  judgment 

seat: 
Oh,  be  swift,  my  soul,  to  answer  Him  !  be  jubilant,  my  feet  I 

Our  God  is  marching  on. 
In  the  beauty  of  the  lilies,  Christ  was  born  across  the  sea, 
With  a  glory  in  His  bosom  that  transfigures  you  and  me ; 
As  he  died  to  make  men  holy,  let  us  die  to  make  men  free, 
While  God  is  marching  on." 


SPEECH 

OF  HON.  J.  M.  ASHLEY,  OF  OHIO, 
In  the;  Hous:^  of  Rkpreskntatives,  May  8,  1862. 


ON  THK  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  TERRITORY  OF  ARIZONA. 


The  bill  ( H.  R.  No.  357 )  to  provide  a  temporary  g-ov- 
ernment  for  the  Territory  of  Arizona  being-  under  considera- 
tion, Mr.  Ashley  addressed  the  House  as  follows: 

Mr.  Speaker.  When  this  bill  came  up,  two  or  three 
weeks  since,  for  the  consideration  of  the  House,  I  stated  in 
my  place  that  I  did  not  desire  to  have  it  put  upon  its  passage 
then,  if  any  member  wished  to  discuss  it.  No  gentleman 
rising-  at  that  time,  I  demanded  the  previous  question  on  the 
third  reading.  I  did  so  at  the  suggestion  of  a  gentleman  at 
my  side,  a  better  parliamentarian  than  I  profess  to  be.  And 
when  I  declined  to  yield  to  my  colleague  on  the  committee 
[  Mr.  Wheeler  ] ,  it  was  in  consequence  of  a  misunderstand- 
ing. I  was  told  that  if  I  yielded,  as  the  morning  hour  would 
expire  in  three  minutes,  I  would  lose  control  of  the  bill.     I 

Letter  from  Hon.  B.  K.  Bruce,  LL.  D.,  Washington,  D.  C. 
The  records  show  that  Mr.  Ashley  introduced  the  bill  for  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Territory  of  Arizona.  There  was  some  opposition 
to  the  bill,  as  his  speech  discloses.  But  Mr.  Ashley  was  anxious 
for  the  passage  of  the  bill,  for  the  reasons  which  he  states,  and  also 
because  he  desired  Congress,  in  the  face  of  a  great  war,  to  treat  with 
the  contempt  which  it  deserved,  the  pro-slavery  declaration  of  the 
B.  K.  BRUCE.  Supreme!  Court,  touching  the  right  of  Congress  to  prohibit  slavery 
in  national  territories.  This  was  practical  legislation  in  favor  of  freedom.  Mr.  Ashley 
aided  during  his  congressional  life  in  securing  by  law  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in 
the  Territories  ;  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  the  passage 
of  the  Thirteenth  Amendment.  This  is  a  historic  record  which  time  cannot  obscure 
or  change.  B.  K.  Bruce. 

(226) 


—  227  — 

therefore  declined  to  yield,  not  from  a  desire  to  cut  off  my 
colleag"ue,  for  I  understood  then,  as  I  do  now,  that  ordering^ 
the  main  question  on  the  third  reading-  left  debate  open,  but 
prohibited  amendments,  which  I  desired  to  do.  I  think  this 
explanation  due  to  the  House  and  to  my  colleague  on  the 
committee. 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  strang*e  spectacle  is  presented  to-day  in 
this  House,  of  a  people  who  have  no  protection  from  this 
government  asking  it  through  their  Representative,  and,  if 
the  motion  to  postpone  prevails,  of  its  being  practically 
refused,  by  the  very  men,  who,  of  all  others,  are  pledged  to  the 
protection  of  the  citizens  who  emigrate  to  the  Territories  of 
the  United  States.  For  the  first  time,  I  believe,  in  the 
history  of  our  legislation,  have  the  people  of  a  Territory 
asked  that  a  portion  of  such  Territory  which,  from  physical 
disabilities,  they  were  not  able  to  protect,  should  be  taken  off, 
and  organized  into  a  separate  government.  I  do  not  intend 
to  take  up  the  time  of  the  House  in  discussing  our  duty  to 
resident  citizens  who  have  gone  there.  Shame  and  disgrace 
attach  to  a  nation  that  is  incapable,  or  which  neglects  or 
refuses  to  protect  its  citizens.  Citizens  from  my  own  State, 
and  of  my  own  acquaintance,  have  gone  into  this  Territory 
with  the  positive  assurances  of  the  late  Administration  that 
they  would  be  protected,  who  have  not  only  sacrificed  all  their 
wealth  invested  there,  but  many  of  them  have  lost  their  lives. 
For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  our  government  have  the 
white  settlers  in  the  Territory  been  driven  from  their  homes, 
leaving  their  property,  to  the  amount  of  millions,  at  the 
mercy  and  control  of  savage  Indians.  I  knew  but  little  of  that 
Territory,  except  as  I  gathered  it  from  friends  who  had  gone 
there,  and  from  gentlemen  who  had  called  on  me  to  urge  the 
necessity  of  establishing  a  territorial  government  there. 
Not  on  my  motion,  sir,  was  a  bill  first  introduced  here  for  the 
organization  of  this  Territory.  On  the  24th  of  December 
last,  the  delegate  who  represents  that  people,  who  is  sup- 
posed to  know  their-  wants  quite  as  well  as  gentlemen  resid- 
ing thousands  of  miles  away,  introduced  a  bill  for  that  pur- 
pose. It  was  drawn  up  in  the  usual  phraseology,  and  con- 
tained forty  or  fifty  sections.  But  I  preferred  to  have 
a  short  bill,  something  like  the  old  bills  organizing  govern- 


—  228  — 

ments  under  Jefferson's  administration,  such  as  the  bill 
org-anizing-  Ohio.  I  therefore  reported  this  bill,  which  has  but 
three  sections,  and  contains  the  Jeffersonian  proviso,  without 
which  I  could  not  consent  to  the  org-anization  of  this  Terri- 
tory. I  therefore  declined  to  yield  to  my  colleag-ue  [Mr.  Cox] 
to  move  to  strike  it  out,  for  if  it  is  organized  by  this  Congress 
it  must  be  free. 

I  did  not  report  this  bill  without  having  satisfied  myself 
that  the  people  of  this  Territory  had  sufficient  population  to 
entitle  them  to  a  territorial  g-overnment.  I  will  state,  for  the 
information  of  the  House,  some  facts  in  connection  with  the 
history  of  the  population  of  other  Territories  at  the  time  of 
their  org-anization.  The  Territory  of  Indiana  was  org"anized 
on  the  7th  of  May,  1800,  with  a  white  population  of  4,517. 
The  Territory  of  Mississippi  was  org-anized  on  the  10th  day 
of  May,  1800,  with  a  white  population  of  5,170.  The  Terri- 
tory of  Michigan  was  organized  on  the  11th  of  January,  1805, 
with  a  population  of  4,818.  The  Territory  of  Illinois  was 
org-anized  on  the  11th  of  February,  1809,  having  been  detached 
from  the  Territory  of  Indiana,  and  it  had  a  population  of 
11,501.  The  Territory  of  Minnesota  was  organized  on  the 
3d  day  of  March,  1849,  with  a  population  of  6,038.  The 
Territory  of  Washington  was  organized  on  the  2d  of  March, 
1853,  having-  been  detached  from  the  Territory  of  Oreg-on. 
There  is  no  statistical  information  g-iving-  the  exact  number" 
of  inhabitants  of  that  Territory  at  the  time  of  its  organiza- 
tion; but  I  have  consulted  the  delegate  from  the  Territory 
of  Washing-ton,  who  was  then  and  is  now  c  resident  of  that 
Territory,  who  thinks  that  its  population  could  not  have  ex- 
ceeded 2,000  or  2,500.  At  all  events,  after  a  territorial 
organization  of  nearly  ten  years,  its  population  at  the  census 
in  1860  was  only  11,578. 

The  Territories  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  as  g-entlemen 
are  aware,  were  organized  on  the  30th  of  May,  1S54,  when 
there  was  not  a  resident  white  inhabitant  in  either  of 
them,  by  authority  of  law.  Those  who  were  there  were  in- 
truders, in  contravention  of  a  law  excluding-  every  white  man 
from  the  Territory  who  was  not  connected  with  the  Indian 
agencies.  The  Territory  of  Nevada  was  organized  on  the 
2d  of  March,  1861,  when  it  had  a  population  of  6,857.     It 


—  229-~ 

was  detached  from  the  Territory  of  Utah,  over  which  there 
was  at  that  time  a  territorial  g-overnment,  as  there  is  to-day 
a  government  of  form  merely  over  the  people  of  Arizona, 
who  ask  for  this  territorial  government.  The  delegate  from 
Nevada  informed  me  to-day  that  the  recent  census,  taken 
some  six  months  only  after  the  organization,  shows  a  popu- 
lation of  17,000  souls,  with  two  daily  newspapers  in  the  Terri- 
tory; proving  that  that  organization  which  secures  life  and 
property,  and  which  gives  civil  protection,  had  brought  these 
people  to  the  Territory,  where,  with  the  teeming  wealth  that 
everybody  knows  exists  there,  they  will  have  within  a  year  a 
population  greater  than  that  of  the  State  of  Oregon.  On  the 
2d  of  March,  1861,  the  Territory  of  Dakota  was  organized 
with  a  population  of  4,839.  The  Territory  of  Arizona,  as 
proposed  to  be  organized,  has  in  that  part  of  it  alone  which 
is  called  Arizona  county,  6,466  white  inhabitants,  21  colored, 
and  4,040  civilized  Indians,  who  live  in  their  homes  and  till 
the  soil.  The  Census  Bureau  have  no  official  returns  from 
the  remaining  part  of  the  country  proposed  to  be  included  in 
the  limits  of  the  new  Territory. 

Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  this  is  the  position  of  that  Territory 
to-day.  It  is  said,  and  I  suppose  with  some  truth,  that  a 
large  portion  of  this  population  has  been  driven  out.  But  my 
information  from  the  Territory  and  from  General  Heintzelman, 
who  called  upon  me,  and  who  was  there  for  a  number  of 
years,  and  built  Fort  Yuma,  is,  that  those  people  are  driven 
into  the  State  of  Sonora,  and  that  the  moment  the  Indians 
and  the  secessionists,  who  have  control  of  the  Territory, 
retire,  they  will  go  back  to  their  homes  and  resume  their 
claims  on  the  mines.  General  Heintzelman  said  to  me,  in  a 
conversation  I  had  with  him  about  the  importance  and  neces- 
sity of  organizing  a  government  for  this  Territory,  that,  had 
it  been  organized  five  years  ago,  it  would  have  contained  to- 
day from  fifty  to  seventy-five  thousand  population,  who  have 
been  in  the  Territory,  and  failed  to  remain  there  because  of 
the  insecurity  of  person  and  property.  That  is  the  statement 
of  a  man  who  was  there  as  a  military  officer  of  the  United 
States. 

Now,  sir,  let  us  see  what  has  been  the  opinion  of  men 
who  have  had  this  subject-matter  under  consideration  before 


—  230  — 

it  came  into  my  hands.  Let  us  see  the  importance  attached 
to  the  organization  ol  this  Territory  by  men  who  have  been 
regarded  as  statesmen.  Senator  Gwin,  of  California,  intro- 
duced a  bill  for  the  organization  of  this  Territory  as  early  as 
the  17th  December,  1857.  Senator  Douglas,  who  was  then 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Territories,  reported  back  a 
bill  to  the  Senate,  and  recommended  its  passage.  So  ionsf 
ago,  then,  as  1857,  it  was  thought  to  be  not  only  the  duty  of 
the  government,  but  to  be  expedient  and  proper,  by  the 
gentlemen  having  charge  of  this  matter,  that  a  territorial 
government  should  be  organized  for  that  Territory.  On  the 
4th  of  February,  1859,  Senator  Green,  of  Missouri,  intro- 
duced a  bill  for  the  organization  of  Dakota  and  Arizona,  he 
being  then  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Territories. 
Jefferson  Davis,  a  Senator  at  that  time  from  the  State  of 
Mississippi,  introduced  a  bill  for  the  organization  of  the 
Territory  of  Arizuma,  which  was  referred  to  the  Committee 
on  Territories,  and  Mr.  Green,  then  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee, reported  back  substantially  this  same  bill,  with  the 
recommendation  that  it  pass. 

This  Territory  has  elected  three  delegates,  at  three 
separate  and  distinct  elections,  and  sent  them  here  to  claim 
seats  in  this  House,  asking  that  the  Territory  be  organized, 
and  the  protection  due  from  the  government  to  the  people 
there  be  extended  to  them. 

Now,  I  undertake  to  say  here  in  my  place,  that  if  a  terri- 
torial government  had  been  organized  in  that  Territory,  and 
proper  protection  extended,  the  mines  which  are  undeveloped 
in  that  region,  and  which  are  richer  than  those  of  Colorado, 
would  have  called  to  it  a  larger  population  to-day  than  now 
exists  either  in  the  Territory  of  Colorado  or  the  Territory  of 
Nevada.  But  for  the  lack  of  proper  protection  it  was  in- 
capable of  sustaining  and  defending  itself  against  the  horde 
of  Indians  who  make  their  inroads  there,  and  the  small  band 
of  secessionists  who  have  been  able,  by  conspiring  with 
those  Indians,  to  drive  out  the  loyal  Union  men  who  here  to- 
day ask  your  protection.  These,  sir,  are  facts  which  no 
gentleman  of  this  House,  here  or  elsewhere,  can  gainsay. 

Now,  sir,  I  ask  the  attention  of  the  House  to  this  map 
[unrolling  a  map  of  the  proposed  and  surrounding  Territories] 


—  231^ 

which  will  show  what  an  immense  Territory  this  is,  and  the 
boundary  with  which  it  is  proposed  to  be  organized.  Here 
is  the  Territory  of  New  Mexico,  nearly  a  thousand  miles  in 
leng-th  from  the  eastern  to  the  western  boundary.  It  is  pro- 
posed to  constitute  this  Territory  by  running  a  line  from  the 
southwestern  boundary  of  Colorado,  as  is  shown  by  this  line, 
making  a  Territory  larger  than  Nevada,  larger  than  Colorado, 
larger  than  Utah,  larger  than  the  State  of  New  York,  and 
larger  than  any  other  State  in  the  Union  except  Texas. 

Now,  that  territorial  organization  will  secure  the  largest 
proportion  of  emigration  which  now  goes  into  California  by 
the  great  southern  mail  route.  That  is  the  testimony  of 
General  Heintzelman;  and  from  the  location  of  Fort  Yuma, 
built  by  him,  that  and  a  fort  at  or  near  Calabagas,  properly 
garrisoned,  will  afford  all  the  protection  that  will  be  needed 
for  the  Territory  and  the  government  now  proposed  to  be 
organized. 

Now,  I  do  not  propose,  as  I  said  in  the  outset,  to  take  up 
the  time  of  the  House  in  the  discussion  of  the  importance 
and  necessity  of  this  measure.  The  honorable  member  from 
New  Mexico,  in  the  able  and  eloquent  speech  to  which  the 
House  have  just  listened,  has  left  no  part  of  the  ground 
unexplained,  which  I  intended  to  occupy  when  I  yielded  the 
floor  that  it  might  be  awarded  to  him,  and  I  could  not  if  1 
would  add  anything  on  the  point  he  has  so  clearly  presented, 
and  with  which  from  a  residence  of  many  years  in  that 
Territory  he  must  be  so  familiar. 

The  band  of  secessionists  now  having  control  of  ^  this 
Territory  must  be  driven  out  of  it,  and  there  is  no  way  by 
which  this  can  be  done  so  easily,  and  the  Territory  so  effec- 
tually secured  to  the  Union,  as  by  giving  it  a  territorial 
organization;  such  an  organization  as  is  asked  for  by  the 
people  who  live  there;  such  an  organization  as  will  afford  it 
local  protection.  Why,  sir,  I  have  been  informed  by  a  gentle- 
man in  whose  integrity  I  confide  to  the  utmost,  that  for  more 
than  three  years  no  court  has  been  held  in  that  entire  Terri- 
tory; that  murders  of  our  citizens  have  been  perpetrated  with 
impunity,  not  only  by  savages,  but  by  the  very  men  who  are 
now  in  rebellion  against  the   government,   and  assume  to 


—  232  — 

g"overn  the  Territory  in  the  name  of  Jefferson  Davis  and  the 
30-called  southern  confederacy. 

That  this  Territory  must  be  wrested  from  its  present 
occupants,  all  admit.  It  is  in  the  possession  of  a  small  but 
desperate  band  of  outlaws  and  marauders,  who  were  driven 
from  Kansas  and  the  other  frontier  States  of  the  South  and 
West.  They  have  been  enabled  by  conspiring*  with  the 
savages,  to  drive  out  and  despoil  all  the  Union  citizens,  many 
of  whom  are  to-day  in  the  State  of  Sonora,  Mexico,  anxiously 
awaiting"  the  time  when  the  g-overnment  shall  ag-ain  assert 
its  just  authority  over  the  Territory,  and  afford  them  that 
protection  to  which  they  are  entitled,  in  order  that  they  may 
return  to  their  homes, 

I  hope  that  the  members  of  this  House  will  not  allow  the 
appeal  of  the  gentleman  from  New  York  [Mr.  Wheeler] ,  on 
the  score  of  economy,  to  prevent  them  from  discharging 
their  solemn  duty  to  our  citizens.  But  I  undertake  to  say 
that,  in  an  economical  point  of  view  alone,  it  is  the  cheapest, 
best,  and  most  effectual  way  of  saving-  that  Territory  to  us, 
and  of  protecting"  our  citizens. 

Why,  sir,  no  long-er  than  a  few  days  ago,  when  you  were 
discussing"  the  tax  bill,  my  friend  from  Indiana  [Mr.  Dunn] 
offered  an  amendment  that  this  government  should  send  out 
laborers  to  dig  in  the  mines,  to  enable  us  to  obtain  the 
precious  metals  required  to  aid  in  carrying  on  this  govern- 
ment. I  undertake  to  say  that  if  this  Territory  is  organized 
at  this  time,  in  six  months  from  its  inauguration  and  the 
suppression  of  the  rebellion  there  will  be  a  population  there 
larger  than  that  of  Nevada,  because  the  mines  are  richer  and 
emigrants  may  reach  there  by  water  communication.  And 
I  not  only  say  there  will  be  a  population  there  larger  than 
Nevada,  but  that  the  wealth  produced  will  repay,  a  hundred 
fold,  the  expense  which  will  be  necessarily  incurred,  whether 
we  organize  the  Territory  or  not,  in  its  recapture  from  the 
men  who  now  hold  and  occupy  it.  I  ask  you  to  look  at  the 
Territory  of  Colorado,  which  is  not  as  rich  in  minerals  as 
Arizona.  A  year  or  two  ago  there  were  scarcely  a  thousand 
American  citizens  there.  To-day  there  is  a  population  of 
forty-odd  thousand,  and  in  a  year  from  this  time  Colorado  will 
have  a  population  greater  than  that  of  the  State  of  Oregon. 


—  233  — 

The  same  may  be  said  of  Nevada.  And  do  you  tell  me,  then, 
that  this  Territory,  which  is  admitted  by  all  men  who  have 
traveled  over  it,  or  who  have  resided  in  it,  to  surpass  all  the 
other  Territories  in  mineral  wealth,  will  not  have  a  larg-er 
population  in  the  same  length  of  time  from  its  organization, 
when  its  population  has  run  up  to  six  or  seven  thousand  under 
all  its  disadvantages. 

But  in  addition  to  this,  I  desire  to  say  that  there  rests 
upon  the  majority  of  this  House  a  solemn  obligation  to  pass 
this  bill,  and  to  pass  it  substantially  as  we  have  reported  it; 
to  pass  it  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  Territory,  as  it  is  their 
duty  to  dedicate  all  our  National  Territories  to  freedom.  At 
the  request  of  the  delegate  from  New  Mexico,  I  have  con- 
sented to  amend  the  bill  by  striking  out  Washington  and 
inserting  New  Mexico,  and  to  make  one  other  amendment 
striking  out  all  that  part  of  the  bill  which  relates  to  other 
Territories,  and  permit  the  prohibition  of  slavery  to  extend 
only  to  the  Territory  now  proposed  to  be  organized.  I  have 
done  so  because  it  has  been  represented  to  me  by  several 
members  on  this  side  of  the  House,  for  whose  opinions  I  have 
great  respect,  that  the  general  provision  proposed  on  the  sub- 
ject of  slavery  in  other  Territories  should  be  made  in  another 
bill.  My  colleague  on  the  committee  from  Illinois  [Mr. 
Lovejoy]  has  in  his  charge,  by  direction  of  the  committee, 
the  bill  introduced  into  the  House  some  time  ago  by  Honor- 
able Mr.  Arnold,  of  Illinois,  and  which  contains  substantially 
the  same  provision  touching  the  question  of  slavery  in  the 
other  Territories.  I  have,  therefore,  consented  to  have  the 
prohibition  for  other  Territories  omitted  in  the  Arizona  bill. 

Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  given  to  the  House  the  facts  in 
relation  to  this  matter.  How  much  wealth  has  been  carried 
into  Arizona  that  is  utterly  and  forever  lost,  unless  this 
House  now  organizes  this  Territory,  I  cannot  say,  but  the 
amount  must  be  large.  The  citizens  of  Ohio  alone  have 
more  than  a  million  of  dollars  invested  there,  and  the  citizens 
of  other  States  have  invested  large  amounts. 

Mr.  Gurlky.  I  wish  to  state  to  the  House  that  I  see  a 
gentleman  in  the  gallery  who  has  spent  $50,000  of  his  own 
money  in  opening  mines  in  Arizona,  who  was  driven  away 


—  234  — 

by  the  Indians;  and  if  the  government  would  only  afford  him 
and  his  associates,  and  others  who  may  desire  to  g-o  to  that 
Territory  protection,  they  will  in  return  give  us  millions 
upon  millions  of  dollars  in  silver.     Gold  has  become  so  com- 

jnon  now  that  we  do  not  care  much  about  it.     Legal  tender  is 

as  good  as  gold,  and  a  little  better,  by  our  law.  [Laughter.] 
But  this  Territory  is  peculiarly  rich  in  silver.  As  my  col- 
league [Mr.  Ashley]  and  as  I  have  learned  from  my  constit- 
uents who  have  gone  there,  I  believe  that  $50,000,000  per 
annum  would  in  a  short  time,  say  a  few  years,  be  extracted 
from  the  mines  of  that  Territory  in  silver,  if  3^ou  will  only 
protect  the  miners,  so  that  they  need  not  be  compelled  to 
work,  holding  the  rifle  in  one  hand,  and  the  pick  in  the  other, 
as  they  have  hitherto  been  compelled  to  do. 

I  wish  to  say  that  my  attention  has  been  called  to  this 
subject  from  the  fact  that  I  have  many  constituents  who  have 
been  out  there,  and  engaged  in  mining.  Several  prominent 
gentlemen  from  Cincinnati  have  lost  their  lives  in  that  Terri- 
tory. For  myself,  I  have  nary  gold  mine  nor  silver  mine  in 
the  Territory. 

Mr.  Ashlky.  Mr.  Speaker,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned, 
the  amount  of  earthly  treasure  which  I  have  laid  up  in  this 
world  is  very  small;  I  trust  that,  in  the  other,  it  will  be  pro- 
portionately large.  I,  too,  have  no  gold  or  silver  mine  in 
Arizona.  I  have  friends  there,  however,  who  have  invested 
large  amounts  in  that  Territory,  and  who  will  sacrifice  all  if 
the  present  condition  of  affairs  should  continue.  I  have  had 
friends  there  whose  lives  have  been  sacrificed.  I  have  con- 
ferred with  gentlemen  who  have  lived  years  in  that  Territory, 
who  state — and  their  statement  is  confirmed  by  General 
Heintzelman  —  that  whenever  it  is  organized,  from  $50,000,000 
to  $75,000,000  may  be  exported  annually  in  the  precious 
metals.  But  aside  from  that  consideration,  the  citizens  of 
the  United  States  who  have  gone  there  have  the  right  to 
protection. 

As  I  was  saying,  when  interrupted  by  my  colleague,  the 
first  and  highest  duty  of  this  government  is  to  protect  its 
citizens.  Yet,  sir,  the  strange  spectacle  is  presented  of  oppo- 
sition to  this  bill  by  members  on  this  side  of  the  House,  who, 


—  235-^ 

with  an  inconsistency  of  principle  wholly  incomprehensible, 
propose  that  its  further  consideration  shall  be  postponed 
until  December  next.  Do  not  g-entlemen  know  that  if  they 
postpone  this  matter  until  December  next,  it  will  be  late  in 
the  summer  or  fall  of  next  year  before  a  g-overnment  can  be 
organized  which  will  secure  for  these  people  the  protection 
they  now  demand?  It  seems  to  me,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  we  fail 
fully  to  comprehend  the  wants  and  necessities  of  this  perilous 
hour  for  the  country.  Men  are  so  accustomed  to  run  in 
grooves  that  even  revolutions  fail  to  lift  a  majority  of  those 
whom  we  have  been  accustomed  to  call  leaders  to  the  level 
plane  of  passing-  events.  History  informs  us  that  most  of 
those  who  have  been  regarded  in  times  past  as  great  states- 
men and  military  heroes  have  fallen  victims  to  their  inability 
to  rise  to  the  level  of  the  revolutionary  plane.  Unable  to 
meet  and  overcome  the  exigencies  of  the  hour,  they  have 
folded  their  arms,  and,  like  Napoleon  before  Moscow,  faltered, 
hesitated,  and  were  lost.  Well  and  truly  has  the  poet  said 
that— 

**  Once  to  every  man  and  nation  comes  the  moment  to  decide, 
In  the  strife  of  truth  with  falsehood,  for  the  good  or  evil  side." 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  do  not  by  any  means  believe  that  the 
members  of  the  House  are  indifferent  to  the  great  issues 
involved  in  this  rebellion;  indeed  I  know  of  the  anxiety  and 
solicitude  of  many  of  its  most  distinguished  and  patriotic 
members.  But  I  do  think,  sir,  that  we  fail  to  appreciate  in 
all  its  terrible  reality  the  importance  and  grandeur  of  the 
era  in  which  Providence  has  cast  our  lot.  We  fail  to  realize 
that  we  are  living  in  a  time  when  the  Republic  of  our 
fathers,  in  which  are  centered  the  hopes  and  aspirations  of 
millions,  is  to  be  saved  or  lost.  The  march  of  events  is  so 
swift  and  irresistible,  that  we  become  dizzy  in  contemplating 
it,  and  do  not  remember  that  we  are  forever  and  forever  being 
pressed  forward.  We  seem  to  forget  that  we  are  to  preserve 
constitutional  liberty  and  American  civilization,  or  permit 
them  to  go  out  in  the  night  of  barbarism  and  slavery.  I 
appeal  to  all  those  who  have  not  forgotttn  when,  recently, 


—  236  — 

this  capital  was  beleaguered  by  the  defiant  hordes  of  treason^ 
and  who  have  not  forgotten  all  of  the  exciting-  and  terrible 
events  which  have  transpired  within  the  past  year;  I  appeal 
to  all  those  who  then  saw,  and  still  see,  the  dangers  which 
beset  this  government  and  its  people,  whether  they  are  not 
solicitous  for  the  future. 

Sir,  I  do  not  believe  there  is  a  member  in  this  House, 
unless  he  be  an  accomplice  in  the  treason  which  is  seeking^ 
the  nation's  life,  who  is  not  anxious  that  victory  shall  crown 
our  arms,  and  that  there  shall  be  a  speedy  restoration  of  the 
Union.  But  as  a  body,  we  hesitate  and  are  divided  in  action. 
Five  long  and  weary  months  of  this  session  have  passed,  in 
which  we  should  have  had  action,  prompt,  efi&cient  action, 
against  the  rebels,  and  ,yet  we  sit  deliberating.  We  have 
done  but  little  aside  from  voting  men  and  money  to  aid  in  the 
speedy  suppression  of  this  rebellion.  No  concert  or  unity 
of  purpose  has  thus  far  marked  our  legislation.  The  nation, 
in  breathless  suspense,  is  awaiting  the  moment  when  some 
practical  measure  of  relief  shall  be  proposed  and-  adopted.. 
All  the  "people  ask  is  competent  and  efl5.cient  leadership,  and 
millions  of  money  and  myriads  of  men  are  at  our  disposal* 
With  impunity  have  traitors  remained  in  our  army,  in  our 
navy,  and  in  almost  every  department  of  the  government. 
We  have  done  more,  far  more  — I  regret  to  say  it  —  to  encour- 
age treason  than  to  terrify  traitors,  by  our  inaction  and  our 
divisions. 

Mr.  Wickliffe.  I  do  not  know  whether  I  understood 
the  gentleman  in  a  remark  which  he  has  just  made,  and 
therefore  I  rise  to  ask  him  a  question.  Are  we  to  understand 
him  as  saying  that  there  are  •  traitors  still  remaining  in  the 
army  and  navy,  and  in  every  department  of  the  government? 

Mr.  Ashley.     Yes,  sir;  I  made  that  statement. 

Mr.  Wickliffk.  In  God's  name,  then,  let  us  know  who 
they  are. 

Mr.  Ashlky.  I  give  that  as  my  opinion,  based  on  facts, 
which  are  within  the  reach  of  every  member  of  this  House.  I 
believe  that  there  still  remain  in  all  the  departments  of  this 
government  men  who,  at  heart,  are  traitors  to  it.  I  knoc;^' 
that  to  be  the  opinion  of  a  majority  of  the  members  of  the 


—  237  — 

select  committee  on  the  conduct  of  the  war,  and  of  the  Potter 
committee.  The  members  of  both  these  committees  with 
whom  I  have  conversed  are  well  satisfied  that  there  are  many 
now  in  office  under  this  government  who  sympathize  with 
those  who  are  to-day  seeking-  the  nation's  life,  and  yet  we 
remain  apparently  indifferent  and  divided. 

Sir,  we  spend  weeks  in  discussing*  a  tax  bill,  which  might 
without  much  impropriety  be  called  a  bill  to  confiscate  the 
property  of  loyal  citizens,  while  we  refuse,  persistently  refuse, 
to  touch  the  property  of  rebels  in  arms  against  the  govern- 
ment. We  prefer  to  fall  back  upon  musty  precedents,  and  thus 
attempt  to  divert  the  will  of  the  nation  from  its  purposes  by 
■discussing  learned  absurdities  and  constitutional  technicali- 
ties, rather  than  grapple  as  practical  men  with  the  cause  of 
the  rebellion.  Treachery  and  treason  stalk  before  us  on  all 
sides  and  defy  us.  We  are  told,  not  only  by  traitors  but  by 
■  some  who  profess  to  be  our  friends,  that  we  have  no  constitu- 
tional power  to  confiscate  the  property  of  rebels  in  arms 
against  the  government;  that  we  have  no  constitutional 
power  to  remove  the  cause  and  admitted  support  of  the  rebel- 
lion and  thus  make  a  like  rebellion  from  the  same  cause  for- 
ever impossible  hereafter.  Thus,  amid  this  diversity  of 
opinion,  we  are  divided  in  council  and  rendered  powerless  in 
action,  and  are  drifting  as  a  nation  no  one  knows  whither. 
Instead  of  directing  the  public  mind,  as  statesmen  should 
do,  by  playing  the  politician  we  divide  and  distract  it.  Now, 
sir — 

The  Speaker.  The  gentleman  must  confine  his  remarks 
to  the  subject  under  discussion.     The  motion  is  to  postpone. 

Mr.  ASHI.EY.  In  my  judgment,  i*n  the  remarks  which  I 
am  submitting,  I  am  not  out  of  order;  and  if  the  Chair  had 
waited  to  see  the  application  which  I  propose  to  make  of  them, 
he  would  not,  I  am  sure,  have  decided  me  out  of  order. 
However,  if  that  be  the  decision  of  the  Chair,  I  will  not  further 
continue  them. 

The  Speaker.  The  chair  cannot  see  what  relevancy 
the  confiscation  of  the  property  of  rebels  has  to  the  pending 
question. 

Mr.  Asht.ey.  Papers  and  resolutions  are  often  presented 
at  the  Clerk's  desk  to  be  read  for  the  action  of  the  House, 


—  238—    • 

and  questions  of  order  are  not  unfrequently  raised  upon  them. 
The  Chair  usually  delays  a  decision  until  they  are  read,  to 
ascertain  their  contents  and  relevancy,  and  in  this  instance  I 
^o .not  see  why  he  should  have  departed  from  his  usual  course. 
I  certainly  do  not  intend  to  make  any  remarks  which  are  out 
of  order,  and  perhaps  this  allusion  which  I  make  to  confisca- 
tion and  our  divisions  on  other  subjects  is  not  relevant;  but  I' 
propose  to  make,  with  your  consent,  an  application  of  these 
remarks,  and  you  and  the  House  may  then  judg-e  whether 
they  are  pertinent  to  the  pending-  proposition  or  not. 

Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  when  interrupted,  I  was  saying"  that 
we  had  failed  utterly  to  do  anything  effective  in  behalf  of  the 
country  at  this  session,  if  I  except  the  act  emancipating* 
the  slaves  in  this  District,  and  the  passag-e  by  this  House  of 
the  homestead  bill  and  Pacific  railroad.  We  not  only  have 
permitted  ourselves  to  be  divided  in  council;  we  have  not 
only  failed  to  grapple  vigorously  with  the  cause  of  this  rebel- 
lion, as  statesmen  and  practical  men,  but,  by  playing  the 
politician,  we  have  divided  the  people  at  home.  To-day  we 
yield  to  the  supercilious  demands  and  pocket  the  insult  of  a 
foreign  government,  and  to-morrow  grow  jubilant  over  a 
victory  which  means  nothing.  To-day  we  declare  the  back- 
bone of  this  rebellion  broken,  and  to-morrow  a  reverse  de- 
stroys this  faith,  and  we  grow  as  skeptical  as  before;  but 
whether  rejoicing  in  victory  or  mourning  in  defeat,  we  are 
constantly  assured  by  the  friends  and  apologists  of  slavery 
that  we  must  not  pass  any  law  which  will  touch  this  question. 
We  are  assured  by  gentlemen  that  if  we  are  only  patriotic  — 
if  we  are  only  patient,  conciliatory  and  magnanimous  — ■■ 
our  erring  Southern  brethren  will  soon  return  and  sin  no 
more,  which  simply  means,  as  I  interpret  it,  that  they  will 
return  to  the  Union  when  we  give  them  all  that  they  ask,  and 
more  than  they  ever  asked  before  the  rebellion.  Thus,  day 
by  day,  week  by  week,  and  month  by  month,  for  a  whole 
year,  has  this  panorama  of  victories  and  defeats  been  passing 
in  view  before  our  eyes;  and  yet  we  remain  undecided,  and 
* '  sit  here  deliberating  in  cold  debate, "  without  unity  of 
purpose  or  harmony  of  action.  This  bill  imposes  a  just 
punishment   upon   slavery,   which   has  brought    about   this 


—  239  — 

rebellion.  It  puts  it  under  the  ban  of  the  national  g-overn- 
ment,  and  gives  an  earnest  of  our  purpose,  by  declaring-  that 
slavery  and  involuntary  servitude  shall  cease  in  this  Terri- 
tory forever. 

Sir,  the  motion  to  postpone  this  bill  practically  secures 
a  direct  vote  upon  it.  The  defeat  of  this  motion,  and  the 
prompt  org-anization  of  this  Territory,  I  reg-ard  as  very  im- 
portant. Its  passag-e  will  secure  not  only  the  approbation  of 
the  g-reat  majority  of  the  loyal  people  of  this  country,  but  it 
will  secure  the  approbation  of  the  liberal  people  of  every 
g-overnment  in  Europe.  It  will  place  the  National  Government 
where  every  earnest  man  in  this  House  desires  it  to  be  placed 
—  on  the  side  of  freedom. 

Sir,  this  indifference,  this  division  of  sentiment,  to  which 
I  have  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to  allude,  sits  like  an  incubus 
upon  many,  and  they  seem  powerless  to  dispel  it.  Many  who 
should  be  with  us  in  action,  as  they  profess  to  be  in  sentiment, 
unfortunately  are  encouraging  others  to  vote  against  this 
bill,  who  otherwise  would  sustain  it.  If  this  bill  fails  —  this 
national  proclamation,  as  it  may  properly  be  called,  of  free- 
dom—  it  will  fail  by  the  votes  of  its  professed  friends,  upon 
the  pretext  that  it  will  cost  the  nation  thirty  or  fourty  thou- 
sand dollars  annually.  If  it  does  fail,  I  ask  every  member 
upon  this  side  of  the  House,  I  ask  every  member  in  this  Hall, 
if  we  will  not  justly  be  charged  with  abandoning  that  cause 
which  sent  a  majority  of  Republicans  into  this  Hall,  and 
which  intrusted  the  present  national  Republican  Administra- 
tion with  the  control  of  the  government. 

Sir,  I  trust  the  motion  will  fail,  and  that  before  this 
House  adjourns,  or  before  the  two  days  set  apart  for  terri- 
torial business  shall  have  passed,  this  bill,  so  far  as  the  action 
of  the  Representatives  of  the  people  can  decree  it,  will  have 
become  the  law  of  the  land.  If  the  bill  fails,  and  this  great 
opportunity  be  lost,  and  it  should  so  happen  at  the  next  ses- 
sion that  you  cannot  pass  it,  certainly  those  who  so  vote 
will  incur  a  terrible  responsibility,  and  of  all  men  will  be 
most  guilty. 

Sir,  I  repeat  that  I  hope  the  motion  to  postpone  will  fail. 


MR.  ASHLEY'S  LETTER  ON  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN'S 
EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION. 


FROM  THE  TOLEDO  COMMERCIAI,. 


We  publish  this  morning-  a  letter  from  Mr.  Ashley  to 
his  constituents,  congratulating*  them  on  the  final  triumph  of 
the  great  cause  of  human  freedom,  of  which  he  has  been  for 
many  years  the  effective  and  untiring"  advocate.  The  letter 
will  be  found  vigorous  and  forcible  in  style,  and  pervaded  by  a 
hopeful  spirit. 

Mr.  Ashley  presents  an  incontrovertible  arg-ument  in 
favor  of  the  constitutionality  of  the  President's  proclamation, 
which  we  trust  our  friends  ma}^  read  carefully.  "We  call 
special  attention  to  the  exposition  of  the  political  history  of 
our  State  during-  the  past  two  years,  the  results  which  fol- 
lowed, and  the  lesson  which  it  teaches.  Want  of  space 
forbids,  at  this  time,  further  notice. 

Letter  from  Bishop  Benjamitt  F.  Lee,  D.  D.,  Waco,  Texas. 
As  soon  as  Mr.  Lincoln's  Emancipation  Proclamation  was 
published,  Mr.  Ashley  at  once  wrote  the  following-  happy 
letter  endorsing-  and  defending-  the  President's  great  act,  and 
cong-ratulating-  his  constituents  on  the  certain  triumph  of  the 
army  and  the  cause  of  the  slave.  The  promptness  with 
which  this  letter  was  written,  the  forcible  and  vig-orous  style 
which  pervades  it,  all  tell  that  the  head  and  heart  of  its 
author  was  for  our  liberation.  The  joy  Mr.  Ashley  ex- 
presses,the  hopeful  spirit  in  which  he  wrote,  and  the  prophecy 
he  then  made,  we  all  know  have  been  in  a  large  part  fulfilled. 

Benjamin  F.  Lee. 

(240) 


EENJAMIN  F.  LEE. 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  AND 
THE  CAUSE  OF  FREEDOM. 


Washington  City,  D.  C,  January  1st,  1863. 

Editor  Commercial  :  The  last  of  the  hundred  days'  res- 
pite given  to  slavery  expired  with  the  dying-  .year,  and  this 
g-lorious  morning  ushers  in  a  new  epoch  in  our  history. 
The  die  is  cast.  To-day  the  Rubicon  was  crossed,  and  the 
nation,  thanks  to  the  persistent  demands  of  her  earnest  sons, 
is  at  last  irrevocably  committed  to  the  policy  of  universal 
emancipation. 

The  proclamation  of  the  President,  which  will  reach  you 
on  the  wings  of  the  lightning  while  I  am  writing,  will  meet 
with  a  welcome  response  from  all  unconditionally  loyal  men, 
and  will  sink  deep  into  the  hearts  of  the  slaves  who  have  long 
prayed  for  the  deliverance  it  will  bring.  The  execution  of 
this  decree  of  freedom  may  be  impeded  by  faction  and  delayed 
by  adverse  majorities  here  and  there,  but  it  cannot  fail, 
because  it  is  the  sentiment  of  the  people,  and  the  nation  is 
pledged  to  its  fulfillment  before  the  world.  Its  execution  will 
require  time,  fortitude,  and  patience.  A  comprehensive 
statesmanship  must  guide,  and  the  active  co-operation  of  all 
loyal  men  will  be  necessary  to  direct,  in  safety,  the  change  of 
a  vast  industrial  system,  and  the  sudden  transition  of  four 
millions  from  slavery  to  freedom. 

Let  us  have  faith  that  this  grand  purpose  will  be  success- 
fully accomplished,  and  that  from  this  day  will  date  the 
dawning  of  a  new  era  in  the  United  States  in  favor  of  free- 
dom and  constitutional  government.  I  may  be  over  sanguine 
in  my  hopes  of  the  future,  but  it  seems  to  me  as  if  the  hour 
has  struck  when  the  Union  contemplated  by  our  fathers  is 
about  to  be  realized.  To  me  it  appears  that  the  present  will 
be  a  year  ever  memorable  in  the  history  of  the  republic  and 
the  world,  a  year  in  which  the  enfranchised  millions  of  the 
16  (241) 


242  — 


I 


United  States  can  stretch  forth  their  glad  hands  to  the  en- 
franchised millions  of  Russia,  and  thank  God  that  the  estab- 
lishment of  justice  in  the  administration  of  these  two  great 
governments  has  made  the  chattelizing  of  men  hereafter 
within  all  their  borders  forever  impossible,  and  paved  the 
way  for  breaking  the  bondage  of  men  among  all  the  nations 
of  earth.  The  hue  and  cry  that  will  be  raised  by  the  rebels 
in  the  South  and  their  sympathizers  in  the  North  will  be  that 
this  proclamation  of  the  President  is  unconstitutionai,. 
There  are  many  men  who  will  unblushingly  denounce  this 
act  as  unconstitutional,  who  never  read  the  Constitution,  and 
who,  if  they  should  read  it,  could  not  understand  it.  This 
pretended  reverence  for  the  Constitution  comes  with  an  ill 
grace  from  the  men  and  the  party  that  have  never  scrupled 
to  disregard  it,  or  to  violate  any  compact,  however  sacred, 
which  stood  in  the  way  of  the  demands  of  the  slaveholding 
rebels. 

Article    1st,  section   8th,   of  the  Constitution    provide 
that 

**The  Congress  shall  have  power 

**  To  declare  war,  grant  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal, 
and  make  rules  concerning  captures  on  land  and  water. 
.    ''  To  provide  and  maintain  a  navy. 

"To  make  rules  for  the  government  and  regulation  of 
the  land  and  naval  forces. 

*'To  provide  for  calling  forth  the  militia  to  execute  the 
laws  of  the  Union,  suppress  insurrection  and  repel  invasions. 

* '  To  provide  for  organizing,  arming  and  disciplining 
the  militia,  and  for  governing  such  part  of  them  as  may  be 
employed  in  the  service  of  the  United  States." 

These  express  grants  of  power  jire  ample  for  all  purposes 
of  war.  When  Congress  shall  declare  war  or  recognize  the 
existence  of  war,  all  rules  applicable  to  a  state  of  war  at  once 
govern  every  movement  of  the  army.  These  laws  are  well 
established  among  the  civilized  nations  of  the  world. 

If  a  rebel  must  first  be  convicted  by  *'due  process  of 
LAW,"  in  a  court  of  law,  then  no  war,  either  offensive  or 
defensive,  can  be  carried  on.  Under  such  interpretation  of 
the  Constitution  not  a  gun  could  be  fired,  because  it  might 
till  a  rebel  * 'without  due  process  of  law,"  and  killing  men 
without  judge  or  jury  not  being  regarded  as  "due  process 


—  243  — 

OF  LAW,"  within  the  meaning"  of  that  term,  as  employed  in  the 
Constitution,  it  follows,  according-  to  rebel  logic,  that  all  war 
on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  against  them,  is  unconsti- 
tutional. But  these  rebel  sympathizers  will  hardly  assume 
now  that  they  have  a  de  facto  g-overnment,  that  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  has  no  right  to  order  the  killing" 
of  a  rebel  in  battle,  under  the  laws  of  war.  They  will  con- 
cede that  a  rebel  life  may  be  taken  constitutionally  in  battle, 
that  his  property  may  be  taken  for  the  subsistence  of  the 
army,  that  his  horses,  his  cattle,  anything  but  his  slave,  may 
be  justly  and  constitutionally  taken.  But  the  President  and 
his  supporters  are  unscrupulously  denounced  as  violators  of 
the  Constitution,  because  of  this  proclamation.  I  need  not 
deny  such  an  idiotic  charge.  In  common  with  the  loyal  people 
of  the  United  States,  I  revere  the  Constitution  of  my  country, 
and  hold  it  to  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land.  I  regard  it  as 
the  most  sacred  heritag-e  of  our  fathers,  a  charter  of 
national  Irberty,  which  honestly  interpreted,  needs  no  amend- 
ment, and  contains  within  itself  every  provision  that  under 
all  possible  exig-encies  are  necessary  to  preserve  it,  and 
perpetuate  the  g"overnment  and  nation  which  it  created.  I 
would  not  evade  or  violate  this  Constitution.  The  people 
are  in  arms  to  maintain  it,  and  they  will  maintain  it. 
Slavery,  and  every  enemy  of  the  Constitution,  must  fall,  but 
the  Constitution  and  the  Union  must  be  preserved.  I  have 
believed  from  the  first,  as  my  constituents  well  know,  that 
slavery  must  die  before  this  rebellion  could  end.  I  have 
believed  from  the  first  that  the  petty  stratagems  of  so-called 
statesmen,  generals  and  doughface  editors  who  feared,  as 
well  as  those  who  worshiped  slavery,  while  they  might  post- 
pone, could  not  prevent  it. 

If  it  be  true  then,  as  even  Honorable  Robert  J.  Walker,, 
of  Mississippi,  now  concedes,  ^^that  slavery  must  die  in 
ORDER  that  the  CONSTITUTION  MAY  LIVE,"  he  is  an  enemy  of 
the  Constitution  who  will  not  aid  the  overthrow  of  that 
power  which  is  seeking  the  nation's  life.  Let  it  not  be  said 
by  any  pro-slavery  rebel  sympathizer  in  the  North,  that  we 
cannot  destroy  slavery  without  destroying  the  Constitution. 
That  great  charter  of  our  liberties  contains  no  provision,  as 


—  244  — 

I  interpret  it,  perpetually  binding-  upon  the  nation  the  curse 
of  human  slavery.  It  contains  no  provisions  securing  im- 
munity to  traitors.  No  enemy  of  the  government  has  any 
guaranteed  rights  under  the  Constitution,  except  those  which 
are  secured  to  him  by  the  laws  of  war.  Instead  of  attempt- 
ing the  destruction  of  slavery  in  violation  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, or  by  evading  any  of  its  requirements,  I  believe  it  can 
be  destroyed,  as  can  every  enemy  of  the  government,  within 
the  Constitution,  and  by  express  provisions  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. "Whatever  restrictions  the  Constitution  may  impose 
upon  loyal  citizens,  I  am  sure  it  nowhere  contains  a  guaran- 
tee for  traitors,'  either  in  person  or  property.  By  the  express 
provision  of  the  Constitution,  which  I  have  quoted,  the 
President,  who  is  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and 
Navy  of  the  United  States,  has  authority  under  the  war 
power  to  issue  his  emancipation  proclamation.  On  this 
point  the  President  thus  speaks: 

*'Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  by  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested  as 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United 
States,  in  time  of  actual  armed  rebellion  against  the  authority 
and  government  of  the  United  States,  and  as  a  fit  and  neces- 
sary war  measure  for  suppressing  said  rebellion,  do,  on  this 
1st  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  in  accordance  with  my 
purpose  so  to  do,  publicly  proclaimed  for  the  full  period  of 
one  hundred  days,  from  the  day  first  above  mentioned,  order 
and  designate  as  the  States  and  parts  of  States  wherein  the 
people  thereof  respectively  are  this  day  in  rebellion  against 
the  United  States  the  following,  to  wit: 


*'And  by  virtue  of  the  power  and  for  the  purpose  afore- 
said, I  do  order  and  declare  that  all  persons  held  as  slaves 
within  said  designated  States,  and  parts  of  States,  are  and 
henceforward  shall  be  free,  and  that  the  executive  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  including  the  military  and  naval 
authorities  thereof,  will  recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom 
of  said  persons. 

*'And  I  hereby  enjoin  upon  the  people  so  declared  to  be 
free,  to  abstain  from  all  violence,  unless  in  necessary  self- 
defense,  and  I  recommend  to  them  that,  in  all  cases  when 
allowed,  they  labor  faithfully  for  reasonable  wages. 


—245  — 

**And  I  therefore  declare  and  make  known,  that  such  per- 
sons, of  suitable  conditions,  will  be  received  into  the  armed 
service  of  the  United  States  to  garrison  forts,  positions,  sta- 
tions, and  other  places,  and  to  man  vessels  of  all  sorts  in  said 
service. 

**And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of 
justice,  warranted  by  the  Constitution,  upon  military  neces- 
sity, I  invoke  the  considerate  judg-ment  of  mankind  and  the 
gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God." 

No  man  can  read  this  proclamation  of  the  President 
without  a  thrill  of  patriotic  pride,  and  they  who  possess  the 
consciousness,  as  I  do,  of  having  labored  from  the  first  to 
secure  the  results  which  it  ultimately  promises,  a  perpetual 
union  of  these  States,  with  harmonious  institutions,  based 
upon  freedom  instead  of  slavery,  will  feel  a  satisfaction 
which  words  are  too  feeble  to  express. 

Let  all  remember  that  we  should  not  have  had  this 
glorious  proclamation  to-day  had  the  earnest  men  of  this 
country  remained  silent  and  criminally  indifferent  to  this 
great  movement,  as  did  political  fossils,  compromisers,  and 
the  men  in  the  North  who  did  not  believe  in  God  or  man. 
Such  men  joined  hands  with  this  class  in  almost  every  Re- 
publican county  in  our  State,  and  did  not  scruple  to  apologize 
for  the  rebels,  and  defend  the  rightfulness  of  human  slavery. 
This  unnatural  coalition,  called  a  *' Union  for  the  sake  of  the 
Union  "  party,  made  by  pro-slavery  men  and  timid  men  in  and 
out  of  the  Republican  party,  was  made  for  the  most  part  for 
the  sake  of  the  spoils  of  of&ce  in  Republican  States  and 
counties,  where  the  opposition  were  in  a  hopeless  minority. 
They  refused  to  do  this  in  pro-slavery  States  and  counties 
where  they  had  undoubted  majorities. 

But  in  Republican  States  and  counties  they  were  clamor- 
ous for  the  *' Union  for  the  sake  of  the  Union "  movement. 
You  will  remember  how  boldly  the  most  notorious  pro- 
slavery  men,  in  every  Republican  county  in  our  District, 
rushed  into  the  ''Union  for  the  sake  of  the  Union"  conven- 
tions, took  the  front  seats  without  a  scruple  and  demanded 
the  best  offices  without  a  blush.  This  coalition  throughout 
the  State  enabled  the  friends  of  slavery  to  break  down  the 
Republican  party,  and  inaugurate,  in  its  stead,  this  so-called 


—  246  — 

*^*  Union  movement "  upon  the  Crittenden  platform,  thus  se- 
curing- the  g-reat  States  of  Ohio,  New  York,  Pennsylvania 
and  Illinois,  in  the  late  elections,  to  the  political  opponents  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  administration.  Wherever  the  Republican 
org-anization  was  maintained  in  its  integ*rity,  the  administra- 
tion was  handsomely  sustained.  Witness  our  overwhelming- 
triumphs  in  Maine,  Massachusetts,  Iowa,  Minnesota  and 
Kansas.  I  need  not  tell  you  how  earnestly  I  labored  to  pre- 
vent this  fatal  step  in  Ohio.  When  I  first  learned  that  such 
a  movement  was  on  foot  in  May  or  June,  1861,  I  went  to 
Dayton,  Cincinnati,  Columbus,  Cleveland,  and  other  places 
of  lesser  note,  and  protested  ag-ainst  it. 

After  coming  to  Washing-ton,  at  the  extra  session,  I  sub- 
mitted to  the  Republican  members  of  Cong-ress  the  draft  of 
a  call  for  a  State  convention,  which  I  had  left  with  the  State 
Central  Committee,  and  every  member  of  Congress  from 
Ohio  with  but  one  exception,  signed  it,  as  a  suggestion 
embodying  their  views  on  the  subject,  and  I  sent  that  to  the 
State  Committee  at  Columbus,  but  they  disregarded  all  such 
suggestions,  and  made  the  unfortunate  call  they  did  for  our 
State  Convention,  and,  as  was  predicted,  have  succeeded  in 
aiding  the  opposition  in  this  State  to  secure  fourteen  of  the 
nineteen  members  of  the  next  Congress  to  the  Vallandig- 
ham  Democracy.  With  the  State  Government  at  Columbus 
ostensibly  in  our  possession,  these  tricksters  and  trimmers 
have  increased  the  majority  against  us  in  Franklin  county 
more  than  double.  Are  not  our  friends  satisfied  by  this 
time,  that  this  *' Union  for  the  sake  of  the  Union"  appeal  is 
a  political  dodge  on  the  part  of  the  most  transparent  of 
political  adventurers?  If  they  are  not,  let  them  try  it  again. 
From  the  first,  I  have  been  and  am  now  in  favor  of  a  union  of 
all  earnest  men,  upon  principle,  to  put  down  this  rebellion, 
but  not  such  a  union  as  was  secured  by  a  coalition  with  pro- 
slavery  men  upon  the  Crittenden  resolutions,  for,  as  every 
man  knows,  those  resolutions  were  a  cheat  and  a  sham,  and 
I  glory  in  the  fact  that  I  spat  upon  and  repudiated  them  in 
my  last  canvass.  Let  us  return  to  our  principles  and  re- 
organize the  only  true  Union  party,  the  Republican  party, 
the  only  party  that  has  been  true  to  freedom,  the  only  party 


—  247  — 

that  during-  all  this  terrible  conflict  has  had  no  traitor  or 
rebel  sympathizer  in  its  ranks. 

The  battle  is  to  be  wag-ed  from  this  time  henceforward, 
not  only  against  the  rebels,  but  also  ag-ainst  the  cause  and 
SUPPORT  of  the  rebellion.  There  can  be  but  two  parties  in 
the  North,  the  party  of  freedom  and  the  party  of  slavery. 
The  party  of  freedom  will  be,  as  it  ever  has  been,  for  the 
Union,  the  party  of  slavery  will  be  as  it  ever  has  been,  for  all 
compromises  demanded  by  their  old  political  allies,  the  rebels. 
In  this  great  contest,  then,  there  can  be  but  two  sides,  and 
he  who  is  not  for  **  Liberty  and  Union,"  must  be  against 
''Liberty  and  Union."  The  battle  may  be  long  and  rage 
fiercely,  but  fr)m  this  day  dates  our  victory. 

"Wake,  watcher,  see  the  mountain  peaks 
Already  catch  a  golden  ray, 
Light  on  the  far  horizon  speaks 

The  dawning  of  a  glorious  day." 


**  Hard-fought  and  long  the  strife  may  be, 
The  powers  of  wrong  be  slow  to  yield, 

But  RIGHT  shall  gain  the  victory. 

And  FREEDOM  hold  the  battle-field." 

J.  M.   ASHI^EY. 


PATRIOTIC  ADDRESS  OF  HON.  J.  M.  ASHLEY, 


AT  THE  gr:eat  union  war  meeting  of  northwestern 

OHIO,  AT  white's  HAI.L,  TOI.EDO,  MARCH  18,  1863. 


Mr.  President,  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  regret 
that  more  speakers  from  abroad  are  not  present,  to  entertain 
and  instruct  you.  I  hoped  it  would  only  be  necessary  for  me 
to  approve  in  a  few  words  this  movement,  and  that  we  should 
all  have  the  pleasure  of  listening-  exclusively  to  disting-uished 
speakers  from  abroad^.  The  saying*  of  Christ,  when  teaching" 
in  a  synag-ogue  of  Galilee,  that  "a  prophet  is  not  with- 
out HONOR  SAVE  IN  HIS  OWN    COUNTRY,    AND.  AMONG  HIS  OWN 

KIN  AND  IN  HIS  OWN  HOUSE,"  is  as  apposite  to  this  occasion, 
as  that  on  which  it  was  first  uttered.  I  spoke  at  the  depot 
to-day,  and  will  therefore  detain  you  but  a  short  time  now. 

Mr.  President,  I  need  not  say  that  this  g-rand  demon- 
stration of  to-day  and  to-night,  to  indorse  the  sentiments 
contained  in  the  patriotic  appeal  of  our  brave  brothers  in 
arms,  meets  the  unqualified  approval  of  my  judgment  and 
my  heart.     [Applause.] 

Letter  from  Prof.  B.  W.  Arnett,  Jr.,  A.  B. 
The  reader  wiU  find  that  this  short  patriotic  address  is  one  of 
Mr,  Ashley's  most  appropriate  and  clever  off  hand  speeches.  It  was 
delivered  at  a  meeting  called  to  endorse  (as  the  reader  will  see)  an 
appeal  from  the  Union  soldiers,  at  the  front,  for  concord  at  home, 
and  a  united  and  uncompromising-  party,  so  as  to  secure  a  more  vig-- 
orous  prosecution  of  the  war.  The  speech  has  in  it  the  g^enuine 
ring  ;  no  man  can  mistake  the  purpose  of  the  speaker.  Mr.  Ashley 
saw  at  that  early  day  the  doom  of  slavery,  and  spoke  only  as  a  man 
B.  w.  ARNETT,  JR.  Can  speak,  who  has  a  glimpse  of  the  future  and  beholds  the  ap- 
proaching triumph  of  ^the  cause  he  loves.  He  proclaimed  in  this  speech  that 
"  Truth's  enemy  wins  a  defeat  with  victory."  This  is  profound  philosophy,  and  is  the 
kind  of  faith  that  comes  only  to  great  and  heroic  souls.  B.  W.  Arnett,  Jr. 

(248) 


—  249  — 

I  am  not  only  willing"  but  anxious  to  unite  politically 
with  all  who  will  unconditionai,i,y  sustain  the  government 
in  this  hour  of  mingled  peril  and  glory;  with  all  who  will 
sustain  it  in  all  its  measures,  including  the  greatest  and  best; 
with  all  who  will  in  thus  sustaining  it,  give  our  heroic 
soldiers  an  honest  support.  I  am  for  such  a  Union  organiza- 
tion as  shall  know  the  political  antecedents  of  no  man  who  is 
outspoken  and  unqualified  for  the  preservation  of  the  govern^, 
ment,  at  every  hazard.  Our  soldiers,  who  understand  from 
practical  experience  the  wants  and  necessities  of  the  hour, 
have  spoken  to  the  nation  with  no  unmeaning  words.  There 
is  not  a  loyal  man  within  the  limits  of  the  Republic  who  has- 
heard  their  eloquent  appeal,  whose  pulse  has  not  beat  quicker 
and  whose  heart  has  not  been  stirring  with  patriotic  pride. 
Let  every  loyal  citizen  of  whatever  former  party,  who 
has  heard  that  noble  appeal,  give  it  his  generous  approval. 
Whatever  may  be  the  course  of  others,  I  am  for  the  govern- 
ment unconditionally;  for  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war, 
until  our  cause  shall  triumph. 

Mr.  President,  it  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  say  to 
our  gallant  soldiers  that  they  shall  have  in  the  future,  is 
they  have  had  in  the  past,  my  earnest  support.  They  know 
that,  and  to-night  I  say  to  you  and  to  them,  that  they  who 
are  periling  life  for  home,  kindred  and  country,  have  the 
right  to  command  me,  and  when  they  command  I  shall  obey. 
In  whatever  path  they  direct,  touching  the  rebellion,  I  will 
cheerfully  go.  Their  voice  shall  be  my  voice,  their  aspira- 
tions my  aspirations,  their  hopes  my  hopes;  for  I  know 
that  their  every  hope,  aspiration  and  prayer  is  for  our 
country  and  our  whole  country — for  the  preservation  of  that 
Constitution  which  is  our  shield,  our  safety  and  our  defense, 
for  the  triumph  of  that  dear  old  flag,  without  a  star  obliterated 
or  a  stripe  erased;  that  flag  which  to-day  is  the  emblem  of 
our  national  greatness  and  national  glory  —  dearer  at  this 
hour  to  all  patriot  hearts  than  ever  before,  because  of  the 
efforts  made  by  traitors  to  destroy  it.  There  is  no  true  man 
or  woman  within  the  limits  of  the  republic  who  will  not 
swear  that 

•*No  other  flag*  shall  ever  float  above  our  homes  or  graves." 


—  250  — 

Mr.  President,  had  the  voices  of  the  nation's  defend- 
ers been  heara  at  the  ballot-box  last  fall,  as  they  ought  to 
have  been,  and  as  I  urged  that  they  should  be,  to  our  mem- 
bers of  the  legislature,  no  such  disgrace  would  have  come 
upon  Ohio  as  the  election  of  fourteen  members  to  the  next 
Congress,  hostile  to  the  war  policy  of  the  government;  and 
of  a  State  ticket  pledged,  by  the  platform  upon  which  it  was 
elected,  to  open  and  undisguised  opposition  to  the  constituted 
authorities  of  the  nation. 

I  am  for  a  **  Union  Party,"  a  party  representing  the 
living  present  and  not  the  dead  past  —  a  party  of  principle, 
not  of  spoils  —  a  party  to  be  called,  as  it  ought  to  have  been 
from  the  first,  ** The  Free  Union  Party" — a  party  pledged 
to  a  reconstruction  of  the  Union  on  a  basis  as  enduring  as 
the  everlasting  hills,  having  for  its  corner-stones  Liberty  and 
Justice.  I  am  for  such  a  political  organization  and  no  other, 
because  any  other  will  be  a  cheat  and  a  sham.  I  know  that, 
despite  the  adroit  sophisms  and  petty  stratagems  of  the 
timid,  the  scheming  and  unprincipled,  we  shall  have  such  a 
party;  and  I  believe,  as  time  advances,  it  will  overwhelm  and 
destroy  all  others  in  its  triumphal  progress.  But  whether  so 
or  not,  I  intend  by  the  blessing  of  God,  to  fight  slavery  and 
its  allies  to  the  bitter  end.  [Applause,  long  continued.]  I 
repeat,  that,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  I  intend  to  fight  slavery 
and  its  allies  to  the  bitter  end,  because  I  believe  the  twain 
are  the  foes  of  our  country  and  enemies  of  the  human  race. 
[Applause.] 

If  it  shall  so  be,  that  in  this  terrible  and  bitter  contest  the 
cause  of  freedom  must  fail,  which  I  do  not  believe,  let  the 
enemies  o  the  government  rest  assured  that  the  opponents 
of  the  twin  monsters,  slavery  and  rebellion,  will  go  down, 
if  go  down  they  must,  with  their  faces  to  [the  foe,  and  the 
stars  and  stripes  streaming  over  their  heads, 

"  And  leaving  in  battle  no  blot  on  their  name. 

Look  proudly  to  Heaven,  from  the  death- bed  of  fame." 

Mr.  President,  the  most  important  Congress  which 
ever  assembled  since  the  organization  of  our  governmetit, 


—  251- 

has  just  closed  its  labors.  I  need  not  enter  into  a  discussion 
of  the  merits  of  the  men  or  the  measures  of  that  body.  Time 
will  develop  the  importance  of  those  measures  and  posterity 
will  do  them  and  their  authors  justice.  Whatever  acts  were 
passed,  were  passed  by  men  leg-ally  and  constitutionally 
elected  for  the  emergfency — an  emerg-ency  without  any  parallel 
in  our  former  history.  Whatever  mistakes  that  Cong-ress 
may  have  made,  whatever  it  may  have  left  undone  which  it 
oug-ht  to  have  done,  however  short  it  may  have  come  of  our 
own  expectations,  or  the  expectations  of  others,  the  record  is 
made  up;  no  human  hand  can  alter  it.  I  intend  to  stand  by 
it,  and  by  it  I  ask  to  be  judg-ed.  One  thing*  is  certain  —  the 
day  of  half-way  measures  is  over;  the  time  for  compromising* 
with  the  South  has  forever  passed,  and  our  patriotic  soldiers 
have  told  you  what  I  now  g-ratefully  repeat,  that  voluntary 
submission  to  the  rebels  will  not  be  tolerated.  Nevermore 
will  there  be  any  leg-islative  sympathy  with  rebellion.  All 
patriotic  men  are  beginning*  to  see  and  feel  the  necessity  of 
this,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  every  loyal  citizen 
is  standing  in  readiness  to  respond  to  the  appeal  of  our  brave 
soldiers,  for  the  creation  and  support  of  a  party  which  shall 
have  for  its  first  and  highest  object,  the  vindication  of  the 
government,  the  maintenance  of  the  Union,  the  preserva- 
tion of  constitutional  liberty  —  a  party  that  shall  declare  open 
and  undisguised  hostility  to  all  attempts  at  intervention  or 
mediation  in  our  affairs  by  foreign  governments.  On  such  a 
platform  let  all  the  free  Union  men  unite,  and  present  to  the 
world  a  party  which,  at  home  and  abroad,  shall  know  no  law 
but  justice,   which  will  ask    "for    nothing    that  is  not 

RIGHT,    and  submit  TO  NOTHING  THAT  IS  WRONG."       Such    a 

party  the  politicians  and  demagogues  will  hate,  but  with  an 
intelligent,  liberty-loving  people  it  will  be  invincible.  In 
the  triumph  of  such  a  party  the  honor  of  our  country  will  re- 
main undimmed,  and  we  will  make  a  grander  history  for  it 
than  ever  was  dreamed  by  enthusiastic  poet  or  orator. 

Mr.  President,  one  of  the  greatest  crises  through 
which  the  nation  ever  passed,  was  passed  during  the  recent 
session  of  Congress.  Comparatively  quiet,  it  was  neverthe- 
less most  dangerous.     Less   than  three  months   ago,  well- 


—  252  — 

grounded  fears,  growing-  out  of  the  secret  plottings  of  North- 
ern rebel  sympathizers,  were  entertained  of  a  rebellion  in  the 
North.  Traitors  grew  bold  at  the  result  of  last  fall's  elec- 
tions, not  only  in  but  out  of  Congress,  and  secret  meetings 
were  held  all  over  the  North,  having  for  their  object  a 
surrender  of  every  patriotic  principle  to  purchase  an  inglo- 
rious peace  from  the  rebels.  The  infamy  of  this  cowardly 
proposition  requires  no  notice  from  me  in  this  loyal  assem- 
blage; nevertheless,  the  government  was  seriously  threat- 
ened. Secret  emissaries  were  sent  with  dishonorable  propo- 
sitions of  peace  to  Jeff.  Davis,  who,  arch  traitor  that  he  is> 
was  more  honorable  than  they,  and  saved  the  complications 
they  had  woven,  by  indignantly  spurning  them  from  his 
presence.  During  this  dreary  period,  men  looked  into  each 
other's  faces  with  fear  and  trembling  —  and,  as  was  the  case 
in  the  French  Revolution,  began  to  distrust  each  other.  The 
turning-point  at  last  came.  When  the  secret  clubs  in  New 
York  City  proposed  to  inaugurate  their  revolution,  by  tak- 
ing from  the  banks  of  that  city,  by  force,  what  money  they 
required;  the  rebuff  our  Northern  enemies  received  from  the 
rebel  government  at  Richmond;  the  voices  of  our  soldiers 
from  the  battlefield,  and  the  kindly  response  of  the  friends 
of  freedom  in  Europe  to  the  President's  Proclamation  of 
Emancipation,  headed  by  that  champion  of  freedom,  John 
Bright,  arrested  them  in  their  mad  career  of  infamy  and 
treason,  and  some  of  their  most  reckless  leaders  sought  the 
earliest  moment  to  repair  their  mischief  and  publicly  atone 
for  what  they  had  done;  and  to-day  our  noble  ship,  which 
many  began  to  fear  had  become  unmanageable,  and  might 
founder,  after  having  passed  through  a  raking  fire  and  defied 
the  fury  of  the  storm  for  nearly  two  years,  ib  at  last  slowly 
but  surely  righting  herself,  and  begins  to  answer  to  the  will 
of  the  helmsman,  Abraham  Lincoln  (God  bless  and  preserve 
him).  [Long  and  continued  applause.]  Yes,  his  arm  has 
been  strengthened,  and  his  heart  cheered  by  the  manly  appeal 
of  our  patriotic  soldiers,  and  once  more  our  grand  old  ship 
of  state  rides  majestically  and  more  than  conqueror  on  the 
tempestuous  sea  of  treason  and  rebellion  [applause] ,  and  our 
government  was  never  so  strong  at  home  or  abroad  as  to-day. 


—  253  — 

and  I  know  we  shall  triumph.  [Applause.]  I  do  not  agree 
with  my  friend,  Mr.  Bates,  who  has  just  taken  his  seat,  that 
our  army  on  the  Potomac  will  never  be  successful.  I  tell  you 
that,  under  God,  when  Joe  Hooker  moves  upon  the  enemy  he 
will  lead  the  army  of  the  Potomac  to  victory.  [Great  cheer- 
ing-.] I  reserve  to  myself  the  right  to  criticise,  at  a  proper 
time,  the  acts  of  all  men,  public  or  private,  whether  President, 
Cabinet  ofi&cers.  Commanding-  General,  or  demag-ogue  stump 
rators.     [Applause.] 

Mr.  President,  this  country  is  yours  and  mine,  what- 
ever has  been  or  may  be  the  supposed  faults  or  shortcoming's 
of  its  rulers.  It  is  our  country  from  ocean  to  ocean,  and 
from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  I  yield  alle- 
g-iance  to  the  g-overnment  of  the  United  States,  and  to  no 
other.  I  owe  no  divided  alleg-iance.  The  flag-  of  my  fathers 
is  my  flag-.  I  never  have,  and,  by  the  blessing-  of  heaven,  I 
never  will  acknowledg-e  any  other.  [Applause.]  I  have  been 
laboring-  for  the  past  two  years,  as  I  never  labored  before,  to 
perpetuate  this  government.  I  have,  to  the  extent  of  my 
ability,  and  with  an  earnestness  of  purpose  which  has  per- 
mitted no  divided  allegiance,  contributed  by  my  counsels, 
votes  and  all  the  means  I  could  command,  to  defend  that  flag 
and  preserve  it  as  a  representative  of  our  nationality,  and  an 
emblem  of  our  liberty.  That  I  may  have  been  mistaken  in 
some  of  my  counsels  and  some  of  my  votes,  is  more  than 
probable;  but,  however  that  may  have  been,  you  all  know 
that,  throughout  this  struggle,  I  have  been  earnestly  on  the 
side  of  the  government  and  the  old  flag,  and  that  the  first 
and  dearest  wish  of  my  heart  has  been  and  still  is  to  see  that 
banner,  which  to  me  is  a  representative,  not  only  of  our  nation- 
ality, but  of  **LiBERTY  AND  Union,"  also  triumph  on  every 
battle-field,  and  to  see  the  Constitution  of  our  fathers  re- 
established in  its  just  sway  over  every  State  and  Territory 
in  the  republic.     [Applause.] 

Mr.  President,  many  say  I  have  committed  blunders. 
Admit  it,  which  I  do  not.  I  answer  all  such  by  quoting  a 
rule  which  is  as  applicable  to-day  and  here,  as  it  was  eighteen 
hundred  years  ago.     **Let  him  who  is  without  a  fault 


—  254  — 

Apply  this  rule  to  all  who  have  made  mistakes  in 
reference  to  this  rebellion,  and  how  long*  would  I  stand  here 
before  the  first  stone  would  be  cast?  If  all  who  have  thoug-ht 
and  written  about  the  matter  have  .committed  blunders,  may 
I,  who  am  no  more  infallible  than  the  rest  of  you,  not  be 
pardoned  for  erring"  on  the  side  of  Liberty  and  Justice?  If  I 
have  erred,  my  worst  enemy  will  admit  that  so  far  as  this- 
great  battle  of  liberty  is  concerned, 

**My  faults  have  leaned  to  Virtue's  side." 

One  thing  is  certain,  I  have  not  erred  ag-ainst  the  gov- 
ernment and  in  favor  of  the  rebels,  or  on  the  side  of  slavery. 
I  have  not  remained  silent  as  a  political  trickster  would  have 
done  —  nor  stifled  my  convictions — nor  played  the  demagogue, 
nor  have  I  ever  told  you  that  everything  was  right,  when  I 
knew  that  almost  everything  was  wrong,  touching  the 
management  of  the  war.  Had  I  thus  acted,  the  indifferent, 
conservatives,  and  the  shams,  and  even  the  rebel  sympa- 
thizers among  us,  might  have  united  in  singing  my  praises,, 
complimenting  that  rascally  virtue,  which  some  call  discre- 
tion, and  commending  my  statesmanship.  Indeed  had  I  acted 
against  the  government,  only  using  the  duplicity  and  false* 
hood  necessary  to  prevent  arrest  as  a  traitor,  many  pretended 
friends  of  the  government  would  have  found  little  fault  with 
my  conduct. 

The  opposition  to  me  has  all  arisen  because  I  have  been 
untiring  in  pleading  for  such  a  change  in  the  management  of 
the  war  as  I  believed  was  necessary  to  save  the  nation's  life. 
For  this  reason,  I  have  demanded  from  the  first,  that  our 
soldiers  should  fight  for  Liberty  and  Union,  instead  of  Sla- 
very and  Compromise.  [Applause.]  I  did  not,  however,  re- 
lax one  iota  of  vigilance  and  devotion  to  the  government, 
because  in  all  things  my  views  were  not  at  once  adopted  by 
the  Administration,  and  I  should  not  have  relaxed,  if  they 
had  not  been  adopted  up  to  this  hour.  I  am  and  have  been 
for  the  government,  despite  the  policy  of  the  first  eighteen 
months  of  this  rebellion,  which  in  my  heart  I  could  not  ap- 
prove, I  shall  continue  to  vote,  as  I  have,  for  every  man  and 
every  dollar  asked  for  by  the  President,  and  shall  endeavor 


—  255  — 

to  streng-then  his  hands,  with  whatever  ability  I  possess, 
until  this  causeless  and  wicked  rebellion  is  crushed.  Do  not 
be  deceived.  There  will  be  no  peace,  there  can  be  no  peace, 
until  the  government  triumphs.  Until  then,  this  strug-g-le 
will  go  on.  No  human  power  can  stay  it,  until  the  grand 
idea  of  the  .human  race  shall  be  realized,  and  Liberty  and 
Justice  shall  become  the  acknowledged  corner-stones  of  our 
political  edifice.  [Applause.]  That  which  seemed  so  plain 
and  distinct  to  my  hopeful  vision,  two  years  ago,  is  now  being 
seen  by  all ;  that  which  was  then  to  me  the  full-grown  tree  of 
Liberty,  and  which  in  my  joyous  faith  I  hailed  with  an  over- 
flowing heart  that  could  not  keep  silent,  it  now  needs  no  faith 
to  see.  To-day  it  is  plainly  visible  to  all.  True,  some,  who 
all  their  lives  have  been  blinded  because  they  had  no  faith  in 
God  or  man,  may  yet  see  it  only  as  we  behold  the  coming 
spring-time,  in  the  melting  of  the  ice,  the  running  brooks, 
the  budding  leaf  and  the  opening  flower;  but  all  begin  to 
feel,  and  see,  and  know,  that  this  is  a  war  of  ideas,  a  war 
between  Liberty  and  Slavery,  between  a  government  of 
the  people  and  an  oligarchy,  and  that  the  spring-time  of 
liberty,  impartial  and  universal,  has  not  only  dawned,  but 
is  rapidly  approaching  the  period  of  fruition.  [Applause 
and  cheers.]  Let  us  take  fresh  hope.  Let  us  renew  our 
courage.  This  struggle  will  go  on  until  Freedom  conquers. 
[Applause.]  From  every  blood-stained  battle-field,  the  voices 
of  the  living  and  the  dead  come  to  us,  bidding  us  be  firm. 
From  every  loyal  man  and  woman  in  the  North,  the  demand 
is  that  this  battle  shall  continue,  and  fathers,  mothers,  wives, 
sisters  and  brothers,  who  have  lost  their  dearest  and  bravest 
on  the  field  of  conflict,  are  daily  and  nightly  offering  up 
their  earnest  prayers  that  the  God  of  nations  will  -accept  the 
sacrifice  they  have  made,  and  save  and  regenerate  their 
country. 

That  it  will  be  saved  and  regenerated  I  have  never 
doubted.  The  battle  may  be  long  and  rage  fiercely,  the 
night  be  dark,  the  enemy  win  victories,  and  thousands  of  our 
Northern  homes  be  made  cheerless  and  desolate,  but  there 
shall  be  no  compromise  and  no  surrender.  The  very  air 
shall    be    burthened  with  the  hopeful    speech,  and    song, 


—  256  — 

and  prayer  of  the  patriot,  and  it  shall  g'o  on  until  the  right 
shall  triumph.  And,  as  I  now  listen  to  the  patriotic  appeal 
of  our  soldiers,  I  seem  to  hear  their  united  voices,  clear, 
strong  and  melodious,  ringing  in  mj  ears,  the  welcome  cheer- 
ing words  of  the  poet: 

**  It  still  goes  on.     The  driving  rain 
May  chill,  but  light  will  gleam  again. 
It  still  goes  on.     Truth's  enemy 
Wins  a  defeat,  with  victory. 
It  still  goes  on.     Cold  winter's  snow 
Comes  that  the  grass  may  greener  grow ; 
And  Freedom's  sun,  whate'er  befall. 
Shines  warm  and  bright  behind  it  all." 

[Long  and  continued  applause.] 


WOOD  COUNTY  UNION  CONVENTION. 


Eloquent  Speech  of  Gen.  Ashley  at  Bowling  Green, 
September,  1863. 

As  a  report  of  the  Wood  County  convention  has  already- 
been  published,  we  g-ive  a  synopsis  of  the  prefatory  part 
of  Mr.  Ashley's  speech,  and  a  verbatim  report  of  his  con- 
cluding* remarks  on  that  occasion. 

Of  these  remarks,  which  deserve  the  perusal  of  every 
patriot,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  we  have  never  witnessed 
more  intense  interest  than  was  manifested  by  the  audience 
during  their  utterance.  After  numerous  preliminary  remarks, 
Mr.  Ashley  appealed  to  tlie  people  in  favor  of  the  President's 
Emancipation  Proclamation.  He  said  "that  proclamation 
alone  was  worth  one  hundred  thousand  men."  He  showed 
the  influence  it  had  on  the  popular  mind  in  Europe,  in  the 
offer  of  money  by  capitalists;  in  the  expression  of  sym- 
pathy received  by  the  President  from  35,000  operators, 
headed  by  that  noble  man,  John  Bright;  in  the  endorsement 
and  approval  of  the  emancipation  proclamation  by  the  lead- 
ing-   religious    bodies    of    England,    France  and  Germany. 

Z*^"^  Letter  from  Benjamitt  W.  Arnett,  D.  D. 

I  have  read  this  grand  speech  with  unaUoyed  satisfactiott.  When 
I  remember  the  dark  nig-hts  of  sorrow  through  which  our  race  was 
then  traveling,  and  the  discouraging  conditions  under  which  it  was 
delivered,  I  am  simply  charmed  with  its  eloquence  and  power,  and 
can  form  a  just  estimate  of  the  man  who  made  it.  I  am  sure  that 
all  men  who  read  the  speeches  in  this  volume  will  agree  with  me) 
that  what  Whittier  years  ago  wrote  of  Governor  Ritner  of  Pennsyl- 
'  *^  '  vania,  may  now  be  appropriately  quoted   and]  said  of  Mr.  Ashley, 

B.  w.  ARNETT.  for  all  have  come  to  know  that  during  our  great  anti-slavery  con- 
flict, he  stood  "  Like  the  oak  of  the  mountain,  deep-rooted  and  firm,  erect  when  multi- 
tudes bent  to  the  storm  ;  When  traitors  to  freedom  and  honor  and  God,  are  bowed  to 
an  idol  polluted  with  blood." 

Not  only  the  A  fro- American,  but  all  men  who  love  liberty,  will  join  in  approving 
the  testimony  which  in  this  "  souvenir"  we  now  prepare  for  him.  I  can  never  forget 
the  impression  made  on  my  mind,  as  I  sat  in  the  gallery  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives and  witnessed  the  last  great  parliamentary  battle  between  Freedom  and  Slavery. 
It  was  on  the  31st  of  January,  1865.  The  Hon.  James  M.  Ashley  was  leading  the  army 
of  heroes.  After  the  lapse  of  twenty-eight  years,  I  can  vividly  see  his  manly  form  and 
hear  his  words,  as  he  plead  for  the  cause  of  universal  freedom.  The  shouts  of  the 
multitude,  the  songs  of  triumph,  the  cannon's  roar,  all  are  with  me  now,  and  the 
merry  belft  of  freedom  are  still  ringing  in  my  ears.  As  long  as  men  admire  the  heroic 
and  brave,  the  hero  of  this  great  battle  will  be  remembered,  and  his  name  will  be 
among  the  immortal  of  the  ages.  B.  W.  Arnett. 

17  (  257  ) 


—  258— 

They  thanked  the  President  for  this  act  in  the  name  of  God, 
of  humanity  and  of  liberty.  He  showed  that  this  single  act 
had  chang-ed  the  tone  and  sentiment  of  the  masses  in  Europe 
towards  the  North,  and  that  we  need  not  fear  intervention  as 
we  did  one  year  ago.  He  stated  that  it  had  kindled  the  flame 
of  patriotism  in  the  hearts  of  northern  freemen,  and  that 
the  united  response  from  our  patriotic  soldiers  plainly  showed 
that  they  fully  comprehended  the  true  nature  of  the  conflict, 
and  thanked  the  President  for  releasing  them  from  the.  de- 
grading occupation  of  guarding  the  property  of  rebels,  and 
from  upholding  the  infamy  of  slavery. 

The  policy  of  freedom  thus  inaugurated  had  united  the 
unconditional  friends  of  freedom  at  home,  in  the  army  and 
in  Europe.  He  asked  all  who  had 'differed,  and  all  who  now 
differed  with  the  policy  of  the  President,  on  the  question  of 
emancipation,  to  stand  by  the  government  to  the  last,  urging 
them  to  forget  all  partisan  prejudices,  and  by  unity  of  action 
save  our  national  existence,  and  accomplish  the  triumph  of 
free  government.  He  said  that  for  over  eighteen  months  he 
and  the  friends  of  freedom  generally  had  stood  by  the  gov- 
ernment and  had  voted  all  the  men  and  all  the  money  they 
asked,  although  the  administration  had  persistently  refused 
to  adopt  the  policy  of  emancipation,  and  he  should  have 
continued  that  support  had  their  policy  remained  unchanged. 
He  said  he  was  a  passenger  on  the  old  ship,  and  he  intended 
to  go  down  with  her  if  she  were  lost,  and  therefore  he  stood 
firmly  and  unwaveringly  by  her  commander.  Is  it  asking 
too  much  of  those  who  now  differ  with  us  on  the  policy  of 
the  government  in  regard  to  emancipation,  to  render  it  the 
same  cordial  support  which  we  rendered,  when  the  contrary 
policy  prevailed? 

Mr.  Ashley  closed  this  speech  with  an  appeal  which  we 
give  verbatim.     He  said: 

Fellow  Citizens:  The  terrible  conflict  in  which  as  a 
nation  we  are  engaged  will  be  recorded  in  history  as  the  most 
eventful  of  the  nineteenth  century.  It  will  constitute  one 
of  those  memorable  epochs  which  come  but  once  in  cejituries; 
from  which,  if  we  ^re  successful,  freedom  will  date  its 
grandest   triumph.     This  war   is   indeed   the   battle   of  the 


—  259-- 

ag-es.  The  best  hopes  of  mankind  on  earth  are  wrapped  up 
in  the  issue.  Man's  capacity  for  self-government  is  on  trial 
before  the  world,  and  we  must  conquer  or  the  verdict  will  be 
against  democratic  government  and  in  favor  of  privilege 
and  despotism  everywhere.     [Applause.] 

The  conspirators  and  rebels  are  attempting  the  destruc- 
tion of  our  democratic  government,  because  democracy, 
"pure  and  undefiled,"  is  opposed  to  privilege  and  slavery. 
They  desire  the  establishment  of  a  government  which  shall 
be  administered  exclusively  by  a  privileged  class,  a  slave- 
holding  aristocracy,  in  which  capital  shall  own  the  laborer. 

The  issue  is  fairly  made  up,  and  we  cannot  ignore  or 
escape  from  it  if  we  would.  The  question  then,  whif h  every 
loyal  man  is  called  upon  to  decide  this  day,  is,  shall  our 
nationality  and  the  constitution  of  our  fathers  be  preserved, 
with  freedom  as  the  fundamental  law  of  the  republic,  or 
shall  our  nationality  and  the  republic  be  destroyed  and  an 
anti-democratic  government  be  erected  upon  its  ruins,  with 
slavery  as  its  chief  corner-stone?  There  can  be  but  one  re- 
sponse to  this  interrogatory  by  every  patriotic  Union  man 
before  me;  and  I  know  that  there  will  be  but  one  response, 
not  only  by  you,  but  by  the  loyal  heart  of  the  nation.  [Ap- 
'  plause.] 

Fellow  Citizens :  The  earnest,  uncompromising  anti- 
slavery  m'en  of  this  country,  though  few  in  numbers,  have 
changed  the  policy  of  this  government;  whatever  pro-slavery 
politicians,  or  timid,  vacillating,  non-committal  men  may 
say  or  think,  I  say  to  you,  that  the  anti-slavery  men  of  the 
nation,  with  the  gospel  of  liberty  in  their  hearts,  and  the 
sword  of  justice  as  their  weapon,  have,  by  the  almighty 
power  and  force  of  truth,  educated  the  nation  up  to  the 
present  standpoint,  and  thus  caused  the  administration  to 
adopt  their  policy.  I  need  hardly  tell  you  that,  since  the 
outbreak  of  the  rebellion,  the  great  heart  of  the  nation, 
under  their  teachings,  has  been  slowly  but  surely  tending 
toward  universal  emancipation.  Unquestionably  a  large  ma- 
jority of  the  loyal  men  of  the  republic  have,  since  the  1st 
of  January,  sworn  in  their  hearts,  as  I  had  long  ago  sworn 
in  mine,  that,  as  slavery  was  the  cause  of  this  rebellion,  it 


—  260  — 

shall  die.  [Applause.]  All  earnest  men  will  agree  with 
the  disting-uished  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  that  "this  is 
no  time  to  split  hairs  of  logic."  What  matters  it  to  any 
liberty-loving-  man  how  slavery  die,  so  that  it  die,  whether 
by  military  power  or  cong-ressional  enactment?  [Applause.] 
All  may,  with  propriety,  call  the  Emancipation  Proclama- 
tion of  the  President  a  war  measure,  for  up  to  this  hour 
General  Emancipation  has  been,  by  far,  the  most  successful 
of  our  generals.  [Applause.]  But  it  would  be  unjust  and 
unmanly  to  say  that  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  was 
nothing  more  than  a  war  measure.  I  say  to  you  it  is  more; 
it  is  a  measure  of  justice,  and  cannot  be  properly  separated 
from  th^  measures  which  make  up  the  entire  policy  of  the 
administration.  [Applause.]  The  truth  is,  and  I  will  not 
disguise  it,  for  favor  or  through  fear,  that  if  the  President 
and  Congress  have  not  done,  as  I  say  they  have  not,  all  that 
they  might  properly  and  constitutionally  have  done  to  hurt 
slavery,  .they  at  least  have  knowingly  done  no  act  to  help 
slavery,  and  they  could  not  have  done  so  without  being  held 
guilty  before  the  world  of  an  infamy  which  would  have 
blasted,  and  justly,  their  names  and  memories  forever.  [Ap- 
plause.] Every  act  of  the  President  and  Congress  touching 
the  subject  of  slavery  has  been  favorable  to  a  policy,  which,  ' 
if  logically  followed,  will  sooner  or  later  result  in  universal 
emancipation.  [Applause.]  The  rebel  chiefs  understand 
this,  and  the  whole  world,  thanks  to  the  President's  procla- 
mation, now  comprehends  it.  The  public  man  who  did  not 
so  read  and  understand  this  issue  from  the  first,  has  a  far 
better  claim  to  wear  the  title  given  to  the  Bourbons  of 
France,  than  to  be  classed  with  the  statesmen  of  this  coun- 
try. [Applause.]  Let  any  intelligent  man  ask  himself  what 
has  been  and  what  now  is  the  policy  of  the  administration 
on  the  slavery  question,  and  he  will  know  which  way  the 
nation  is  moving;  for,  on  this  question,  the  administration 
has  never  led,  but  followed,  and  that  very  tardily,  the  public 
voice.  [Applause.]  Let  the  acts  of  the  President  and  Con- 
gress answer  as  to  what  is  to-day  the  policy  of  the  govern- 
ment. 

Congress    passed   and   the   President   approved   an    act 


—  261  — 

emancipating-  all  slaves  at  the  national  capitol.  [Applause.] 
Congress  passed  and  the  President  approved  an  act  prohibit- 
ing" slavery  forever  in  all  the  territories  of  the  republic. 
[Applause.]  Congress,  at  the  request  of  the  President, 
offered  to  aid  pecuniarily  the  border  slave  States  if  they 
would  liberate  all  slaves,  and  authorized  the  employment  of 
slaves  in  the  military  and  naval  service  of  the  United  States. 
[Applause.]  Robert  Small  and  other  slaves  who  have  cap- 
tured prizes  and  come  within  our  lines,  have  been  treated  by 
the  g-overnment  as  free  men,  and  the  usual  proportion  of  the 
prize  money  has  been  awarded  them,  and  to-day  the  g-overn- 
ment is  g-ladly  accepting-  the  services  of  all  black  men,  north 
or  south,  whether  they  have  been  free  or  slave,  who  will 
enlist  in  the  service  of  the  United  States.     [Applause.] 

A  new  treaty  has  been  made  with  Great  Britain,  the 
more  effectually  to  suppress  the  trade  in  African  slaves,  and 
the  first  slave  pirate  ever  executed  under  our  law  was  hang-ed 
by  order  of  President  Lincoln.  Cong-ress  passed,  and  the 
President  approved,  an  act  prohibiting-  the  trade  in  Chinese 
coolies,  and  Hayti  and  Liberia  have  been  recognized  as  be- 
longing to  t%e  family  of  nations.     [Applause.  ] 

Where,  I  ask  you  as  honest  men,  do  all  these  acts  logi- 
cally and  unmistakably  lead  us  as  a  nation?  Let  every  intel- 
ligent man  answer  for  himself.  I  tell  you  that  the  govern- 
ment is  irrevocably  committed  to  the  policy  of  emancipation, 
and  no  power  on  earth  can  turn  it  back.  [Applause.]  The 
President's  proclamation  was  then,  in  my  opinion,  not  only  a 
military  necessity,  but  an  act  of  justice  also,  demanded  by 
the  logic  of  events  no  less  than  by  the  prudent  policy  which  a 
wise  statesmanship  had  inaugurated,  as  the  leading  measure 
of  the  administration  for  the  preservation  of  the  republic. 
[Applause.] 

On  this  point  let  the  President  speak.  I  read  from  his 
proclamation: 

*'  We  say  we  are  for  the  Union.  The  world  will  not  for- 
get that  we  say  this.  We  know  how  to  save  the  Union. 
The  world  knows  we  do  know  how  to  save  it.  We,  even  we 
here,  hold  the  power  and  bear  the  responsibility.  In  giving 
freedom  to  the  slave  we  assure  freedom  to  the  free,  honorable 
alike  in  what  we  give  and  what  we  preserve.     We  shall  nobly 


—  262  — 

save  or  meanly  lose  the  last  best  hope  of  earth.  Other 
means  may  succeed;  this  could  not  fail.  The  way  is  plain, 
peaceful,  generous,  just,  a  way  which  if  followed  the  world 
will  approve,  and  God  must  forever  bless."     [Applause.] 

Accepting-  this  view  as  the  true  and  logical  interpreta- 
tion of  the  issue  involved  in  this  terrible  conflict  through 
which  we  are  passing,  let  us  consecrate  ourselves  anew  to 
the  great  work  before  us,  pledging  ourselves,  before  heaven 
and  the  world,  that  come  what  may,  intervention  and  foreign 
war,  disaster  and  defeat  of  our  armies,  and  betraj^al  by 
Northern  traitors  at  home,  we  wiIvL  never  compromise  or 
SURRENDER.  [Applause.]  If  we  are  earnestly  united,  no 
power  on  earth  can  conquer  us,  and  we  may  rest  assured  that 
the  nation  thus  purified,  strengthened  and  invigorated  by  the 
baptism  of  fire  and  blood  through  which  we  are  passing, 
will  come  out  of  the  conflict  redeemed  and  regenerated,  con- 
secrated to  Liberty,  by  the  genius  of  universal  emancipa- 
tion.    [Applause.] 


Mr.  Chairman:  I  admit,  that  at  the  beginning  of  our 
anti-slavery  battle,  I  did  not  expect  to  see  slavery  go  out  in  a 
baptism  of  fire  and  blood.  I  hoped,  as  peaceful  and  patriotic 
men  everywhere  hoped,  that  the  battle  would  be  one  of  bal- 
lots instead  of  bullets.  The  slave  baron  conspirators,  in 
their  madness,  decreed  that  it  should  be  otherwise. 

Now,  we  all  recognize  *'that  he  who  takes  the  sword, 
shall  perish  by  the  sword."  And  you  and  I  know,  that  after 
our  long,  dark  night  of  national  wrong  and  crime,  '*  that  the 
sum  of  all  villainies"  must  now  also  perish  by  the  sword. 
[Applause.] 

With  a  joy  which  no  human  language  can  express,  be- 
cause it  reaches  the  sublime,  and  passeth  all  understanding, 
the  ransomed  nation  will  soon  be  ready  to  join  in  one  united 
hallelujah,  as  from  its  soul  it  sings  Mrs.  Howe's  Grand 
National  Anthem,  "The  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic": 

**Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord; 
He  is  trampling  out  the  vintage  where  the  grapes  of  wrath 
are  stored, 


—  263  — 

He  has  loosed  the  fateful  lig-htning-  of  His  terrible   swift 
sword; 

His  truth  is  marching-  on. 

**^I  have  seen  him  in  the  watch-fires  of  a  hundred  circling 

camps; 
They  have  builded  Him  an  altar  in  the  evening*  dews  and 

damps; 
I  can  read  his  rig-hteous  sentence  by  the  dim  and  flickering 

lamps; 

His  day  is  marching-  on. 

**  I  have  read  a  fiery  gospel,  writ  in  burnished  rows  of  steel; 
As  ye  deal  with  my  contemners,  so  with  you  my  grace  shall 

deal; 
Let  the  Hero,  born  of  woman,  crush  the  serpent  with  his 

heel; 

Since  God  is  marching-  on. 

*'He  has  sounded  forth  the  trumpet   that   shall  never  call 

retreat; 
He  is  sifting-  out  the  hearts  of  men  before  His  judgment-seat; 
Oh  I  be  swift,  my  soul,  to  answer  Him,  be  jubilant,  my  feet^ 

Our  God  is  marching  on. 

*'In  the  beauty  of  the  lilies,  Christ  was  born  across  the  sea, 
'With  a  glory  in  His  bosom  that  transfigures  you  and  me; 
As  He  died  to  make  men  holy,  let  us  die  to  make  men  free, 

While  God  is  marching  on." 


SPEECH 

OF  HON.  J.  M.  ASHLEY,  OF  OHIO, 
In  the  House  of  Representatives,  March  30th,  1864. 


THE   I.IBERATION   AND  RESTORATION   OF  THE   SOUTH. 


Mr.  Speaker:  The  hour  has  come  in  which  Congress 
must  deal  with  the  great  crime  of  th*^  nineteenth  century. 
The  leading"  conspirators  must  be  punished  by  punishments 
commensurate  with  their  terrible  deeds.  Every  loyal  citizen 
of  the  United  States  will  expect  this  of  those  to  whom  they 
have  at  this  time  confided  the  destinies  of  the  nation.  They 
will  demand  that  this  g-reat  crime  be  so  dealt  with,  that  the 
government  shall  obtain  *'  indemnity  for  the  past  and  security 
for  the  future."  As  one  of  the  representatives  of  the  loyal 
people  of  Ohio,  I  demanded  at  the  beginning-  of  the  rebellion, 
and  I  demand  now,  that  it  shall  be  so  dealt  with,  that  a  like 
crime  from  the  same  cause  shall  in  the  future  be  impossible. 

The  proper  disposition  by  Cong-ress  of  the  causes  which 
produced  the  rebellion,  and  all  questions  intimately  connected 

Letter  from  Bishop  A.  Grant,  Atlanta,  Ga. 
This  "was  Mr.  Ashley's  first  speech  in  Congress  on  the  perplexing 
question  of  reconstruction.  He  declared  in  language  that  no  one 
can  misunderstand,  that  neither  Mr.  Lincoln  as  President,  nor  any- 
General  of  the  Army,  was  vested  by  the  Constitution  or  the  laws  of 
war,  with  authority  to  organize  civil  State  governments  in  any  of 
the  rebel  States.  He  claimed  that  Congress  alone  was  clothed  by 
the  Constitution  with  this  extraordinary  power.  He  denied  that  any 
President  or  General  had  any  authority  vested  in  them  for  such  pur- 
A.  GRANT.  pose.    His  criticisms  of  the  President  and  General  Banks  for  his 

blundering  and  unfortunate  proclamation  in  Louisiana  were  strong  and  vigorous,  just 
and  manly,  and  will  be  read  with  interest  and  instruction  now.  In  his  letter  on  page 
310,  Mr.  Sumner  heartily  endorses  this  great  speech.  A.  Grant. 

(264) 


—265  — 

with  it,  have  given  me,  as  they  doubtless  have  given  every 
loyal  man,  great  anxiety. 

The  question  before  us  is,  how  shall  the  States  whose 
governments  have  been  usurped  or  overthrown,  be  re-estab- 
lished and  their  loyal  citizens  be  re-invested  with  all  the 
rights,  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  of  free  States  in 
the  American  Union. 

This  is  indeed  a  question  of  transcendent  importance  — 
one  with  which  the  mere  politician  has  as  little  fitness  as 
disposition  to  grapple.  To  meet,  and  properly  dispose  of  it, 
demands  the  highest  order  of  statesmanship.  The  untried 
problem  of  re-establishing  loyal  State  governments  over  vast 
districts  of  country,  so  long  in  rebellion,  involves  the  gravest 
responsibility,  and  presents  questions  of  constitutional  power 
which  have  never  before  been  discussed,  as  they  must  now  be 
discussed,  by  the  National  Congress. 

I  am  free  to  confess  that  from  the  first  my  anxiety  has 
been,  not  so  much  how  to  conquer  the  rebels,  as  how  to  secure 
an  honorable  and  enduring  peace  after  they  were  conquered. 
This  is  a  question,  which,  until  its  final  settlement,  will  de- 
mand the  serious  consideration  of  the  ablest  statesmen  in  the 
nation. 

It  may  be  an  unwelcome  question  to  many  gentlemen  in 
this  House.  I  doubt  not  that  it  is.  I  have  reason  to  know 
that  it  was  an  unwelcome  question  to  many  in  the  last  Con- 
gress, but  whether  welcome  or  unwelcome,  it  cannot  now  be 
disposed  of  or  excluded  from  these  halls  as  it  was  two  years 
ago  by  parliamentary  strategy  and  congressional  dodging. 

The  logic  of  events  is  forcing  the  nation  onward  with 
such  rapidity  that  we  cannot,  if  we  would,  evade  this  ques- 
tion, and  many  gentlemen  are  now  prepared  to  act,  who  were 
opposed  to  all  action  two  years  ago.  Thanks  to  our  heroic 
army,  the  rebellion  is  now  so  far  suppressed,  that  the  question 
of  reconstruction  is  forced  upon  and  demands  our  immediate 
consideration.  All  can  now  see  that  it  ought  not  to  have 
been  delayed  so  long,  and  I  am  sure  all  will  agree  that  it 
cannot  longer  be  neglected,  without  great  injustice  to  the 
loyal  people  of  the  rebellious  districts. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion,  practical  men  saw  and 
urged  the  importance  and  necessity  of  an  act  of  Congress  to 


-266  — 

provide  temporary  governments  of  some  kind,  for  the  dis- 
tricts of  country  in  rebellion;  to  authorize  tlie  loyal  citizens 
residing-  therein,  as  soon  as  the  rebellion  was  sufficiently 
suppressed,  to  reorganize  State  governments,  where  they  had 
been  usurped  or  overthrown,  and  to  guarantee  to  them  State 
governments,  republican  in  form,  as  prescribed  by  the 
national  Constitution.  The  bill  from  the  select  committee 
now  before  the  House,  recognizes  fully  and  clearly  the 
authority  of  Congress  to  pass  all  laws  which  are  necessary 
and  proper  to  carry  into  practical  eifect  that  constitutional 
guarantee.  The  authority  to  legislate  on  this  subject,  once 
admitted  —  whether  under  the  war  powers  or  peace  powers  of 
Congress  —  the  only  questions  which  can  possibly  divide  the 
unconditional  Union  men  in  Congress,  or  throughout  the 
country,  will  be  as  to  matters  of  detail.  It  will  be  noticed 
that  the  committee  have  sought  to  avoid  the  adoption  of  any 
especial  theory,  in  the  bill  which  they  have  presented. 
Whether  the  rebel  usurpation  has  destroyed  the  constitutional 
governments  of  the  seceded  States,  or  whether  those  State 
governments  are  simply  suspended  or  in  abeyance  by  reason 
of  the  abdication  of  their  officers,  or  whether  by  the  acts  of 
treason  and  rebellion  on  the  part  of  their  citizens  and  con- 
stituted authorities,  the  States  thus  in  rebellion  have  com- 
mitted State  suicide,  the  committee  have  thought  best  to 
leave  to  the  determination  of  each  member  for  himself. 
fience,  no  report  is  submitted  with  this  bill.  For  the  same 
reason,  no  report  accompanied  the  bill  submitted  by  me  on 
this  subject  two  years  ago,  with  the  approval  of  a  majority 
of  the  Committee  on  Territories.  The  sovereignty  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  power  of  Congress  under  the  Consti- 
tution, to  legislate  for  the  districts  of  country  in  rebellion,  is 
ully  recognized  by  this  bill.  All  that  I  have  ever  contended 
ffor  touching  the  question  of  congressional  power  is  here 
admitted.  Determining  from  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion, 
that  slavery  should  die,  I  have  sought  only  for  such  congres- 
sional action  as  would  restore  the  rebel  States  to  the  Union, 
with  freedom  as  their  fundamental  law.  For  this  purpose,  I 
then  insisted  and  now  insist,  that  until  such  time  as  the 
loyal  citizens,  in  each  of  the  rebellious  States,  are  numerous 
enough  to  maintain  a  State  government,  and  shall  adopt  a 


—  267  — 

Constitution  prohibiting-  slavery  forever,  they  oug-ht  to  be 
treated  and  governed  as  citizens  of  the  United  States,  resid- 
ing within  the  national  jurisdiction,  on  national  territory, 
without  State  governments.  With  me  this  has  been  from  the 
first  the  all-important  point.  Practically,  this  idea  pervades 
the  entire  bill  before  us.  I  care  not  whether  the  power  to 
g-overn  the  districts  of  country,  declared  by  the  President's 
proclamation  to  be  in  rebellion,  after  they  shall  have  been 
subjugated,  is  derived  from  the  war  powers  or  the  peace 
powers  of  Cong-ress.  I  believe  either  to  be  constitutional 
and  sufficient.  I  believe  we  may  establish  either  temporary 
military  g-overnments,  or  temporary  civil  governments. 
Certainly,  Congress  may,  as  the  representative  of  the  sover- 
eign power  of  the  nation,  pass  such  laws  as  in  its  opinion 
may  be  necessary  to  secure  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the 
loyal  people  in  those  States  whose  governments  have  been 
destroyed  by  traitors.  To  this  end  Congress  may,  by  author- 
ity of  the  national  Constitution,  prescribe  such  conditions 
for  the  restoration  of  the  States  whose  governments  have 
been  usurped  or  overthrown,  as  will  best  secure  the  peace  and 
stability  of  the  nation,  and  guarantee  to  such  States  repub- 
lican g-overnments.  Believing-  that  this  can  be  done  in  no 
way  so  safely  and  so  well  as  [by  organizing  and  recognizing- 
new  State  g"overnments,  as  provided  for  by  this  bill,  I  am  in 
favor  of  its  passage. 

Mr.  Speaker,  in  attempting  a  solution  of  the  difficulties 
which  environ  us  on  this  question  of  reconstruction,  I  have 
sought  only  for  the  adoption  of  such  measures  as  would 
secure  the  safe  and  speedy  restoration  to  the  Union  of  all 
States  in  rebellion,  on  a  basis  that  would  command  the 
approval  of  the  ablest  statesmen  of  the  country.  I  have  had 
and  now  have  no  theory  that  I  will  not  yield  to  accomplish 
this  most  desirable  result.  I  believe  it  to  be  the  imperative 
duty  of  Cong-ress  to  lay  deep  the  foundation  of  our  proposed 
action  on  this  subject.  I  believe  it  to  be  our  duty  to  declare, 
in  the  most  solemn  manner,  that  if  hereafter  any  State  shall 
renounce  its  allegiance  to  the  national  Constitution  and 
appeal  from  the  decision  of  the  ballot-box  to  the  arbitrament 
of  the  sword,  it  shall  be  subjugated  by  the  sword,  and  all  its 
prerog-atives  as  a  State  be  forfeited,  until  such  time  as  Con- 


—  268  — 

gress  provides  for  its  reorg-anization,  or  until  its  loyal  citizens 
shall,  in  the  exercise  of  their  inherent  rig-hts  of  self-g-oyern- 
ment,  call  a  convention  and  adopt  a  new  State  Constitution,, 
republican  in  form,  in  conformity  with  and  subject  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  be  recog-nized  or  re-ad- 
mitted by  Cong-ress  to  exercise  their  proportionate  part  of  the 
governing"  power  of  the  country. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  can  g-ive  my  support  to  this  bill  and  de- 
fend it,  only  on  the  assumption  that  there  are  no  constitu- 
tional State  governments  in  the  rebel  States.  Are  there  any 
such  State  governments?  I  hold  that  there  are  not.  I  hold 
that  a  State  may  forfeit  its  right  as  part  of  the  supreme  gov- 
erning power  of  the  republic.  I  think  this  proposition  can- 
not be  successfully  controverted.  A  majority  of  the  electors 
of  any  State  in  this  Union  may,  unquestionably,  alter  or  abol- 
ish their  written  Constitution,  and  refuse  to  establish  another 
in  its  stead.  If  they  may,  as  all  concede,  do  this,  then  the 
abolition  of  a  State  Constitution,  in  the  manner  prescribed  by 
the  organic  or  statute  law  of  the  State,  and  the  adoption  of  a 
new  Constitution,  renouncing  their  allegiance  to  the  United 
States,  would  terminate  their  right,  under  the  Constitution, 
to  exercise  any  part  of  the  governing  power  of  the  nation. 
If,  then,  a  State  of  this  Union  may,  by  the  actions  of  its  citi- 
zens, forfeit  its  rights  under  the  Constitution  to  exercise 
part  of  the  sovereign  power  of  the  nation,  or  in  any  way 
cease  to  maintain  such  a  State  government  as  can  be  recog- 
nized by  Congress  under  the  Constitution,  the  assumption 
that  *'  a  State  once  a  State  is  always  a  State,"  is  a  fallacy  as 
pernicious  as  it  is  false. 

I  trust  that  no  argument  is  needed  at  this  late  day  ta 
refute  the  illogical  and  sophistical  reasoning  which  was  so 
prevalent  in  this  Hall  and  throughout  the  country  during  the 
Congress  immediately  preceding  the  rebellion.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  it  was  then,  and  is  now  to  some  extent, 
piaintained  that  if  any  one  or  more  States  withdrew  from 
the  Union  by  the  action  of  a  majority  of  its  qualified  elec- 
tors, **  for  reasons,  the  sufficiency  of  which,  before  God  and 
the  great  tribunal  of  human  history,  they  alone  should  be 
the  judge,"  that  their  action  in  so  doing  in  conformity  with 
the  laws  of  their  own  State,  destroyed  the  government  of 


—  269  — 

the  United  Slates,  and  left  each  State  free  to  act  for  itself  as 
an  independent  nation. 

It  was  only  those  who  were  indoctrinated  with  the  false 
theory  that  the  United  States  were  a  confederated  g-overn- 
ment  and  not  a  nation,  or  who  were  blinded  by  the  Calhoun 
doctrine  of  State  rights,  who  set  up  for  answer  to  this  shal- 
low assumption,  the  claim  '*  that  a  State  once  a  State  is  al- 
ways a  State." 

I  lay  it  down  as  a  proposition,  which  I  do  not  believe  can 
be  controverted,  that  the  constitutional  relations  of  a  State  to 
the  national  g-overnment  ma}'  terminate,  and  the  State  cease, 
as  a  political  organization,  to  be  a  State  invested  by  the  Con- 
stitution with  part  of  the  sovereig-nty  of  the  nation,  in  one  of 
the  following-  modes: 

1.  By  successful  revolution  and  the  establishment  of  an 
independent  government. 

2.  By  the  conquest  of  a  f  oreig-n  power. 

3.  By  the  treaty-making-  power,  whereby  one  or  more 
States,  or  any  part  of  a  State,  may  be  ceded  to  a  foreig"n  na- 
tion. 

4.  By  acts  of  treason  and  rebellion  on  the  part  of  the 
constituted  authorities  of  a  State  sustained  by  a  majority  of 
its  citizens. 

5.  By  the  refusal  of  a  majority  of  the  electors  in  a  State 
to  perform  their  duties  as  citizens,  and  by  prohibiting"  the 
minority  from  exercising  the  functions  of  a  State  government 
under  the  Constitution. 

Other  modes  might  be  named,  and  have  doubtless  sug- 
gested themselves  to  gentlemen  who  have  examined  the  sub- 
ject. These,  however,  will  suffice  to  illustrate  the  views  I  de- 
sire to  present. 

The  first  and  second  propositions  will  not  be  disputed. 
All  will  concede  that  by  successful  revolution  or  by  conquest 
States  may  cease  to  be  members  of  the  Union. 

There  may  be  some  who  will  deny  that  by  the  treaty- 
making  power,  the  government  of  the  United  States  can 
cede  one  or  more  States  or  any  part  of  a  State  to  a  foreign 
power.  Those  who  claim  that  '*a  State  once  a  State  is 
always  a  State,"  will  doubtless  deny  any  proposition  at  war 


—  270  — 

jAith  this  theory.  The  power,  however,  to  acquire  and  to 
cede  territory,  is  an  attribute  of  sovereig-nty  fully  recog-nized 
by  the  civilized  g-overnments  of  the  world.  John  Quincy 
Adams  declared,  in  a  speech  delivered  by  him  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  many  years  ago,  that  a  State  could  con- 
stitutionally be  ceded  to  a  foreig-n  power.  If  one  State  may 
be  ceded,  then  two  or  more  States,  or  any  part  of  a  State, 
may  be  ceded.  In  settling-  the  disputed  boundary  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  Mr.  Webster  neg-otiated 
a  treaty  ceding-  to  Great  Britain  part  of  the  State  of  Maine, 
which  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  ratified,  and  it  became 
and  is  to-day  the  law  of  the  land.  If  that  treaty  had  ceded 
all  the  territory  included  within  the  limits  of  the  State,  save 
one  hundred  acres,  would  the  families  occupying-  the  remain- 
ing- territory  have  the  rig-ht  to  assume  the  g-overnment  of  the 
State,  and  put  the  machinery  of  a  State  government  in  opera- 
tion, elect  themselves  to  ofB.ce,  and  send  Senators  and  Repre- 
sentatives to  Cong-ress  ?  If  "  a  State  once  a  State  is  always 
a  State,"  this  right  would  be  unquestionable,  and  they  would 
assuredly  be  clothed  with  that  power.  It  is  said,  if  there  be 
but  TEN  or  even  two  loyal  citizens  in  any  State  which  by  the 
votes  of  a  majority  of  its  legal  electors  has,  in  the  manner 
prescribed  by  law,  abolished  its  State  government,  estab- 
lished a  new  and  hostile  government,  and  made  war  against 
the  United  States  to  maintain  it  that  the  two  or  ten  citizens 
remaining  loyal,  or  professing  loyalty,  are,  by  virtue  thereof, 
invested  with  the  entire  power  of  the  State  government,  as  it 
existed  before  the  rebellion;  that,  indeed,  the  old  Constitution 
survives  the  action  of  the  majority  which  has  abolished  it  and 
adopted  a  new  one;  and  that  the  two  or  ten  loyal  men  may, 
under  it,  elect  and  inaugurate  officers  from  their  own  number, 
and  thus,  while  assuming  that  the  acts  of  the  majority  are 
null  and  void,  hold  within  themselves  and  perpetuate  the 
existence  and  government  of  the  State. 

What  wonder  that  we  have  had  such  blundering  in  Vir- 
ginia and  Louisiana  on  this  question  of  reconstruction,  when 
we  have  loyal  men  claiming  to  be  statesmen  in  the  Senate 
and  House  of  Representatives,  misleading  themselves  and 
the  country  with  such   an  extraordinary  proposition  as  that 


—  271  — 

which  assumes  that  **  a  State  once  a  State  is  always  a  State," 
and  that  ten  men  may  set  up  and  maintain  a  State  g'overn- 
ment  in  a  State,  which  half  a  million  of  men  have  voted  to 
abolish. 

But  I  desire,  more  particularly,  to  call  the  attention  of 
the  House  to  the  fourth  proposition,  that  the  constitutional 
relations  of  a  State  to  the  National  Government  may  be  ter- 
minated, by  the  action  of  its  constituted  authorities,  sus- 
tained by  a  majority  of  its  citizens,  in  abolishing*  their  State 
constitution,  establishing*  a  new  one,  and  making-  war  upon 
the  supreme  government,  to  maintain  the  new  g-overnment 
thus  established.  I  claim,  that  a  State,  which  is  g"uilty  of 
such  action,  divests  itself  of  all  rig-htful  authority  to  partici- 
pate in  and  be  part  of  the  government  which  it  is  seeking  to 
destroy,  just  as  every  citizen  who  commits  treason,  forfeits 
his  right  to  citizenship,  property  and  life.  The  territory 
constituting  the  State,  is  still  within  the  national  jurisdiction 
and  constitutes  part  of  the  national  territory;  its  citizens, 
though  in  rebellion,  are  still  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
and  under  the  Constitution  they  owe  a  paramount  allegiance 
to  the  national  government;  but  the  State,  having  been  con- 
verted by  the  treason  of  its  rulers  and  citizens  into  an  engine^ 
of  war  for  the  destruction  of  the  nation,  has  justly  and  legally 
forfeited  all  its  rights  as  an  organized  political  community, 
invested  with  part  of  the  sovereignty^  of  the  nation. 

Whatever  part  of  national  sovereignty  was  by  the  Con- 
stitution and  laws  of  the  United  States  vested  in  such  State, 
lapsed  by  virtue  of  its  treason  and  rebellion  of  its  citizens, 
and  remains  in  the  supreme  government. 

Gentlemen  have  asked,  with  an  air  of  apparent  gravity, 
"  When  did  these  States  cease  to  exist?  Was  it  on  the  pas- 
sage of  their  secession  ordinances?  If  not,  at  what  precise 
period  of  time  did  they  cease  to  be  States,  and  get  out  of  the 
Union?"  I  answer  that  the  territory  and  people  constituting 
the  State  have  not  and  cannot  '*get  out  of  the  Union,"  as 
gentlemen  are  pleased  to  term  it;  that  is,  they  cannot  with 
draw  themselves  and  the  territory  of  the  State  from  the  con- 
stitutional jurisdiction  of  the  National  Government,  except 
by  successful  revolution;  but  when  a  majority  of  the  electors 


AtZ 


of  any  State,  in  compliance  with  the  spirit  and  forms  of 
their  org-anic  or  statute  laws,  chang-e  their  State  Constitu- 
tutions  and  governments,  and  renounce  their  obedience  to  the 
National  Constitution,  their  State  g-overnments  cease  from 
that  very  hour.  Gentlemen  must  remember  that  this  is  not  a 
rebellion  on  the  part  of  the  majority,  or  indeed  any  part  of 
the  people  of  the  rebel  States,  against  the  constituted  au- 
thorities and  former  recognized  governments  of  those  States, 
but  a  rebellion  on  the  part  of  the  constituted  authorities,  and 
a  majority  of  the  people  of  those  States,  against  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States.  If  it  were  a  rebellion  of  a 
minority,  or  even  of  a  majority  of  the  people  of  those  States, 
against  their  old  State  government  and  constituted  authori- 
ties, as  well  as  a  rebellion  against  the  National  Government, 
the  old  State  governments  would  remain,  if  their  Constitu- 
tions had  been  abolished,  and  their  constituted  authorities 
had  remained  loyal;  but  their  State  governments  would  be  in 
abeyance,  while  the  rebel  insurgents  held  possession  of  the 
State.  The  constitutions  and  governments  of  all  the  rebel 
States,  however,  having  been  changed  or  abolished  in  the 
manner  prescribed  in  the  organic  or  statute  laws  of  said 
States  by  the  will  of  a  constitutional  majority  of  their 
qualified  electors,  surely  no  lawyer  will  claim  that  a  legal 
State  Constitution  and  government  exists  in  any  of  those 
States,  such  as  can  be  recognized  by  Congress  or  any  depart- 
ment of  the  National  Government.  When  such  a  change  of 
their  constitutions  and  governments  was  effected,  their  con- 
stitutional relations  to  the  National  Government  ceased. 
They  then  ceased  to  be  States  of  this  Union  as  political 
organizations,  invested  by  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the 
United  States  with  part  of  the  governing  power  of  the 
republic,  but  the  territory  and  people  remain  as  before, 
legally  subject  to  the  laws  and  Constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

If  this  theory  be  not  the  true  one,  then  all  that  the  con- 
spirators in  Congress  from  the  rebel  States  needed  to  have 
done  and  all  they  need  do  in  case  of  another  rebellion,  is  to 
remain  in  the  Senate  and  House,  and  insist  that  the  States 
which    they  represent,    through   waging  war    against    the 


—  273—. 

National  Government  to  destroy  it,  are  still  States,  endowed 
with  part  of  the  sovereign  power  of  the  country,  and  that  as 
representatives  from  these  States,  they  have  the  constitutional 
right  to  retain  their  seats  as  part  of  the  governing-  power  of 
the  country. 

Sir,  if  the  conspirators  and  rebel  chiefs  could  have 
known  that  a  doctrine  so  fatal  as  this  to  our  very  existence 
as  a  nation,  would  have  been  seriously  maintained  by  loyal 
men  in  the  midst  of  this  great  rebellion;  if  they  could  have 
known  that  men  claiming  to  be  statesmen,  would  assert  as  a 
principle  that  '*  a  State  onck  a  State  is  always  a  State," 
and  that  the  minority  of  its  citizens  had  the  constitutional 
right  to  send  full  delegations  of  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives to  Congress,  though  a  majority,  with  the  constituted 
authorities  of  the  State,  were  in  rebellion  against  the  Na- 
tional Government;  if  they  could  have  been  made  to  believe 
that  the  Thirty-Seventh  Congress  would  have  insisted  that 
this  minority  in  any  of  the  rebel  States,  without  an  organized 
civil  government,  recognized  by  Congress,  had  the  right  to 
fill  these  Halls  with  their  Representatives,  on  condition  of 
swearing  fealty  to  the  government,  without  regard  to  the 
number  of  theii  constituency,  so  that  they  ranged  anywhere 
from  TEN  to  ONE  or  two  hundred  professedly  loyal  voters  for 
each  member  'of  Congress:  I  say,  if  the  conspirators  and 
rebel  chiefs  could  have  anticipated  all  this,  they  would  doubt- 
less have  materially  changed  their  programme,  and  every 
vacant  chair  in  Congress  would  have  been  filled  from  the  out- 
break of  the  rebellion  to  this  hour,  with  the  open  or  secret 
enemies  of  the  government,  all  laboring  for  its  destruction. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  know,  and  alas,  we  all  know,  too  well, 
that  Southern  statesmen,  for  the  past  thirty  years,  have  had 
good  reason  to  be  familiar  with  the  stupidity  of  Northern 
Representatives  in  Congress;  but,  sir,  I  venture  the  assertion 
that  no  Southern  man,  in  the  maddest  hour  of  his  passionate 
contempt  for  the  North,  ever  conceived  that  Northern  men 
would  be  guilty  of  the  stupidity  of  claiming  to-day,  that 
South  Carolina,  or  any  other  rebel  State,  has  a  State  Govern- 
ment in  existence,  which  entitles  it  under  the  National  Con- 
18 


—  274  — 

stitution  to  exercise  part  of  the  g-overning-  power  of  this 
nation.  Gentlemen  may  insist  as  long-  and  pertinaciously  as 
they  please,  that  States  cannot  dissolve  their  political  rela- 
tions to  the  National  Government,  and  that  when  they  are 
once  States,  they  are  always  States.  The  fact  that  States, 
with  the  approval  of  a  majority  of  their  citizens,  have 
abolished  their  State  Constitutions,  renounced  their  alle- 
giance to  the  National  Constitution,  and  made  war  upon  the 
National  Government  to  destroy  it,  is  as  notorious  as  the 
fact  that  our  armies  are  eng-ag-ed  in  putting-  down  the  rebel- 
lion. I  hold  that -no  act  of  rebellion  and  levying-  war  on  the 
part  of  the  constituted  authorities  of  a  State,  and  no  ordi- 
nance of  secession  passed  by  a  State  Leg-islature  or  a  conven- 
tion in  any  State,  with  the  approval  of  every  elector  in  it, 
can  leg-ally  or  constitutionally  aifect  the  rightful  jurisdiction 
of  the  National  Government  over  the  people  and  territory  of 
such  State,  but  such  ordinances  of  secession  and  acts  of  re- 
bellion and  levying  war  on  the  part  of  the  constituted  au- 
thorities of  said  State,  sustained  by  a  majority  of  its  citi- 
zens, destroys,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  political  organization 
known  and  recognized  as  a  State  by  the  National  Constitu- 
tion, and  no  State  thus  in  rebellion  can  maintain  constitu- 
tional relations  to  the  National  Government,  until  it  is  re- 
organized by  the  loyal  people,  subject  to  and  in  conformity 
with  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States.  Be- 
fore they  are  thus  reorganized,  and  until  Congress  recog- 
nizes them  as  States,  and  admits  their  Senators  and  Repre- 
sentatives, the  governing  power  heretofore  lodged  in  them  as 
political  organizations,  having,  by  their  acts  of  treason  and 
rebellion, lapsed,  remains  in  the  people  of  the  States  which 
are  faithful  to  the  National  Constitution. 

When  I  first  advanced  this  theory  in  1861,  and  again  by 
the  bill  introduced  by  me  in  March,  1862,  professedly  loyal 
editors  were  not  wanting  in  my  own  State,  who  were  so 
narrow-visioned  as  to  charge  me  with  endorsing  the  doctrine 
of  secession.  Indeed,  the  Democratic  minority  of  my  own 
committee  submitted  two  reports  to  this  House  at  the  first 
regular  session  of  the  last  Congress,  making  substantially 
the  same  charge.     It  might  be  both  amusing  and  instructive 


—  2.75- 

at  this  time  to  review  those  reports,  did  time  permit.  I  ask, 
g-entlemen,  if  there  can  be  any  g^reater  contrast  between  the 
doctrine  of  secession  and  that  which  I  then  claimed  and  now 
claim,  as  rig-htfuUy  belonging-  to  the  supreme  sovereign 
power  of  the  nation.  I  held  then,  and  hold  now,  that  the 
government  of  the  United  States  has  the  constitutional  right 
to  maintain  its  authority  over  every  State,  in  defiance  of 
State  secession  and  State  rebellion.  The  object  of  the  bill 
introduced  by  me,  more  than  two  years  ago,  was  to  aid  in  en- 
forcing this  right.  That  is  the  object  of  the  bill  now  before 
us.  Gentlemen  who  can  discover  in  this  a  recognition  of  the 
right  of  secession  are  evidently  remarkable  logicians,  and 
should  be  known  at  once  to  the  great  masters,  in  order  that 
their  names  may  be  embalmed  with  those  who  **were  not 
born  to  die." 

The  leading  ideas  embodied  in  the  bill  reported  by  me 
from  the  Committee  on  Territories,  in  the  last  Congress,  and 
at  which  many  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  professed  to  be 
so  greatly  shocked,  have  all  been  adopted,  as  they  know,  as 
part  of  the  policy  of  the  government.  Even  the  liberation  of 
millions  of  slaves  by  proclamation  has  been  accomplished,, 
and  many  of  these  liberated  slaves  have  had  the  plantations, 
of  their  rebel  masters  given  to  them  for  homesteads  in  accord- 
ajice  with  the  poJ  icy  indicated  in  that  bill,  and  yet  the  natioui 
* 'still  lives." 

The  National  Government  not  only  lives,  but  it  is  powerful 
enough  to  put  down  the  rebellion  and  these  rebel  State  gov* 
ernments.  Having  done  this.  Congress  will  doubtless  find  con- 
stitutional power  to  prescribe  such  conditions  as  shall  keep- 
them  in  the  Union,  and  maintain  its  supreme  authority  over 
every  citizen  and  every  foot  of  the  national  territory,  until 
such  time  as  the  loyal  citizens  of  each  State  shall  reconstuct 
new  State  governments,  with  republican  Constitutions,  and 
they  shall  have  been  recognized  by  Congress. 

I  might  fortify  my  position  still  further  if  it  were  neces- 
sary, by  showing  that  both  the  executive  and  legislative 
branches  of  the  government  have,  by  their  repeated  acts, 
recognized  the  fact,  that  the  old  constitutional  State  govern- 
ments were  destroyed  or  had  been  abolished  in  all  the  so- 


—  276  — 

called  seceded  States.  There  are  many  clever  theories  on 
this  subject;  one  is  that  these  State  constitutions  and  gov- 
ernments still  exist,  notwithstanding-  they  have  been  abolished 
by  the  action  of  their  citizens  and  the  new  State  g-overnments 
are  at  war  with  the  National  Government.  This  legal  crotchet 
possesses  the  minds  of  some  g-entlemen  who  insist  that  the 
old  constitutions  and  g-overnments  still  remain,  because  the 
action  of  the  majority  is  illeg-al,  and  therefore  null  and  void. 
To  this  I  interpose  the  stern  fact  that  a  majority  of  the  legal 
electors  have  abolished  their  State  governments,  and  that 
there  are  no  governors,  judges  or  legislators  recognized  by 
the  National  Constitution  in  those  States,  that,  therefore, 
those  States,  as  political  organizations,  are  dead.  Gentlemen 
may  parade  before  us  the  ghosts  of  these  dead  States,  and 
call  them  living  and  palpable,  but  they  are  no  more  States 
with  constitutions  and  laws  which  can  be  recognized  by  Con- 
gress, than  the  artificial  ghosts  which  are  used  to  illustrate 
the  drama  are  the  ghosts  of  departed  saints  or  sinners.  The 
State  organization,  with  its  governors,  judges  and  legis- 
lators, and  its  written  constitution,  is  gone.  Philosophically 
speaking,  perhaps,  as  Mr.  Brownson  suggests  in  the  January 
number  of  his  Quarterly,  there  must  be,  with  every  people 
sufB-ciently  numerous  and  intelligent  to  maintain  a  republican 
government,  an  unwritten,  before  there  can  be  a  written  con- 
stitution, and  in  this  sense  a  constitution  may  be  said  to 
to  exist  in  every  State.  But  all  the  rebel  States  have  written 
constitutions.  They  may  not  now  faithfully  reflect  the  un- 
written constitution  of  the  people  in  the  rebel  States.  We 
shall  see  how  that  is  when  they  come  to  act  under  the  pro- 
visions of  this  bill,  in  reorganizing  their  State  governments, 
and  making  another  written  constitution.  If  the  action  of 
the  constituted  authorities  of  the  rebel  States,  sustained  by 
a  majority  of  their  electors,  in  abolishing  their  State  consti- 
tutions and  governments,  has  not  changed  the  legal  relations 
of  these  States  of  the  United  States,  then  the  National  Gov- 
ernment has  no  legal  cause  of  complaint  against  these  States. 
The  FACT  is,  however,  despite  all  theories,  that  the  constitu- 
tional relations  of  these  States  to  the  National  Government 
are  changed,  and  there  is  not  a  day  passes  in  which   this 


277. 


stern  fact  is  not  in  some  way  acknowledg-ed  by  every  depart- 
ment and  officer  of  the  g-overnment. 

I  need  noi  elaborate  the  fifth  proposition.  It  will  not  be 
denied  that  the  majority  of  the  legal  electors  of  a  State  may 
refuse  to  maintain  a  State  government,  that  they  may  refuse 
to  send  Senators  and  Representatives  to  Congress,  and  may 
prohibit  the  minority  from  exercising  the  functions  of  a  State 
government  by  abolishing  the  State  Constitution;  by  refusing 
themselves  to  establish,  or  permit  others  to  establish,  another 
in  its  stead.  The  government  of  the  United  States  cannot 
compel  the  people  of  a  State  against  their  wishes  to  maintain 
and  perform  the  functions  of  a  State  government  under  the 
Constitution.  They  cannot  compel  the  people  of  a  State  to 
send  Senators  and  Representatives  to  the  national  Congress, 
and  the  only  alternative  left  to  the  Government  of  the 
United  States,  when  State  Constitutions  are  abolished,  or  the 
people  refuse  to  maintain  State  governments,  subject  to  the 
Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States,  is  for  Congress, 
representing  the  supreme  sovereignty  of  the  nation,  to  pro- 
v^'de  by  law  for  the  protection  of  the  lives  and  property  of  its 
citizens,  and  for  governing  the  territory  formerly  within  the 
local  jurisdiction  of  the  State  until  such  time  as  a  constitu- 
tional State  government  can  be  formed  and  recognized  by 
Congress.     And,  here,  sir,  I  dismiss  this  part  of  my  subject. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  do  not  claim  that  this  bill  is  perfect. 
Under  the  circumstances,  however,  I  believe  it  is  the  best  we 
can  get.  I  do  not  think  it  safe  beyond  question,  to  authorize 
the  organization  of  State  governments,  when  only  one-tenth 
of  the  electors  are  loyal  to  the  United  States.  I  admit  that 
this  provision  was  in  the  bill,  introduced  by  me  in  the  early 
part  of  the  present  session.  I  incorporated  it  in  the  bill,  to 
make  it  harmonize  with  the  President's  suggestion,  and  not 
because  it  had  the  sanction  of  my  own  judgment.  As  a 
member  of  the  committee  chair ged  with  the  subject  of  pro- 
viding for  the  reorganization  of  constitutional  State  govern- 
ments by  the  loyal  citizens  in  the  rebel  States,  I  have  sought 
to  secure  the  best  bill  I  possibly  could.  It  is  not  all  I  could 
desire,  but  I  do  not  intend  to  offer  any  amendments  to  it,  but 
if  an  amendment  is  offered,  increasing  the  number  of  loyal 


—  278— 

electors  required  to  organize  a  State  g-overnment,  I  shall  feel 
oblig-ed  to  vote  for  it.  I  believe  the  democratic  idea  the 
better  one,  that  the  majority  and  not  the  minority  ought  to 
be  invested  with  the  organization  and  government  of  a  State. 
Certainly  it  is  safer  to  entrust  a  State  government  to  the 
maintenance  of  a  majority  than  to  onk-tenth  claiming  to 
be  loyal,  while  nine- tenths  are  openly  disloyal. 

In  answer  to  many  objections  which  have  been  urged  by 
distinguished  gentlemen  who  have  written  me  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  TEN  PER  CENT,  basis,  I  will  say,  that  the  loyal  ONE- 
TENTH  are  to  represent  all  the  inhabitants,  loyal  and  disloyal, 
in  the  State;  that  representation  in  Congress  is  not  based  upon 
the  number  of  electors  or  loyal  citizens  in  any  State,  but 
upon  the  whole  number  of  inhabitants.  Formerly  in  the 
South,  three-fifths  of  all  the  slaves  were  included  in  their 
enumeration.  Since  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  the 
three-fifths  representation  clause  in  the  Constitution  is  practi- 
cally abolished,  and  each  emancipated  slave  will  hereafter  be 
enumerated  as  an  inhabitant.  So  that  there  is  no  injustice 
to  the  North,  in  allowing  the  old  representation  in  Congress 
from  the  rebel  States.  That  part  of  the  population  known 
as  the  Two-fifths  free  and  slave,  not  counted  in  the  enumera- 
tion, will  now  be  added,  and  two-fifths  of  four  millions  will 
probably  exceed  the  number  of  whites  killed  or  driven  from 
the  Southern  States.  If  we  should  undertake  to  apportion 
representatives  in  Congress  from  the  several  States  upon  the 
number  of  loyal  electors,  we  should  find,  I  fear,  a  number 
of  districts  in  the  North  quite  as  disloyal  as  many  in  the 
South. 

I  believe  that  the  safety  of  the  government,  and  justice 
to  loyal  men,  demand  that  we  should  put  the  entire  authority 
of  reconstructing  new  State  governments  in  the  rebel  States 
into  the  hands  of  loyal  men  and  none  others.  If  it  is  deemed 
safe  to  entrust  ten  per  cent,  of  the  number  of  electors  in  each 
State  in  1860,  with  this  power  and  responsibility,  so  be  it. 
If  we  invest  them  with  this  power,  they  must  represent  at 
the  ballot-box,  and  in  all  the  ofiices.  State  and  National,  the 
entire  population  of  those  States,  loyal  and  disloyal,  includ- 
ing all  the  colored  inhabitants. 


—  279  — 

There  are  some  other  points  in  the  bill,  which  I  am  pre- 
vented from  noticing-  for  want  of  time, 

Mr.  Speaker,  if  we  would  avoid  all  possible  complica- 
tions, and  the  danger  of  another  conspiracy  and  rebellion, 
let  us  provide,  before  this  Congress  adjourns,  by  law,  for  the 
re-establishment  of  republican  governments,  by  the  loyal 
citizens,  in  the  rebel  States.  A  subject  of  so  much  impor- 
tance must  not  be  left  to  the  caprice  or  whim  of  a  military 
commander. 

Mr.  Speaker,  suppose  the  doctrine  be  adopted,  that  **  a 
State  once  a  State  is  always  a  State,"  and  that  a  small 
minority  claiming  to  be  loyal,  may  at  any  time,  and  in  any 
part  of  the  State,  occupied  by  our  forces,  call  a  mass  con- 
vention of  those  favorable  to  organizing  a  new  State  govern- 
ment, and  when  the  convention  is  assembled,  it  selects  a 
governor  and  State  officers,  and  authorizes  them  to  assume 
the  functions  of  a  State  government,  either  under  the  old 
constitution,  as  was  done  in  Virginia,  or  under  a  constitu- 
tion proclaimed  by  martial  law,  as  was  recently  done  in 
Louisiana,  and  that  the  governor  thus  chosen  proceeds  to 
issue  his  proclamation  for  the  election  of  a  legislature,  and 
members  thereof,  in  pursuance  of  said  proclamation,  are 
elected  in  some  half  dozen  counties  of  the  State,  and  convene 
and  organize  as  the  legislature  of  the  State,  and  frame  a 
law  apportioning  the  State  into  congressional  districts,  and 
elect  two  United  States  Senators,  and  appoint  a  day  upon 
which  representatives  are  elected  to  Congress,  and  send  their 
electoral  vote  here  for  President  and  Vice-President  next 
winter,  what  action  would  this  House  take  upon  such  a  condi- 
tion of  things?  If  five  or  six  or  more  of  the  rebel  States,  in 
which  we  have  a  military  force,  should  by  the  action  of  a 
few  hundred  men,  thus  organize  and  send  their  electoral  vote 
here,  and  claim,  as  they  would,  that  it  should  be  counted, 
would  this  House  consent  to  it?  Suppose  the  electoral  vote 
thus  sent  here  should  change  the  result  of  the  Presidential 
election — and  if  counted  elect  a  President  in  sympathy  with 
the  rebels;  or  suppose  there  were  three  Presidential  candi- 
dates before  the  people,  and  that  the  votes  of  these  assumed 
State  organizations  are  so  cast  as  to  defeat  an  election  by 


—  280  — 

the  people,  and  make  it  necessary  for  the  House  to  select  thq 
President,  do  not  g-entlemen  know  that  the  excitement  which 
attends  such  a  conting-ency  would  exceed  in  violence  anything 
ever  witnessed  in  this  country,  and  that  it  might  terminate 
in  another  rebellion?  Are  not  gentlemen  apprehensive  that 
the  conspirators  of  the  South,  driven  to  desperation,  may 
undertake  to  accomplish  their  purpose  by  some  such  scheme 
as  this?  And  is  not  our  present  unguarded  and  loose  manner 
of  reorganizing  the  rebel  States  well  calculated  to  invite  the 
rebels  to  just  such  an  effort  as  I  have  suggested.  I  frankly 
confess  that  I  am  not  entirely  free  from  apprehension. 
Gentlemen  may  reply  that  we  have  a  majority  of  the  States 
as  now  represented  in  Congress,  and  that,  therefore,  there 
can  be  no  danger.  To  this  I  rejoin,  that  every  State  so  re- 
organized will  have  its  Senators  and  Representatives  here 
next  winter,  demanding  admission,  and  if  the  executive 
department  of  the  government  has  *' recognized  them  as  the 
true  government  of  the  State,"  there  will  be  danger  that  a 
majority  of  this  House  would  vote  to  admit  them  as  members 
as  they  did  in  the  last  Congress.  I  desire,  therefore,  to 
guard  against  any  possible  contingency  of  the  kind  now.  If 
we  pass  this  bill,  such  a  conspiracy  cannot  possibly  succeed. 

I  think  I  may  safely  speak  for  a  large  majority  on  this 
side  of  the  House,  when  I  declare  that  never  by  their 
authority  or  consent  will  a  single  electoral  vote  from  any 
rebel  State  for  President  or  Vice-President  be  counted  in  this 
Hall  until  that  State  shall  have  reorganized  a  State  govern- 
ment, republican  in  form,  and  it  has  been  recognized  hf 
Congress.  In  other  words,  before  one  of  the  so-called 
seceded  States  can  be  permitted  to  reassume  any  part  of  the 
governing  power  of  the  country,  it  must  resume  its  constitu- 
tional relations  to  the  National  Government  in  conformity 
with  and  subject  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
The  State  governments  which  have  been  overthrown  or 
destroyed,  must  be  replaced  by  new  governments,  organized 
by  the  loyal  people,  and  these  new  governments  can  only 
become  constitutional  governments  when  thus  organized 
and  recognized  by  Congress. 

This  is  certainly  a  point  about  which  there  ought  to  be 
no  dispute  among  loyal  men.     I  lay  it  down  as  a  principle. 


—  281  — 

from  which  we  ought  not  to  depart,  and  which  we  cannot  safely 
yield,  that  this  whole  question  of  reconstruction,  whether 
under  the  war  powers  or  the  peace  powers  of  the  g-overnment, 
is  a  question  confided  by  the  Constitution  expressly  on  Con- 
gress, and  not  to  the  President  or  to  any  general  charged 
by  him  with  the  execution  of  military  orders.  I  desire  the 
House  and  the  country  to  understand  that  by  silence  we 
sanction  every  assumption  of  doubtful  constitutional  power 
by  any  department  or  officer  of  the  government.  The  domi- 
nant party  in  Congress  ought  to  remember  that  it  is  making 
history,  and  will  be  held  responsible  in  history  for  every 
dangerous  precedent  established  with  its  consent.  It  ought 
not  to  be  forgotten  that  every  act  of  the  executive  and  Con- 
gress becomes  a  precedent,  to  be  revived  hereafter  if  occasion 
offers,  by  those  who  shall  then  be  charged  with  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  government.  I  may  be  deemed  over-anxious 
on  this  subject.  But,  sir,  I  know  the  power  of  example,  and 
I  much  prefer  that  the  President  and  every  officer  appointed 
by  him  shall  do  no  act,  unless  clearly  authorized  by  the  Con- 
stitution, or  by  act  of  Congress. 

I  prefer  that  before  any  doubtful  constitutional  power  is 
exercised  by  the  President  or  any  officer  of  the  government^ 
the  question  shall  be  submitted  to  Congress  for  its  decision 
and  advice.  I  think  we  ought  to  demand  the  establishment 
of  this  rule,  and  insist  on  its  strict  observance  by  the  Presi- 
dent and  every  department  of  the  government.  However 
ready  we  may  be  as  partizans  to  apologize  for  or  justify  the 
assumption  of  doubtful  constitutional  power  by  those  endowed 
by  us  with  authority;  as  a  representative,  I  am  unwilling 
that  the  President  of  my  own  choice,  or  any  officer  of  his 
appointment,  should  exercise  any  power  which  I  would 
condemn  if  exercised  by  a  political  opponent. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  the  most  unlimited  confidence  in  the 
President.  His  patriotism  no  man  can  doubt  who  knows 
him  as  well  as  I  do.  That  he  does  not  intend  to  assume  any 
of  the  prerogatives  of  Congress,  I  know.  He  is  the  last  man 
in  the  world  whom  I  would  suspect  of  using  unwarranted 
power  for  personal  or  selfish  ends.  And  precisely  here  is  the 
danger.  We  have  no  fear,  because  we  who  know  him  confide 
implicitly   in   his   honesty   of   purpose,  and  believe   that  he 


—  282  — 

intends  every  act  for  the  public  good.  But  Tve  oug-lit  not  to 
forg-et,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  the  precedents,  which  every 
department  of  this  government  are  now  making,  may  be  used 
hereafter  by  ambitious  and  bad  men  for  very  different  pur^ 
poses.  The  safe  way  is  the  better  way.  And  that  is  for 
every  department  of  the  government  to  keep  strictly  within 
the  limits  prescribed  for  it  by  the  Constitution  and  laws  of 
the  United  States.  Many  gentlemen  seem  to  act  as  though 
the  President,  during  the  continuance  of  the  war,  could 
assume  the  entire  war  power  of  the  government,  and  that 
our  functions  as  Representatives  were  suspended  until  the 
close  of  the  war,  except  to  act  as  mere  recording  scribes. 
I  protest  against  such  an  assumption,  and  against  that 
silence  which  might  be  interpreted  into  an  assent  to  it.  It  is 
true  that  the  President  of  the  United  States  is  made  by  the 
Constitution,  Commander-in-chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy? 
and  in  that  capacity,  he  may  issue  such  orders  to  the  officers 
and  men  as  he  may  deem  proper  to  accomplish  the  mii^itary 
object  sought  by  Congress  when  declaring  or  recognizing 
war,  but  legally  he  can.  issue  such  orders  for  no  other 
PURPOSE.  In  addition  to  this,  every  order  must  be  in  strict 
conformity  with  those  rules  and  articles  of  war  which  have 
been  or  may  be  enacted  by  Congress,  or  with  the  well-known 
laws  of  war  as  recognized  by  civilized  nations.  The  Presi- 
dent can  make  no  new  rule  or  article  of  war.  That,  sir,  is  a 
prerogative  which  belongs  to  Congress  alone.  The  idea 
which  I  wish  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  gentlemen  is  this, 
that  Congress,  by  the  express  terms  of  the  Constitution,  is 
invested  with  the  war-making  power  of  the  nation.  What- 
ever rules  and  articles  of  war  it  adopts  must  be  enforced. 
Whatever  it  declares  shall  not  be  done,  as  an  act  of  war,  can- 
not properly  be  done. 

The  President,  in  time  of  war,  is  authorized  to  do  many 
acts  by  virtue  of  the  power  vested  in  him  by  the  Constitution 
as  Commander-in-chief,  by  the  rules  and  articles  of  war 
enacted  by  Congress,  and  by  the  laws  of  war  recognized  by 
civilized  nations,  which  he  cannot  do  as  a  civil  Chief 
Magistrate.  As  a  civil  Chief  Magistrate,  he  cannot  confis- 
cate property  or  emancipate  slaves  by  proclamation.     But  in 


—  283  — 

time  of  war,  by  the  laws  of  war,  as  Commander-in-Chief,  he 
may  confiscate  enemies'  property  and  emancipate  all  slaves. 
He  may  govern  the  country  which  he  conquers  by  martial 
law,  until  Congress  shall  otherwise  direct.  But  I  have  failed 
to  find  any  power '  conferred  by  the  Constitution,  or  by  the 
rules  and  articles  of  war,  or  by  the  laws  of  war,  authorizing" 
the  President  to  establish,  without  the  direction  of  Congress, 
civil  State  governments  over  conquered  territory,  or  to  re- 
organize new  State  governments,  or  to  prescribe  what  kind 
of  constitutions  the  loyal  citizens  should  adopt,  before  he 
will  recognize  them  as  States  restored  to  the  Union. 

I  believe  this  entire  power  is  vested  by  the  Constitution 
in  Congress,  and  not  in  the  President.  Congress  is  not  only  the 
war-makitig  but  the  law-making  power  of  the  country.  In 
time  of  war  and  in  time  of  peace,  Congress  must  exercise  the 
sovereign  power  of  the  country,  or  there  is  no  safety  for  the 
future  of  this  nation  and  for  republican  institutions. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  do  not  object  so  much  to  some  things 
which  have  been  done,  or  the  objects  sought  to  be  accom- 
plished, as  I  do  to  the  manner  in  which  they  have  been  done. 
I  do  not  intend,  quietly,  to  permit  the  President  or  any  head 
of  a  department,  or  any  general  in  charge  of  an  army,  to  as- 
sume the  legislative  functions  of  the  government.  A  great 
question,  such  as  the  one  before  us,  of  the  organization  and 
restoration  of  States  to  civil  life  and  power,  with  free  con- 
stitutions, cannot  safely  be  entrusted  to  any  power  but  Con- 
gress. And,  sir,  that  is  where  the  Constitution  has  placed  it. 
In  addition  to  this,  sir,  I  object  to  any  effort  at  forestalling 
the  action  of  Congress  by  the  military  power.  I  object  to 
precipitating  great  civil  questions  of  the  magnitude  and  im- 
portance of  this  upon  the  people  of  the  rebel  States,  before 
the  loyal  resident  citizens  are  prepared  to  meet  them,  and  are 
properly  organized  to  insure  success.  I  object  to  it,  because, 
whether  the  reconstructed  State  governments  are  satisfactory 
or  not  to  the  unconditional  Union  men  of  those  States  or  of 
Congress,  as  the  representatives  of  the  nation  we  are  placed 
in  a  position  where  we  must  either  refuse  to  recognize  the 
States  so  reorganized,  and  recognized  by  the  military  author- 
ities in  command  as  the  constitutional  governments  of  such 


—  284  — 

States,  or  we  must  quietly  submit  to  the  assumption  of 
authority  by  the  military  power  and  by  the  executive  depart- 
ment of  the  g-overnment,  which  belong-s  alone  to  Congress. 

Suppose  the  convention  in  Louisiana  org-anize  a  govern- 
ment obnoxious  to  a  majority  of  the  unconditional  Union  men 
of  that  State,  and  either  refuse  to  submit  the  constitution  to 
the  loyal  people  for  their  approval  or  rejection,  or  if  it  be 
submitted,  it  is  submitted  as  the  Kansas  Lecompton  consti- 
tution was  submitted,  and  the  openly  disloyal  and  pro- 
slavery  conservative  elements,  claiming-  to  be  loyal,  are  per- 
mitted to  vote  for  it,  thus  securing-  a  majority  in  its  favor. 
If  the  g-eneral  in  command,  and  all  the  departments  of  the 
government,  except  Congress,  treat  the  officers  of  a  State 
government  thus  organized  as  the  constitutional  government, 
what  shall  Congress  do?  Submit  to  it  and  admit  their 
Senators  and  Representatives,  or  reject  them?  I  should  like 
to  ask,  gentlemen,  if  Congress  should  refuse  to  admit  them 
and  refuse  to  recognize  the  new  government  as  the  constitu- 
tional government  of  the  State,  whether  the  electoral  vote 
of  that  State,  if  sent  here  either  under  the  old  State  organi- 
zation or  under  the  new  one,  thus  constituted  and  recognized, 
would  by  the  authority  of  this  body  be  counted,  and  the  gov- 
erning power  of  the  country,  to  that  extent,  be  placed  in  the 
hands  of  a  mere  handful  of  men  controlling  a  State  govern- 
ment which  we  refuse  to  recognize?  Suppose  further,  that 
all  the  departments  of  the  government  but  this  House  should 
recognize  the  new  organization,  and  that  the  Senate  should 
admit  its  Senators  as  they  have  done  in  the  case  of  East 
Virginia,  while  we  refused  admission  to  their  members 
elected  to  this  House,  would  the  electoral  vote  be  counted  if 
sent  here?  Would  this  new  government  be  the  constitutional 
government  of  the  State  until  recognized  by  Congress — I 
mean  by  the  concurrent  action  of  the  Senate,  House,  and 
President?  Gentlemen  who  examine  this  subject  cannot  fail 
to  see  the  complications  and  difficulties  in  which  we  may  be 
involved  unless  some  uniform  policy  regarding  the  reorgan- 
ization of  States  is  adopted  by  Congress  and  strictly  observed 
by  the  executive  department  of  the  government. 

[Here  the  hammer  fell.] 


—  285  — 

Mr.  Grinnell.  I  move  that  the  gentleman  have  leave 
to  proceed. 

Leave  was  granted. 

Mr.  Ashley.  The  President,  in  his  late  proclamation, 
says: 

**And  I  do  further  proclaim,  declare  and  make  known, 
that  whenever,  in  any  of  the  States  of  Arkansas,  Texas, 
Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Georgia,  Flor- 
ida, South  Carolina  and  North  Carolina,  a  number  of  persons 
not  less  than  one-tenth  in  number  of  the  votes  cast  in  such 
States  at  the  Presidential  election  of  the  year  of  our  Lord  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty,  having  taken  the  oath 
aforesaid,  and  not  having  since  violated  it,  and  being  quali- 
ified  voters  under  the  election  law  of  the  State,  existing  im- 
mediately before  the  so-called  act  of  secession,  and  excluding 
all  others,  shali.  re-establish  a  State  government,  which 
shall  be  republican,  and  in  no  wise  contravening  said 
oath,  shall  be  recognized  as  the  true  government  of  the 
State." 

* '  Shall  be  recognized  as  the  true  government  of  the 
State  "  by  whom?  The  fair  interpretation  of  the  language 
used  is  that  the  State,  when  organized  in  conformity  with 
the  provisions  of  the  proclamation,  will  be  recognized  by  the 
President.  The  country  so  understands  the  proclamation. 
And  yet  I  can  speak  authoritatively,  when  I  say  that  the 
President  does  not  intend  to  do  anything  of  the  kind  without 
the  concurrence  of  Congress.  If  the  rebel  States  still  retain 
their  political  organizations  under  their  old  constitutions, 
neither  the  President  nor  any  general  in  command  can  by 
proclamations  or  orders  change  those  State  constitutions.  If 
the  old  State  constitutions  and  governments  of  the  rebel 
States  are  destroyed,  then  neither  the  President  nor  any  gen- 
eral under  him,  can,  with  the  military  power,  establish  civil 
State  governments  with  such  constitutions  as  they  may  dic- 
tate, without  the  consent  of  Congress. 

The  military  power  and  the  civil  power  must  not  be  con- 
founded. Above  all  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Congress 
alone  is  clothed  with  the  war  power  and  the  civil  legislative 
power  of  the  nation. 

Mr.  Speaker,  suppose  the  Union  men,  by  unwise  divisions 
and  personal  ambitions,  are  defeated  in  the  coming  Presiden- 
tial election,  and  by  such  division  a  President  is  elected  by 


—  286  — 

the  opposition.  "Would  g-entlemen  on  this  'side  of  the  House 
quietly  sit  here,  and  permit  a  pro-slavery  President,  with  the 
entire  military  power  of  the  country,  and  one-tenth  of  the 
local  population  of  the  rebel  States,  professing-  to  be  loyal,  to- 
reorganize  State  governments,  and  recognize  them  as  the 
constitutional  governments  of  these  States,  without  the  con- 
sent of  Congress?  No,  sir.  From  an  hundred  men,  now  on 
this  floor,  a  protest  would  come  in  the  name  of  an  outraged 
people,  protesting  against  such  an  usurpation  of  the  prerog- 
atives of  Congress,  and  against  such  a  flagrant  violation  of 
the  Constitution.  Why  would  we  all  cry  out  with  one  voice, 
if  such  a  scheme  for  reorganizing  the  rebel  States  was  in 
process  of  enforcement  by  an  opposition  President?  The 
answer  is  easy.  We  would  not  submit  to  it,  because  we 
would  be  certain  that  with  such  power  in  the  hands  of  their 
President,  they  would  re-establish  slavery  and  the  old  slave 
State  governments  in  every  rebel  State,  and  thus  bring  back 
many  of  the  traitors  to  the  vacant  seats  here.  Of  course,, 
sir,  we  would  all  protest;  and  as  I  would  protest  then,  so  I 
protest  now,  against  the  adoption  of  any  policy  by  the 
executive  or  military  departments  of  the  government  on  this 
question  of  reconstruction,  until  it  shall  first  have  had  the 
sanction  of  Congress.  Sir,  I  want  no  precedent  established 
by  this  administration,  touching  the  exercise  of  doubtful  con- 
stitutional power,  which  I  would  object  to  if  adopted  by  an 
opposing  administration.  Whatever  power  I  claim  for  an 
Executive  of  my  own  choice,  I  am  willing  to  concede  to 
another  who  is  not  my  choice. 

Mr.  Speaker,  let  us  keep  every  department  of  the  govern- 
ment strictly  within  its  constitutional  limits,  and  in  the 
future  we  shall  not  be  driven  to  the  disgraceful  necessity  of 
apologizing  for  or  repudiating  our  own  acts,  before  we  can 
with  any  show  of  propriety  or  fairness  arraign  those  who, 
through  following  our  precedents,  are  doing  so  for  different 
purposes. 

Mr.  Speaker,  if  a  President  may,  because  war  exists, 
civil  or  foreign,  exercise  any  of  the  powers  conferred  by  the 
Constitution  on  Congress,  whether  relating  to  the  civil  or 
military   administration  of   the  government,   an  ambitious 


—  287  — 

and  unscrupulous  President  can  find  pretext  enough  for  pre- 
cipitating" the  nation  into  either  a  foreign  or  civil  war,  as 
was  done  in  the  case  of  Mexico,  and  with  the  Mormons. 
Then  following  such  precedents  as  we  are  establishing  by 
our  silence,  the  Executive  could  assume  to  exercise  almost 
every  function  of  the  government  under  the  plea  of  neces- 
sity, and  the  right  conferred  by  the  admitted  war  powers  of 
the  government.  Suppose  the  pro-slavery  States  rights 
party  of  this  country  should  elect  a  President  and  a  majority 
of  this  House,  this  year,  owing  to  causes  such  as  I  have  sug- 
gested (which  may  Heaven  forbid) ;  and  they  should  conspire, 
as  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  they  would,  to  reinstate  the  old 
order  of  things,  assume  the  confederate  debt,  re-enslave  all 
persons  emancipated  by  the  President's  Proclamation  or  by 
Congress,  and  restore  all  confiscated  estates  to  their  former 
owners,  would  they  long  want  a  pretext  for  continuing  this 
war,  or  involving  the  country  in  another  civil  war,  if  there- 
by their  President  could  assume  unlimited  power,  and  with 
the  army  and  ten  per  cent,  of  the  voting  population,  without 
regard  to  its  loyalty,  revive  the  old  State  Constitutions,  and 
obtain  their  recognition  by  the  executive  branch  of  govern- 
ment as  the  constitutional  governments  of  these  States, 
without  the  consent  of  Congress? 

I  confess,  sir,  I  believe  there  are  thousands  of  men  in  the 
North  to-day,  who  stand  ready  at  any  opportune  moment  to 
enter  into  just  such  a  conspiracy.  If  gentlemen  will  recall 
what  has  transpired  in  this  country  since  the  days  of  Tyler, 
Calhoun  and  Texas  annexation,  especially  during  the  adminis- 
trations of  Polk,  Pierce  and  Buchanan,  they  will  not  find  it 
difficult  in  my  judgment  to  reach  the  conclusion  that  either 
of  these  administrations,  if  in  power  in  1865,  would  cor- 
dially have  entered  into  just  such  a  conspiracy  as  I  have 
delineated.  Do  gentlemen  say  that  this  is  impossible?  I 
answer,  by  repeating  what  I  have  said  before  to  the  people 
of  my  own,  and  indeed  of  every  district  in  which  I  have 
spoken,  that  I  fear  an  attempt  will  be  made,  if  the  pro- 
slavery  party  of  this  country  elect  a  President  of  their  pecu- 
liar faith,  to  accomplish  all  I  have  depicted,  and  the  con- 
federate rebel  debt  will  be  the  lever  power  employed  for  that 


—  288—, 

unholy  purpose.  If  they  should  succeed  in  an  election,  no 
man  need  predict  what  they  will  not  attempt.  The  country 
has  not  yet  forgotten  how  the  Texas  annexation  scheme  was 
bought  through  Congress,  by  the  leaders  of  this  pro-slavery 
rebellion.  They  had  but  tkn  mii^lions  of  dollars  in  scrip  to 
operate  with,  worth  from  Fivs  to  seven  cents  on  the  dollar; 
annexation  and  assumption  made  them  par.  In  this  new 
political  and  financial  scheme,  the  conspirators  will  have 
three  or  four  thousand  millions  of  dollars  in  confederate 
bonds,  with  which  to  effectuate  their  purposes.  Sir,  when  I 
remember  what  infamous,  God-defying  acts,  the  American 
Congress,  under  the  lead  of  the  present  pro-slavery  rebels, 
has  been  guilty  of,  in  days  that  are  past,  I  shudder  when  I 
contemplate  the  terrible  ordeal  through  which  the  nation,  in 
its  process  of  regeneration,  must  pass,  after  the  close  of  the 
war. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  already,  in  passing,  referred  to  the 
action  of  General  Banks  in  Louisiana.  Let  me  call  the 
attention  of  the  House  and  the  country  to  his  unwarrantable 
and  indefensible  assumption  of  civil  authority  in  that  State. 
In  the  first  place,  against  the  protest,  and  in  defiance  of  the 
well-known  wishes  of  the  only  organization  known  to  the 
country,  or  recognized  by  the  unconditional  Union  men  of 
Louisiana,  General  Banks  issues  an  order  for  an  election  on 
the  22d  of  February  last,  of  State  ofi&cers,  under  the  old 
State  organization  and  pro-slavery  constitution.  If  the  old 
pro-slavery  constitution  and  State  government  of  Louisiana 
are  to  be  thus  re-established  and  recognized  in  defiance  of 
the  wishes  of  the  loyal  men  of  that  State  and  without  the 
sanction  of  Congress,  this  House  ought  to  understand  it. 
For  myself  I  enter  my  protest  against  any  such  assumption 
of  civil  authority  by  the  military  power.  Let  us  look  a  little 
farther  into  the  matter.  After  ordering  an  election  for  State 
officers  under  the  old  constitution,  which,  if  acquiesced  in 
by  Congress,  will  legally  revive  the  old  order  of  things  in 
that  State,  General  Banks  issues  another  order  directing  that 
an  election  shall  be  held  for  delegates  to  a  convention,  for 
the  purpose  of  amending  the  constitution  of    the  State  so 


—  289  — 

that   it   may  conform  to   something-  —  it  is   difl&cult  to   say 
what.     The  following-  is  his  order  upon  the  subject: 

*'In  order  that  the  org-anic  law  of  the  State  may  be  made 
to  conform  to  the  will  of  the  people,  and  harmonize  with  the 
spirit  of  the  ag-e,  as  well  as  to  maintain  and  preserve  the 
ancient  landmarks  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  an  election 
of  deleg-ates  to  a  convention  for  the  revision  of  the  constitu- 
tion will  be  held  on  the  first  Monday  of  April,  1864." 

Whence  did  General  Banks  derive  authority  to  issue  such 
an  order?  Certainly  not  from  Cong-ress,  nor  from  the  laws  of 
war,  as  recognized  by  civilized  nations,  nor  from  any  rule  or 
article  of  war  known  to  our  military  code.  If  the  power  to 
issue  the  order  is  not  derived  from  either  of  these  sources, 
then  the  action  of  General  Banks  is  a  most  wanton  and 
defenseless  assumption  of  military  power,  as  well  as  an  out- 
rage upon  the  only  organized  body  of  men  known  and  ad- 
mitted by  all  to  be  free  State  men.  As  a  military  commander 
in  the  service  of  the  United  States,  he  may  govern  a  con- 
quered people  by  martial  law  until  Congress  or  the  people,  in 
the  exercise  of  loyal,  popular  sovereignty,  recognize  a  civil 
g-overnment,  subject  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
without  interference  or  coercion  from  him  by  the  military 
force  under  his  command.  But  neither  General  Banks  nor  the 
Commander-in-Chief,  can,  by  martial  law,  proclaim  a  consti- 
tution for  the  civil  government  of  any  State.  General 
Banks,  however,  declares  in  this  extraordinary  proclamation* 
that  '*THE  FUNDAMENTAL  i^AWOF  LOUISIANA  is  martial  law." 
If  any  gentleman  can  enlighten  the  House  or  the  country 
about  this  matter,  he  will  entitle  himself  to  the  lasting  grati- 
tude of  all  loyal  men.  Will  any  gentleman  tell  me  how 
*' martial  law"  can  become  **the  fundamental  law"  of  any 
organized  civil  State  government  known  to  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States?  I  hold  that  neither  General  Banks, 
nor  any  other  general  in  command  of  a  department,  has 
authority  to  order  an  election  for  State  officers  in  any  of  the 
rebel  States,  under  any  fundamental  law,  whether  it  be  mar- 
tial law  or  civil  law.  Still  less  has  he  any  show  of  power  or 
excuse  for  ordering  an  election  of  delegates  to  a  constitu- 
19 


290 


tional  convention,  if  there  is  an  existing  fundamental  law  in 
the  State. 

If  the  State  officers  who  have  been  elected  by  General 
Banks's  orders  assume  the  functions  of  civil  g-overnment,  they 
will  undoubtedly  be  recog-nized  as  officers  under  the  old  State 
constitution  of  Louisiana,  whatever  General  Banks  may  say 
about  martial  law  as  the  fundamental  law  of  the  State.  If 
they  are  not  officers  of  the  civil  g-overnment  of  Louisiana 
then  the  late  election  was  a  farce,  for  martial  law  does  not 
provide  that  the  people,  or  any  part  of  the  people,  over  whom 
it  is  operating",  shall,  themselves,  select  the  officers  to  adminis- 
ter and  exercise  it. 

I  undertake  to  say,  that  if  these  recently  elected  State 
officers  are  installed  into  office  and  recognized  by  Cong-ress^ 
such  recog-nition  will  leg-ally  re-establish  the  old  State  con- 
stitution and  slave  code  of  Louisiana.  In  addition  to  this 
the  State  government,  thus  established  and  recognized  by 
Congress,  may  legally  refuse  to  submit  to  or  recognize  the 
validity  of  any  new  State  constitution  adopted  by  the  con- 
vention ordered  by  General  Banks  to  be  elected  in  April, 
after  the  State  officers  elected  under  the  old  constitution  are 
inaugurated  and  invested  with  the  civil  government  of  the 
State.  They  undoubtedly  will  refuse  to  recognize  the  action 
of  that  convention,  unless  it  be  in  conformity  with  their 
wishes,  because  they  can  properly  claim  that  the  old  State 
constitution  having  been  revived  and  recognized  by  their 
election  and  inauguration,  it  provides  the  manner  in  which 
it  may  be  amended.  In  order  to  obtain  an  early  recognition 
of  the  assumed  State  organization  under  martial  law,  the 
newly  elected  governor  may,  if  he  sees  fit,  order  an  election 
for  members  of  the  State  Legislature  and  Congress  instanter, 
and  I  shall  not  be  surprised  if  we  have  Senators  and  Repre- 
sentatives applying  here  for  admission  from  the  government 
thus  organized  by  the  military  power,  before  we  adjourn.  If 
such  should  be  the  case  and  they  are  admitted  before  the 
action  of  the  constitutional  convention  is  submitted  to  the 
loyal  people  for  their  approval,  and  the  present  State  officers 
accept  and  recognize  that  constitution  if  adopted  by  the 
people  as  the  constitution  of  the  State,  these  officers  may,  if 


—  291  — 


they  choose,  leg-ally  disregard  the  action  of  that  convention, 
and  remain  under  the  old  constitution.  If  they  should  do 
this,  what  remedy  would  be  left  to  us?  If  Cong-ress  should 
recognize  this  assumed  State  government,  before  the  consti- 
tutional convention  now  ordered  by  General  Banks  to  be 
elected  should  assemble,  or  before  it  had  adopted  and  sub- 
mitted a  constitution  to  the  loyal  electors  of  the  State  for 
their  approval,  its  whole  power  under  the  newly  elected  offi- 
cers COULD  and  might  be  used  to  defeat  the  wishes  of  the 
free  State  men,  and  if  desired  by  the  present  State  officers 
this  would  be  a  better  way  of  accomplishing  their  purposes 
than  by  refusing  to  accept  the  constitution  formed  by  the 
convention  and  adopted  by  the  people.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
the  officers  of  this  assumed  State  government  could,  if  they 
were  recognized  by  Congress,  defeat  the  adoption  of  a  free 
State  constitution  of  Louisiana  if  they  desired  to  do  so.  I 
do  not  say  that  they  will  attempt  it,  should  Congress  recog- 
nize them,  for  I  do  not  know  them.  I  only  say  that  they 
could  easily  do  so,  if  they  preferred  the  old  constitution  ta 
the  new  one. 

Gentlemen  will  readily  see  the  necessity  of  avoiding 
such  complications  —  and  all  must  agree  that  the  safer  and 
better  way  is  to  have  new  State  constitutions  adopted  and 
approved  by  the  loyal  people  and  Congress  before  elections 
for  State  officers  are  ordered  by  any  one,  and  before  we 
admit  either  Senators  or  Representatives  in  Congress  from 
any  of  the  rebel  States. 

I  hope  we  will  have  no  such  difficulty  in  Louisiana  as  I 
have  suggested.  I  have  always  had  such  a  high  apprecia- 
tion of  the  character  and  ability  of  General  Banks,  that  I 
regret  very  much  that  I  have  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to  say 
what  I  have  of  his  acts  touching  the  reorganization  of  the 
State.  I  cannot,  however,  shut  my  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the 
policy  adopted  by  General  Banks  affords  every  inducement 
for  the  secret  enemies  of  the  government,  by  uniting  with 
the  conservative  faction  opposed  to  a  free  State,  to  bring 
about  just  the  condition  of  things  I  have  described.  I  trust 
we  are  not  to  have  in  Louisiana  a  repetition  of  the  Mis- 
souri troubles. 


—  292  — 

If  General  Banks,  instead  of  ordering-  an  election  for 
State  officers  under  the  old  constitution  of  Louisiana,  had 
listened  to  the  free  State  men  and  ordered  an  election  of 
delegates  to  a  convention  to  amend  the  old  constitution  of 
Louisiana,  or  to  make  a  new  one  for  the  State,  the  loyal  men 
of  the  nation  might  have  tolerated  such  an  unauthorized 
assumption  of  power  on  his  part.  As  it  is,  loyal  men  are 
compelled  to  protest  against  it,  not  only  because  of  his  exer- 
cise of  power  for  which  there  is  no  law,  and  his  disregard  of 
the  wishes  of  the  free  State  men,  but  because  of  the  diffi- 
culties and  complications  which  a  repetition  of  such  acts  in 
other  States  may  bring  upon  us.  Here  is  what  the  free 
State  men  of  Louisiana  say  on  this  point : 

*' Resolved,  that  this  Free  State  General  Committee,  not 
relinquishing  its  judgment  that  the  only  true  path  to  recon- 
struction is  a  convention  to  form  a  new  constitution  before 
any  election  for  State  officers;  and  not  renouncing  its  lawful 
claim  to  have  slavery  abolished  immediately,  without  the 
dangers  of  any  futile  scheme  of  gradual  emancipation;  and 
not  yielding  its  assent  to  the  idea  that  the  election  of  seven 
executive  officers  can,  by  proper  use  of  terms,  be  styled  the 
civil  government  of  Louisiana;  but,  nevertheless,  recogniz- 
ing the  patriotic  duty  of  endeavoring  to  place  in  office  men 
whose  opinions  are  in  harmony  with  the  wants  of  Louisiana 
and  the  spirit  of  the  age,  will  take  part  in  the  elections." 

The  farce  of  an  election  was  gone  through  with,  and  of 
course  the  men  representing  an  organization  whose  loyalty 
never  was  questioned,  were  defeated,  and  the  candidate  of 
General  Banks  was  elected.  It  could  not  well  have  been 
otherwise.      A   military    commander    who    announces   that 

* 'MARTIAL  LAW  IS  THE  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW  OF  THE  StATE,"  and 

that  all  must  vote,  would  not  find  it  very  difficult  to  elect  any 
one  he  might  designate,  especially  when  the  aggregate  vote 
did  not  exceed  ten  or  eleven  thousand,  with  three  candidates 
in  the  field.  Hahn's  whole  vote  in  the  State,  as  claimed  by 
liis  friends,  is  only  6,171,  less  than  one-fourth  of  the  vote  of 
tny  congressional  district. 

There  are  fifty-four  parishes  in  the  State,  only  twelve  of 
which  are  under  our  control. 

Of  the  number  who  voted  for  Hahn,  I  have  been  credi- 
bly informed  that  over  1,000  were  employed  in  the  quarter- 


—  293  — 

master's  department;  about  550  are  policemen  in  the  city  of 
New  Orleans;  city  laborers  1,100,  and  other  city  officers  100; 
some  1,600  were  soldiers  claiming- to  be  citizens  of  Louisiana. 
The  acting-  mayor  of  New  Orleans  was  removed  by  General 
Banks,  and  one  appointed  who  could  and  would  control  the 
votes  and  influence  of  the  550  policemen,  city  laborers  and 
city  ofi&cers.  With  all  the  military  power  of  the  department 
to  support  Hahn;  with  the  votes  of  all  the  g-overnment 
employees,  the  Louisiana  soldiers  and  policemen,  his  |^entire 
vote  in  the  twelve  parishes  is  but  6,171,  and  yet  this  insig-- 
nificant  vote  is  paraded  before  the  country,  and  unblushing-ly 
called  the  voice  of  the  entire  State  of  Louisiana,  which,  in 
1860,  gave  a  vote  of  over  50,000.  Hahn  had  hardly  as  many 
votes  in  the  entire  State  as  Mrs.  General  Beaureg-ard  had 
sympathizing-  rebel  mourners  in  attendance  upon  her  funeral 
in  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  in  a  day  or  two  after  this  election. 

I  have  said  nothing-  of  General  Banks's  orders  and  treat- 
ment of  the  freedmen  of  Louisiana.  God  knows  I  have  no 
desire  to  say  a  word  that  I  oug-ht  not  to  say,  but  I  cannot  re- 
main silent  when  such  irregularities  are  being  committed. 
I  am  heartsick  of  this  pandering  to  rebels  and  slaveholders. 
When  General  Butler  was  in  command  at  New  Orleans,  no 
recognized  free  State  man  complained  of  his  masterly  admin- 
istration. The  rebels  and  slaveholders,  however,  made  day 
and  night  hideous  with  their  howling.  And  General  Butler 
was  removed.  Since  General  Banks  has  been  in  command, 
there  has  not  been  a  rebel  or  pro-slavery  complaint,  but  frank 
and  manly  protests  come  to  us  from  well-known  Union  men, 
who  have  been  tried  as  by  fire  and  whose  loyalty  was  never 
tainted  by  taking  an  oath  to  support  the  rebel  government 
or  by  voluntarily  defending  and  justifying  it  This  simple 
fact  tells  its  own  story,  and  I  need  not  add  another  word. 

Mr.  Speaker,  let  us  see  to  it  that  there  is  no  repetition 
of  these  acts  by  any  other  general  in  an  attempt  to  organize 
a  civil  government  for  a  rebel  State,  without  the  express 
authority  of  Congress.  Enact  this  bill  as  a  law,  and  you 
insure  the  liberation,  regeneration  and  restoration  of  the 
South.  Refuse  to  pass  it,  and  the  loyal  men  of  the  South 
are  left  to  the  mercy  and  caprice  of  military  rulers.     Professed 


—  294  — 

loyalists  and  open-throated  rebels,  who  have  been  guilty  of 
every  crime,  will  conspire  together  to  crush  the  free  State 
men  as  they  did  in  Missouri.  The  amnesty  oath  will  be  taken 
by  thousands  who  will  at  once  strike  hands  with  perjurers, 
robbers,  and  murderers  to  destroy  the  men  who  have,  from 
the  first,  been  faithful  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union. 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  war  ended,  I  feel  confident  that  the 
wily  enemy  will  attempt  to  regain  by  diplomacy  much  that 
he  has  lost  by  an  appeal  to  arms.  Therein,  sir,  as  I  appre- 
hend, lies  our  danger.  The  nation,  anxious  for  peace,  will 
eagerly  listen  to  the  voice  of  the  returning  prodigal,  until 
like  the  song  of  the  syren,  it  will,  as  of  yore,  lull  many  loyal 
but  too  confiding  men  into  a  plausible  but  delusive  security. 
Cunningly  devised  schemes  of  adjustment,  declared  by  their 
authors  to  be  *'  honorable  to  all  parties,"  will  be  thrust  upon 
us,  and  every  form  of  sophistry  employed  to  conceal  their  de- 
formities, and  extol  their  merits. 

Let  us  meet  these  issues  now,  and  meet  them  like  men. 
Let  us  define  clearly  and  unmistakably  the  policy  of  the  gov- 
ernment on  all  questions  touching  the  reconstruction  and  res- 
toration of  the  rebel  States  to  the  Union,  and  thus  render 
forever  impossible,  all  humiliating  compromises. 

The  truly  loyal  men  of  the  North  and  the  South  will 
expect  and  demand  this  of  us.  They  will  demand  that  their 
heroic  sacrifices  and  sufferings  shall  not  have  been  all  in  vain. 
And,  sir,  such  a  people  have  the  right  to  make.such  a  demand. 
Their  will  must  must  be  consulted  —  must  be  obeyed.  I  know 
that  obedience  to  it  will  make  freedom  and  justice  the 
prominent  elements  of  every  newly  organized  State. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  believe  I  may  safely  say,  that  never  in 
the  history  of  any  nation  has  there  been  grander  exhibitions 
of  patriotism  and  heroism,  than  have  illustrated  every  battle- 
field of  this  terrible  rebellion.  Why,  sir,  when  I  go  through 
my  own  district  and  hear  the  simple  and  touching  story  told  in 
almost  every  household,  about  fathers  and  sons,  husbands 
and  brothers,  who  have  gone  into  the  army  that  the  republic 
might  live,  I  am  proud  of  my  country,  and  thank  God  that  I 
belong  to  such  a  heroic  race. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  witnessed,  when  aiding  to  fill  our 
armies,  many  beautiful  and  imposing,  though  touching-  and 


—  295  — 

heartrending  scenes.  It  is  the  same  story  of  devotion  and 
valor  everywhere.  The  scene  which  I  have  in  my  mind's  eye 
has  its  counterpart  everywhere  throughout  the  North.  The 
picture  is  dag-uerreotyped  upon  the  mind  and  soul  of  every 
man  whose  heart  has  been  in  this  strug-g-le.  In  one  of  the 
agricultural  counties  of  my  district,  around  the  domestic 
hearth,  before  a  blazing  fire,  is  gathered  a  family  group. 
They  have  just  returned  from  a  war  meeting,  and  are  en- 
gaged in  serious  and  thoughtful  discussion.  The  question 
is,  how  many  can  be  spared  from  home — how  many  can 
volunteer  to  go  and  fight  for  their  country?  At  length,  amid 
the  contending  struggles  of  patriotism,  duty  and  affection, 
it  is  settled.  Two  brothers  make  the  stern  resolve.  Quietly 
and  methodically  they  prepare  for  their  uncertain  absence. 
When  that  is  done,  they  enter  their  names  as  volunteers,  and 
await,  and  that  not  long,  the  orders  which  summon  them  to 
the  field.  The  day  of  parting  comes.  At  the  railroad  station 
are  gathered  fathers,  mothers,  brothers,  sisters,  and  friends  to 
bid  these  and  other  brave  spirits  farewell.  The  approaching 
train  is  crowded  with  other  volunteers  who  rend  the  air  with 
shouts  as  they  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  new  recruits  —  shouts 
-which  modify,  perhaps,  but  cannot  entirely  repress  the  tears 
and  sobs  of  those  who  are  now  about  to  part,  and,  possibly, 
forever.  The  last  shake  of  the  hand  is  given,  the  last  kiss 
imprinted  upon  manly  brows,  the  last  farewell  uttered,  the 
train  moves  swiftly  away,  and  this  patriotic  family,  who  have 
given  up  their  sons,  turn  to  wend  their  steps  to  their  now 
less  cheerful  home.  Let  us  accompany  them,  and  strive  to 
realize  their  condition.  Listen,  as  they  gather  around  the 
evening  altar,  to  the  prayer  which  from  heart  and  lip  ascends 
to  the  God  of  nations  and  of  men — a  prayer  that  the  country 
may  be  saved,  and  that  the  precious  lives  of  the  beloved 
ones  who  have  gone  to  fight  for  it  may  be  spared,  and  they, 
in  due  time,  restored  to  their  family  and  home. 

One  phase  in  the  scene  we  are  contemplating  is  over. 
Time  has  healed  the  poignancy  of  the  sorrow  which  attended 
the  parting,  and  the  household  moves  on  in  accustomed 
routine.  Weeks  have  elapsed.  A  flash  along  the  wires 
announces  a  battle  in  which  the  absent  ones  have  partici- 


—  296  — 

pated:  but,  alas,  it  is  too  meagre  to  allay  their  anxiety. 
Away  for  miles,  over  a  bad  and  frozen  road,  haste  a  com- 
pany on  horseback  to  get  fuller  details  from  the  papers. 
Behold  with  what  trembling-  anxiety  the  father  g-lances 
along"  the  column  of  killed  and  wounded  to  see  if  the  name  of 
either  of  his  sons  is  there.  And  when  the  dread  intellig-ence 
is  found,  go  now  to  that  bereaved  family  circle,  and  witness 
the  more  than  Roman  fortitude  with  which  it  is  accepted, 
and  tell  me,  in  what  former  period  of  human  history,  the 
world  has  afforded  a  more  exalted  exhibition  of  valor  and 
patriotism.     Sir,  these  are  common  scenes. 

Thousands  of  homes  thus  bereft  have  uttered  no  com- 
plaint, but  have  sent  forth  other  sons  to  bleed  and  die,  per- 
haps, or  perish  by  disease,  in  some  future  campaign  of  this 
dreadful  struggle.  Nor  has  the  voice  of  complaint  yet  , 
reached  us  from  the  battlefield  — from  the  hospital,  or  from 
the  horrible  dens  of  Libby  Prison  or  Belle  Island",  tenfold 
worse  than  either.  Our  fellow-citizens  have  only  asked  that 
the  war  might  be  prosecuted  with  vigor,  until  the  rebellion 
was  effectually  broken,  and  a  triumphant  peace  was  achieved. 

At  such  a  time,  amid  such  scenes,  and  in  the  presence  of 
such  a  people,  how  indefensible,  how  criminal,  is  all  personal 
and  partisan  strife.  Sir,  when  I  witness,  as  I  must,  wherever 
I  go,  such  scenes  as  I  have  so  poorly  delineated,  my  heart  is. 
filled  with  the  deepest  sympathy  and  sorrow,  and  I  involun- 
tarily ask  myself  what  there  is,  that  can  ever  compensate  for 
all  this  affliction,  this  endurance  and  this  self-sacrifice. 
There  is  but  a  single  answer.  Nothing,  absolutely  nothing, 
but  the  entire  regeneration  of  the  Republic,  by  making  * 
**  Liberty  and  Union  one  and  inseparable."  That  the  earn- 
est men  of  this  great  nation  will  accomplish  this  work,  I 
have  never  doubted.  To  me  it  is  the  simple  logic  of  the  con- 
test. I  have  believed  from  the  first  that  it  must  come, 
because  I  have  believed  that  Providence  would  bring  to 
naught  the  councils  of  the  wicked  and  the  crafty.  Indeed  I 
contemplate  the  future  of  this  struggle  with  rapture.  The 
clouds  which  to  the  eyes  of  many  have  darkened  our  political 
horizon,  for  three  years  have  all  had  their  silver  linings  for 
me.     No  hour  has  been  dark  enough  to  cause  me  to  feel  one 


—  297  — 

throb  or  to  utter  one  wail  of  despair.  My  hope  has  been 
that  justice  would  at  last  triumph,  and  the  progress  we  are 
making-  assures  me  that  it  will.  I  advocated  from  the  first 
the  emancipation  of  all  slaves,  because  I  believed  ideas  were 
more  formidable  than  armies,  justice  more  powerful  than 
prejudice,  and  truth  a  weapon  mightier  than  the  sword. 
Thank  God,  that  as  a  nation  and  people,  after  three  years  of 
war  and  mourning  we  are  beginning  to  comprehend  our  duty^ 
and  to  feel  in  this  life-struggle  for  national  existence,  that 

**  The  laws  of  changeless  justice  bind 
Oppressor  and  oppressed. 
And  close  as  sin  and  suffering  joined 
We  march  to  Fate  —  abreast!" 

I  have  believed  that  as  a  nation  we  should  grow  stronger 
and  gain  victories  only  as  we  become  manly  and  just,  and 
that  at  last  liberty  would  emerge  triumphant  from  the  con- 
flict, changing  constitutions,  customs,  and  laws,  to  meet  the 
requirements  of  a  higher  and  better  civilization,  and  that 
thus  emerging,  she  would  vivify  by  her  magic  touch  every 
desolate  waste,  and  cause  to  bloom  every  spot  consecrated  by 
the  blood  of  her  fallen  sons.  Anything  short  of  this  would 
be  hollow  mockery;  with  it  accomplished, 

•   **Who  will  mourn  that  in  these  dark  days 
His  lot  is  cast? 

God's  hand  within  the  shadow  lays. 
The  stones  whereon  His  gates  of  praise 
Shall  rise  at  last. 


Turn  .and  o'erturn,  O,  outstretched  Hand, 

Nor  stint,  nor  stay; 

The  years  have  never  dropped  their  sand 

On  mortal  issues  vast  and  grand, 

As  ours  to-day." 


HON.  J.  M.  ASHLEY 
Renominated  by  Acclamation  for  Congress 


BY  THE  REPUBI.ICAN  CONGRESSIONAI.  CONVENTION  AT  TOLEDO, 
MAY  24th,   1864. 


Hon.  William  Sheffield,  of  Henry  County,  was  president. 
S.  B.  Price  and  J.  C.  Swan  were  secretaries. 

The  platform  reported  by  the  committee  on  resolutions 
was  unanimously  adopted. 

The  resolution  endorsing"  Mr.  Ashley  reads  thus  : 

Resolved,  That  we  cordially  approve  and  endorse  the 
course  pursued  in  Congress  by  our  able  and  fearless  Repre- 
sentative, Hon.  James  M.  Ashley,  whose  zeal,  fidelity  and 
patriotism  entitle  him  to  the  profound  respect  and  admira- 
tion of  a  constituency  he  has  so  ably  and  faithfully  repre- 
sented. 

The  committee  appeared  with  Mr.  Ashley,  and  after 
-the  applause  had  subsided  he  was  introduced  to  the  conven- 
tion by  the  president,  and  spoke  as  follows: 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Convention: 
In  the  storm  of  personal  and  political  conflict,  I  have  a  will  of 
iron.  Surrounded  as  I  am  to-day,  and  in  the  midst  of  such  a 
scene,  I  am  as  a  child  whose  heart  is  overflowing*  to  its  bene" 
factor  with  thankfulness  and  gratitude.  Unyielding"  as  you 
know  I  am  when  confronting-  the  wrong",  and  confident  in  my 
streng-th  when  defending-  the  unpopular  Cause  of  the  poor 
and  the  lowly  against  the  oppressions  of  the  rich  and  the 
powerful,  I  somehow  feel  unmanned,  as  the  world  has  it,  in 
appearing  before  you  now.  Though  welcomed  as  I  am  by 
cheers  and  these  unmistakable  manifestations  of  your  ap- 
proval and  respect,  my  lips  are  tremulous  with  the  emotions 

(298) 


—  299  - 

of  my  heart  and  the  thoughts  which  crowd  upon  me  cannot 
iind  fitting-  utterance  in  words.  I  wish  I  could  command 
language  that  would  truly  daguerreotype  upon  your  hearts 
the  emotions  of  my  own,  §o  that  I  might  suitably  acknowl- 
edge the  honor  of  this  nomination,  and  thank  you  for  the 
compliment  of  this  generous  and  enthusiastic  reception. 

Gentlemen,  if  any  one  of  you  stood  where  I  stand  to-day, 
and  remembered  as  I  must  remember  the  terrible  ordeai* 
through  which  I  have  passed,  and  then  contemplate  the 
events  of  this  hour,  and  look  forward  as  I  do  with  hope  to 
the  coming  verdict  of  the  loyal  people  of  this  District  in 
October,  you  would  feel,  I  am  sure,  an  unutterable  satisfac- 
tion in  such  a  triumph. 

I  accept,  gentlemen,  with  a  gratitude  which  I  shall  carry 
^ith  me  through  life,  the  nomination  you  have  just  tendered 
me,  and  thank  you  .with  a  full  heart  for  this  most  cordial 
^welcome.  To  me  it  is  an  earnest  of  your  individual  esteem 
and  confidence,  and  is  the  best  assurance  I  can  have*  that  my 
course  in  Congress  is  fully  approved  by  the  free  Union  men 
of  this  District  whom  you  represent. 

I  have  just  read  the  platform  you  have  unanimously 
adopted,  and  approve  it  fully,  and  without  qualification. 

Though  not  necessary,  I  repeat  what  I  expressed  in  my 
recently  published  letter  to  my  honorable  friend  from  Wood, 
that,  if  this  convention  had  nominated  any  other  citizen  than 
myself,  he  should  have  received  my  cordial  support  both  on 
ihe  stump  and  at  the  ballot-box.  Indeed,  I  would  have  per- 
mitted no  man  to  have  given  more  time  and  labor  to  secure 
liis  triumphant  election  than  I  would  have  given. 

I  hope  every  loyal  man  in  the  District  is  sufficiently  im- 
pressed with  the  importance  and  necessity  of  united  action 
in  the  impending  contest,  National,  State  and  District,  and 
that  upon  this  point  I  need  not  add  another  word. 

Gentlemen:  You  who  have  known  me  longest  and  best, 
you  who  know  something  of  my  inner  life,  and  with  what 
•devotion  I  have  consecrated  the  best  years  of  that  life  to  the 
advocacy  of  emancipation,  a  principle  which  to-day  makes 
Ihe  salvation  of  the  nation  possible,  and  binds  all  loyal  men 
"together  in  its  support;  you,  who  have   known  how,   with 


—  300  — 

unfaltering-  faith,  I  have  maintained  the  great  democratic 
idea  of  man's  equality  before  the  law,  and  who  know  how  I 
have  urged  with  a  diligence  which  has  never  tired,  and  a 
perseverance  which  has  never  faltered,  the  adoption  of  these 
principles  by  the  present  administration,  you,  I  say,  who 
know  all  this,  and  have  faithfully  stood  by  me,  can  sympa- 
thize with  and  appreciate  something  of  the  exultation  and 
joy  I  feel  at  the  approaching  triumph  of  such  a  cause. 

Thank  God,  the  long  weary  night  of  three  years  is. 
almost  gone;  the  morning  light  is  breaking;  the  North  is  at 
last  in  earnest,  and  in  the  inspiring  and  beautiful  words  of 
our  Quaker  poet,  we  can  all  shout  with  exultant  hearts: 

**  Now  joy  and  thanks  for  evermore, 

The  weary  night  has  well  nigh  passed; 
The  slumbers  of  the  North  are  o'er — 
The  giant  stands  erect  at  last!" 
[Loud  applause.] 

Mr.  President,  it  is  now  ten  years  since  a  little  band  of 
anti-slavery  men  in  Northern  Ohio  met  at  Maumee  City  in. 
response  to  a  call  drawn  up  by  me,  for  a  general  conference. 
The  theme  of  my  speech  then,  was  the  same  as  now.  I  then 
said,  **  that  justice  demanded  the  emancipation  of  every  slave 
within  the  limits  of  the  republic,  and  that  the  true  demo- 
cratic idea  recognized  liberty  as  the  birthright  of  the  human 
race."  This  theme  has  constituted  the  major  part  of  nearly 
all  my  speeches  from  that  day  to  this.  With  what  fidelity  I 
have  followed  these  democratic  ideas  you  all  know.  In 
whatever  path  they  have  logically  led  me,  I  have  devoutly 
gone,  never  hesitating,  never  faltering,  never  doubting.  No 
motive  of  personal  or  political  ambition  has  swayed  me  for 
a  moment  to  the  right  or  to  the  left.  Refusing  to  resort  to 
the  tricks  of  the  mere  politician,  or  to  assume  the  non- 
committal position  of  the  demagogue,  as  I  might  have  done, 
either  by  remaining  silent  or  professing  to  have  no  opinions, 
on  this  subject,  I  have  never  for  an  instant  yielded  to  the  das- 
tardly and  intolerant  pro-slavery  spirit  which  pervaded  the 
"whole  nation  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  but  became  firmer 


—  301  — 

and  more  defiant  as  the  attacks  of  the  enemy  became  more 
malig-nant  and  unscrupulous.  I  have  clung-  to  these  ideas 
because  I  believe  principles  should  be  followed  before  men, 
and  that  truth  was  stronger  than  any  party.  From  the  first 
these  ideas  have  been  the  cardinal  points  of  m^  political 
faith,  and  they  shall  remain  the  main  plank  in  my  platform 
until  this  great  battle  is  ended  in  the  complete  triumph  of 
freedom  by  the  liberation  of  the  last  slave  in  the  United 
States. 

Mr.  President,  it  is  said,  and  I  believe  it  to  be  true,  that 
all  sacrifices  made  either  by  individuals  or  nations  in  main- 
taining- g-reat  principles,  bring-  with  them  their  own  compen- 
sations; and  surely  as  good  and  bad  acts  have  their  rewards, 
both  here  and  hereafter,  so  surely  shall  the  defender  of  the 
right  be  compensated  for  all  his  trials.  I  have  not  been 
unmindful  of  this  great  truth  while  battling  for  the  anti- 
slavery  cause,  and  I  have  not  forgotten  that  which  history 
has  taught  the  world  for  more  than  two  thousand  years,  that 
wherever  a  man  came  pleading  for  an  unpopular  reform,  even 
though  the  cause  he  pleaded  was  admitted  to  be  just,  he  has 
always  been  treated  and  stoned  as  a  prophet.  I  have  ac- 
cepted the  slanderous  scourging  to  which  I  have  been  sub- 
jected, philosophically,  because,  confident  that  if  true  to  the 
great  cause  I  have  espoused,  the  very  stones  cast  at  me  would 
one  day  be  made  into  my  monument,  and  that  my  slanderers 
would  vilify  me  into  a  better  fame. 

In  1861,  when  I  demanded  emancipation  in  the  name  of 
justice,  because  believing  as  a  nation  we  could  not  call  upon 
a  just  God  to  aid  us  in  this  great  struggle  unless  we  did 
justly,  how  many  men  were  there  in  this  District  who  were 
eager  to  condemn,  and  did  condemn  me  unsparingly,  and  yet 
how  many  of  these  men  are  ready  to  applaud  me  now? 

It  has  ever  been  thus  the  world  over.  Providence  com- 
pels all  men  sooner  or  later,  to  testify  to  the  * '  almighty 
power  and  force  of  truth."  Because  grounded  in  this  faith  I 
have  never  faltered.  Without  it,  no  man  can  withstand  the 
fury  of  his  fellows.  With  it,  no  earthly  power  can  shake 
him  from  his  purpose. 


—  302  — 

I  do  not  believe  any  man  can  ever  be  truly  great,  or  be- 
come a  successful  leader  in  any  moral  movement  or  noble 
enterprise  who  does  not  recognize  the  creative  agency  and 
directing  power  of  an  all-wise  Providence.  In  my  opinion, 
if  our  sol4iers  and  statesmen  had  not  been  blessed  with  this 
simple  and  sublime  faith,  in  the  dark  days  through  which  as 
a  nation  we  have  passed,  they  could  never  have  overcome  the 
difficulties  and  dangers  which  have  beset  us  at  almost  every 
step  in  the  Cabinet  and  in  Congress,  and  on  the  tented  field. 
However  unworthy  some  may  think  me,  and  unworthy  though 
I  may  be,  I  nevertheless  have  believed,  and  now  believe,  that 
under  God,  I  have  had  my  allotted  duty  to  perform  in  this 
great  struggle  for  national  life,  and  I  have  attempted  to  do 
that  duty  as  faithfully  and  devotedly  as  ever  pilgrim  who 
sought  the  sacred  shrine. 

But  for  the  men  who  maintained  in  the  council  chambers 
of  the  nation  and  on  the  battlefield,  the  great  principles  to 
which  I  have  referred,  this  nation  would  have  been  lost. 
The  time  had  come  in  our  history  when  right  made  might^ 
and  when  freedom  could  take  no  step  backwards  without 
sealing  the  doom  of  the  republic.  Believing  this  with  all 
my  heart,  I  have  fought  in  the  ranks  with  thousands  of 
others  this  great  battle  of  freedom  as  I  would  fight  for  my 
life,  and  thank  God  we  have  triumphed — triumphed,  despite 
hesitating  cabinets,  grave-digging  generals,  timid  politi- 
cians and  time-serving  editors  — triumphed  because  the  anti- 
slavery  men  of  this  nation,  with  the  rank  and  file  of  our 
heroic  and  brave  army,  comprehending  the  logic  of  the  con- 
test, have  after  a  desperate  struggle  made  this,  as  it  should 
have  been  from  the  first,  a  war  for  liberty  instead  of  a  war 
for  slavery.  All  our  efforts  would  have  been  vain  and  worse 
than  vain  if  our  gallant  soldiers  had  not  espoused  our  princi- 
ples, and  thus  caused  our  army  to  become  the  liberating 
army  of  the  republic,  fighting  in  the  name  of  God  of  Jus- 
tice for  the  establishment  of  universal  liberty.  At  last  the 
hour  has  come  when  as  a  nation  we  may  truthfully  and 
reverently  say — 


—  303  — 


"  God  of  nations,  Sovereig-n  Lord, 
'  In  Thy  dread  name  we  draw  the  sword; 

We  lift  the  starry  flag-  on  high. 
That  fills  with  light  our  stormy  sky, 

*'No  more  its  flaming  emblems  wave 
To  bar  from  hope  the  trembling  slave; 
No  more  its  radiant  glories  shine 
To  blast  with  woe  one  child  of  Thine." 

[Applause.] 

All  honor  to  the  noble  men  of  our  victorious  armies, 
who  bear  aloft  and  defend  that  glorious  banner!  The  nation 
can  never  compensate  them  for  their  trials  and  sufferings,  but 
history  shall  weave  for  them  a  more  unfading  garland  than 
ever  encircled  the  diadem  of  the  Caesars.  If  we  are  but 
faithful  to  ourselves  and  sustain  the  soldier  by  our  united 
action  in  the  councils  of  the  nation  and  at  the  ballot-box  in 
support  of  the  regular  Union  nominations,  National,  State, 
District  and  County,  the  soldier  will  maintain  our  country's 
cause  on  the  battlefield  and  crown  his  victories  with  a  last- 
ing and  honorable  peace,  a  peace  that  shall  re-unite  the 
republic  in  homogeneous  u^iity  with  a  free  Constitution 
and  make  it  the  freest,  the  mightiest  and  most  glorious  of 
all  the  nations  of  earth.  When  that  golden  hour  shall  come 
and  freedom  and  justice  shall  be  established  within  all  our 
borders,  then  may  the  liberal  statesmen  of  the  new  era  of 
the  republic  appeal  to  impartial  history  for  a  vindication  of 
their  acts,  and  wait  for 

*' Time  to  test 
Of  the  free  soul'd  and  the  slavish, 
Which  fulfills  life's  mission  best." 

In  this  hope  and  with  this  faith,  strengthened  by  your 
generous  endorsement  of  to-day,  I  consecrate  anew  all  my 
powers  for  the  great  work  which  the  future  has  in  store  for 
the  TRUK  American  statesman. 


—  304  — 

Thanking-  you,  gentlemen,  again  and  again  for  the  honor 
of  this  nomination,  permit  me  in  conclusion  to  pledge  you  as 
on  former  occasions,  *'that  by  the  blessing  of  heaven,  the 
standard  of  liberty  and  Union  which  you  have  this  day  com- 
mitted to  my  care  and  defense  shall  never  be  deserted  or  dis- 
honored while  in  my  keeping." 

[At  the  conclusion  of  his  speech  the  convention  adjourned 
^ith  cheers  for  the  nominee.] 


TO  THE  OFFICERS  AND  SOLDIERS  OF  THE 
UNION  ARMY 


FROM   TH^   TENTH   CONGRKSSIONAI,   DISTRICT. 


Indebted  to  you  for  the  position  I  shall  occupy  in  the 
Thirty-ninth  Congress  of  the  United  States,  I  cannot  permit 
the  occasion  to  pass  without  thanking-  you  with  a  full  heart 
for  the  very  g-enerous  support  you  g-ave  me  at  the  recent 
election,  and  to  acknowledg-e  on  behalf  of  the  loyal  men  of 
the  District,  and  many  even  beyond  the  limits  of  the  District 
and  State,  the  g-ratitude  they  feel  at  the  unanimity  with 
which  you  vindicated  the  Union  cause  at  the  ballot-box,  de* 
spite  combinations  the  most  unnatural  and  extraordinarjr 
efforts  from  a  quarter  the  most  unexpected. 

Private  letters  assure  me  that  most  of  you  who  are  in  the 
field  under  General  Sherman  voted  while  on  the  march,  and 
some  of  you  while  skirmishing-  with  the  enemy. 

Many  on  detached  duty,  g-uarding-  exposed  points  or  on 
picket,  doubtless  thoug-ht  the  hours  long-  while  waiting-  the 
coming-  of  their  comrades  who  should  relieve  them  from  duty. 

Letter  from  Hon.  J.  C.  Dancy,  A.  M.,  Wilmington,  N.  C. 
From  an  examination  of  the  Tribune  Almanac  I  learn  that  Mr.  Ashley's  congres- 
sional district  has  always  been  a  close  one.  In  1858  his  majority  was  only  552,  when  he  ran 
over  one  hundred  ahead  of  the  State  ticket.  In  1860  his  majority  over  General  Steed- 
mau  was  1,204.  In  1864  General  Rice  was  Mr.  Ashley's  competitor,  and  had  a  majority 
over  him  on  the  home  vote.  The  legislature  had  provided  that  the  soldiers  from  the 
State  in  the  field  should  have  the  right  to  vote,  and  this  letter  discloses  the  fact  that 
the  soldiers  at  the  front  elected  Mr.  Ashley.  Recognizing  his  indebtedness  to  them 
for  his  election,  he  addressed  them  a  manly  letter.  We  regard  it  as  worthy  of  presen- 
tation, for  its  patriotic  sentiments  and  because  it  marks  an  important  historic  fact. 

J.  C.  Dancy. 

•20  (305) 


—  306  — 

in  order  that  they  too  mig-ht  vote,  while  hundreds  who  were 
sick,  maimed  and  weary  in  hospitals  did  not  forget  the  day 
with  its  opportunities  and  responsibilities,  but  watched  anx- 
iously for  the  hour  to  come  in  which  they  also  should  be  per- 
mitted to  unite  with  their  more  fortunate  brothers  who  were 
in  the  field,  in  voting*  to  maintain  the  cause  for  which  they 
were  suffering-  and  sacrificing-  so  much.  Thus,  on  the  second 
Tuesday  of  October,  from  the  banks  of  the  James,  the  Appo- 
mattox and  the  Potomac,  from  Vicksburg-  up  the  Tennessee, 
and  over  the  mountains  of  Georgia  to  Atlanta,  from  Kentucky 
to  South  Carolina,  and  in  hospitals  thousands  of  miles  apart, 
the  Union  soldiers  of  Ohio  from  the  Tenth  Congressional 
District  made  up  a  verdict  which  cannot  be  forgotten.  You 
have  thus  proven  to  the  world  your  constancy  and  devotion 
to  the  Union,  that  you  know  how  to  fight  the  enemy  at  home 
with  ballots  as  well  as  fight  the  enemy  in  front  with  bullets. 
The  verdict  which  you  then  made  up  in  favor  of  the  Union 
cause,  and  its  recognized  representatives,  like  your  heroic 
deeds  on  many  a  well- fought  battlefield,  will  be  recorded  by 
the  iron  pen  of  history,  on  monuments  which  will  endure 
forever. 

I  count  it  a  greater  honor  to  be  elected  by  the  votes  of 
the  brave  men  who  have  faced,  as  you  have,  the  enemy,  and 
vindicated  their  devotion  to  the  Union,  than  to  receive  the 
support  of  PROFKSSKD  Union  men,  who  under  any  pretext, 
or  for  any  cause,  would  form  open  or  secret  combinations 
with  the  leaders  of  a  party  known  to  be  hostile  to  the  best 
interests  of  the  country,  and  at  wa>r  with  the  leading  political 
ideas  which  bind  the  Union  party  together,  from  Maine  to 
California. 

The  day  after  our  State  elec4;ion  I  went  to  Michigan, 
and  then  to  the  State  of  New  York,  to  labor  for  the  success 
of  our  cause  and  its  chosen  representatives.  While  in  the 
western  part  of  the  latter  State,  a  telegram  was  put  into  my 
hand,  just  as  I  was  going  on  the  stand  to  speak,  advising 
me  of  the  vote  of  the  regiments  in  front  of  and  near  Atlanta, 
and,  although  •fehe  result  was  not  wholly  unexpected — indeed, 
I  may  say,  was  confidently  anticipated  by  me  —  I  cannot 
"vrith  pen  convey  to  you  the  deep  emotions  I  felt  when  the 


—  307  — 

announcement  came  thus  authoritatively,  and  my  expecta- 
tions were  more  than  realized.  I  would  that  I  could  clothe 
in  lang-uag-e  the  thoughts  which  then  came  over  me,  and 
welled  up  from  my  heart  to  my  lips  in  blessing's  on  the  head 
of  every  soldier  in  hospital  or  on  picket,  on  the  march  or  in 
camp,  in  battle  or  in  prison. 

Many  of  you  supported  me  before  you  went  into  the 
army.  You  have  again  entrusted  me  at  a  most  important 
crisis  in  our  history,  and  I  am  all  the  more  thankful  for  this 
manifestation  of  your  confidence,  because  I  desire  to  complete 
the  congressional  record  which  I  have  begun,  on  the  great 
questions  that  are  yet  to  be  passed  upon  by  the  nation.  In 
addition  to  this,  I  regard  myself  as  charged  by  your  recent 
vote  with  your  special  interests.  For  your  generous  support 
I  can  only  promise  fidelity  to  our  cause,  and  in  the  future, 
as  in  the  past,  continued  devotion  to  your  interests.  Never 
since  the  war  broke  out  has  an  officer  or  soldier,  or  a  soldier's 
family,  called  on  me  in  vain,  if  in  my  power  to  secure  what 
they  asked.  Whether  in  hospitals,  in  the  field  or  in  prison; 
whether  for  promotion,  and  a  recognition  of  meritorious 
services,  or  to  be  relieved  from  trouble,  I  have  ever  been 
ready  and  but  too  glad,  when  an  opportunity  offered  which 
would  enable  me  to  serve  either  officers  or  men,  as  hundreds 
at  home  and  in  the  army  can  testify.  My  highest  ambition 
has  been  and  shall  be  to  serve  you  and  aid  you  in  saving  the 
country.  If  I  have,  or  shall  contribute  anything  to  that  end, 
either  by  my  counsels  or  my  votes,  I  will  be  amply  rewarded. 
But,  whatever  may  betide,  I  must  ever  co-operate  with,  and, 
if  need  be,  fall  with  the  heroic  defenders  of  my  country. 

Whatever  my  future,  be  it  prosperous  or  adverse,  I  shall 
ever  remember  with  pride  and  gratitude,  the  vote  given  me 
by  the  Union  soldiers  from  the  Tenth  Congressional  Dis- 
trict of  Ohio,  during  the  great  national  struggle  of  1864. 

Unable  to  answer  by  private  letter  the  numerous  com- 
munications which  I  have  received  from  officers  and  men,  in 
reference  to  my  election,  I  adopt  this  mode  of  answering  and 
thanking  you  for  the  deep  interest  manifested,  and  to  assure 
you  that  I  shall  ever  cherish,  as  among  the  most  pleasing 
recollections  of  my  life,  the  fidelity  with  which  you  stood  by 


—  308  — 

me,  and  the  very  flattering-  manner  in  which  many  of  you 
have  been  pleased  to  refer  to  my  congressional  record,  and  in 
which  all  have  conveyed  to  me  the  renewed  assurance  of  their 
esteem  and  regard. 

As  the  nation  and  the  liberty-loving"  men  of  the  world 
cannot  forg-et  the  wondrous  deeds  of  heroism  and  daring" 
which  have  marked  the  triumph  of  the  Union  soldiers  from 
every  State  on  every  battlefield,  in  defense  of  the  nation's 
life,  so  shall  all  loyal  men  cherish  their  memories  in  g-rateful 
remembrance  for  the  additional  victory  they  have  enabled 
us  to  achieve  at  the  ballot-box  in  the  re-election  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  and  all  Union  candidates,  whether  for  governors, 
Congress  or  minor  officers  whom  their  votes  have  saved  from 
defeat  by  the  opponents  of  the  government  at  home. 

May  God  bless  all  Union  soldiers,  and 

**  While  our  martyrs  fall,  our  heroes  bleed, 
Keep  us  to  every  sweet  remembrance  true; 
Till  from  this  blood-red  sunset  springs,  new  born, 
Our  nation's  second  morn." 

Truly  your  friend, 

J.  M.  ASHI^SY, 

Toledo,  Nov.  14, 1864. 


THB  ASHLEY  BANQUET  AT  THE  OLIVER 
HOUSE,  NOVEMBER.  1864. 


FROM  TH^  TOLEDO  COMMERCIAL 


After  the  repast,  Honorable  William  Sheffield,  of  Na- 
poleon, president  of  the  evening-,  called  the  assemblag-e  to 
order,  when  cong-ratulatory  and  complimentary  letters  were 
read  from  Honorable  Charles  Sumner,  Salmon  P.  Chase, 
Governor  Austin  Blair  of  Michig-an,  Honorable  Daniel  S. 
Dickinson  of  New  York,  and  others. 

The  following"  are  the  letters  from  Governor  Chase  and 
Senator  Sumner: 

FROM  HON.   SALMON  P.    CHASE. 

Cincinnati,  November  14,  1864. 

Dear  Sir:  It  is  with  real  regret  that  I  find  myself 
unable  to  accept  the  invitation  of  the  Union  men  of  the 
Tenth  Congressional  District,  to  meet  them  at  the  entertain- 
ment to  be  given  to  their  able  and  faithful  Representative, 
General  Ashley. 

It  has  been  my  privilege  for  many  years  to  rank  him 
among  my  true  and  faithful  friends;  but  it  is  not  alone,  or 
chiefly  as  a  friend,  that  I  rejoice  in  his  re-election. 

During-  his  whole  service  in  Congress,  he  has  never 
wavered  or  halted  in  his  devotion  to  Union  and  Freedom. 
His  vote  has  never  been  separated  from  his  duty.  To  him, 
as  chairman  of  the  important  Committee  on  Territories, 
more  than  to  any  other  man,  do  we  owe  the  consecration  of 
all  the  new  States  to  Liberty  by  irrepealable  provisions  of 
fundamental  law. 

(309) 


—  310  — 

These,  and  such  as  these,  are  his  titles  to  the  confidence 
and  to  the  esteem  and  affection  of  his  constituents.  Let  them 
be  assured  that  the  loyal  people  of  the  country  partake  their 
sentiments. 

Very  truly  yours, 
George)  R.  Haynes,  Esq.  S.  P.  Chase. 


FROM  HON.    CHARLES  SUMNER. 

Boston,  November  8,  1864. 

Dear  Sir:  It  %/ill  not  be  in  my  power  to  unite  in  the 
banquet  which  you  propose  in  honor  of  the  re-election  of  your 
most  faithful  Representativ3. 

I  know  Mr.  Ashley  well  and  honor  him  much.  He  has 
been  firm  when  others  have  hesiti-ted,  and  from  an  early  day 
saw  the  secret  of  war,  and  I  may  add  also,  the  secret  of  vic- 
tory. 

In  questions  of  statesmanship,  which  will  soon  supersede 
all  military  que^itions,  he  has  already  given  assurance  of  prac- 
tical wisdom.  His  various  indcf atig-able  labors  and  his  elab- 
orate speech  on  ''Reconstruction,"  shows  that  he  sees  well 
what  is  to  be  done  in  order  to  place  peace  and  liberty  under 
irresistible  safeguards. 

For  myself,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying-  that,  next  to 
the  rebellion  itself,  I  most  deprecate  premature  State  g-overn- 
ments  in  rebel  States.  Such  g-overnments  will  be  a  source  of 
sorrow  and  weakness  incalculable.  But  I  am  sure  that  your 
Representative  will  fail  in  no  effort  to  prevent  such  a  calam- 
ity. 

Th^re  is  also  the  amendment  to  the  Constitution,  prohib- 
iting" slavery  throu{>-hout  the  United  States.  Nobody  has 
done  more  for  it,  practicall}',  than  your  Representative. 

Accept  my  thanks  for  the  invitation  with  which  you 
have  honored  me,  and  believe  me,  dear  sir, 

Faithfully  yours, 
George  R.  Haynes,  Esq.  Chari.es  Sumner. 


Rounds  of  enthusiastic  applause  frequently  interrupted 
the  reading"  of  these  and  the  other  letter'^. 


—  311  — 

After  the  reading*  of  the  letters  was  concluded,  the  fol- 
lowing* sentiment,  proposed  by  Honorable  Daniel  S.  Dickin- 
son in  his  letter,  was  again  read: 

**Honorable  James  M.  Ashley,  the  soldier's  honored  and 
favored  Representative.  New  York  unites  with  Ohio  and  the 
District  he  so  ably  represents,  in  paying-  tribute  to  his  fidelity 
and  firmness  in  the  cause  of  resisting-  rebellion." 

In  response  to  calls  from  all  parts  of  the  hall,  Mr. 
Ashley  spoke  as  follows: 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  We  :neet  to-night  to  exchange 
congratulations  and  rejoice  over  the  triumphant  re-election 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  all  true  representatives  of  the 
Union  cause. 

I  am  deeply  indebted  to  the  kind  friends  who  have  pre- 
pared this  agreeable  entertainment,  and  made  it  possible  for 
me  to  meet  at  this  social  banquet  to-night,  so  many  of  the 
true  Union  men  and  women  of  my  District.  My  friends,  I 
never  was  more  at  a  loss  than  now  for  words  with  which  to 
express  the  joy  I  feel  at  our  wonderful  national  triumph. 

In  the  midst  of  this  terrible  civil  war,  a  great  moral 
battle  has  been  fought  at  the  ballot-box,  such  as  the  world 
has  never  witnessed.  A  victory  has  been  achieved,  the  im- 
portance of  which  no  man  can  over-estimate.  On  our  part 
the  issues  were  fairly  presented,  ably  discussed,  and  heroic- 
ally fought  out.  Never  did  men  fight  better  than  the  men 
who  fought  under  our  banner,  and  defended  the  ideas  for 
which  we  battled.  Good  men  were  everywhere  in  earnest; 
bad  men  everywhere  desperate.  The  stake  for  which  we 
fonght  was  national  existence  and  the  liberty  of  the  human 
race.     In  this  sign  we  conquered.  [Applause.] 

Experience  has  taught  us,  since  the  rebellion,  that  a  well- 
organized  party,  with  Truth  for  its  weapon  and  Union  bal- 
lots for  its  bullets,  is  as  necessary  for  the  ultimate  triumph 
of  the  nation's  cause,  as  a  well-disciplined  army  in  the  field, 
equipped  with  all  the  death-dealing  implements  of  war. 
Without  the  triumph  of  the  Union  party  at  home,  the  Union 
army  could  not  exist  in  the  field.  Therefore,  let  every  loyal 
man  unite  to  maintain  the  only  party  which  is  true  to  free- 


—  312  — 

dom,  and  pledged  to  maintain  the  army  and  preserve  the 
Union.     [Applause.] 

It  is  rig-ht  and  proper  that  we  should  rejoice  over  the 
g-reat  victory  which,  as  a  nation,  we  have  achieved  by  the 
joint  efforts  of  the  Union  soldiers  in  the  liberating-  army  and 
the  faithful  Union  men  at  home.  We  can  to-nig-ht  truthfully 
cong-ratulate  each  other,  on  a  victory  which  means  some- 
thing-; a  victory  which  the  world  can  understand;  a  victory 
which  proclaims  with  trumpet  tong-ue  **i,iberty  throughout 

ALI.  THE  LAND  UNTO  ALI.  THE  INHABITANTS  THEREOF";  a  vic- 
tory which  sends  forth  the  g-lad  tiding-s  which  shall  g-ive 
great  joy  to  every  slave  in  the  United  States,  and  to  the 
lovers  of  freedom  in  every  land;  a  victory  which  declares  to 
the  rebels  and  their  Northern  allies  that  the  integ-rity  of  the 
Union,  the  acknowledg-ed  supremacy  of  the  national  Consti- 
tution, and  the  abandonment  of  slavery,  are  our  only  condi- 
tions of  peace.     [Applause.] 

As  every  one  present  responds  with  heart  and  lip  to  the 
words  which  I  now  utter,  so  let  their  spirit  and  the  inspira- 
tion which  fires  our  hearts  be  caug-ht  up  and  sounded  throug-h- 
out  the  land,  until  they  re-echo  throug-h  every  valley  and 
over  mountain,  and  cause  the  whole  people,  soldiers  and 
citizens  alike,  to  join  in  the  g-rand  anthem  "Glory  to  Got) 
IN  THE  Highest,  on  earth  peace  to  good-willing  men." 
I  say  "peace  to  g-ood-willing-  men"  because  I  believe  they 
are  the  only  men  who  can  have,  or  who  oug-ht  to  have 
"peace  on  earth,"  and  because  I  believe  that  is  the  correct 
rendering-  of  the  passag-e  quoted.     [Applause.] 

Thoug-h  I  am,  and  from  the  first  have  been,  for  the  war, 
and  war  in  earnest,  I  am  for  peace  also;  I  long-  for  peace;  not 
a  peace  which  comes  through  knavish  schemes,  not  a  peace 
made  over  the  grave  of  Liberty,  nor  yet  a  peace  such  as  we 
can  at  any  moment  secure  by  a  cowardly  surrender  to  the 
demands  of  traitors  and  rebels;  but 

**  For  the  peace  which  rings  out  from  the  cannon's  throat. 
And  the  suasion  of  shot  and  shell. 
Till  rebellion's  spirit  is  trampled  down, 
To  the  depths  of  its  kindred  hell. 


—  313  — 

*'For  the  peace  which  shall  wash  out  the  leprous  stain 
Of  our  slavery,  foul  and  grim, 
And  shall  sunder  the  fetters  which  creak  and  clank 
On  the  downtrodden  black  man's  limb. " 

[Applause.] 

I  do  not  rejoice,  fellow-citizens,  merely  because  we  have 
obtained  a  victory  over  our  political  opponents,  or  because, 
despite  trickery  and  fraud  and  base  insensibility,  I  have  been 
individually  successful  in  my  late  congressional  canvass.  I 
rejoice  rather  because  our  triumph  dates  a  new  epoch  in  our 
history  as  a  nation,  and  perpetuates  the  liberties  and  nation- 
ality of  a  g-reat  people.     [Applause.] 

I  know,  that  as  the  world  goes,  success  is  the  god  of  to- 
day, but  as  all  thoughtful  men  know,  '*  Truth  is  the  god  of 
eternity."  I  would  not  give  a  fig  for  our  success,  and  would 
not  rejoice  over  our  victory,  if  I  did  not  know  it  was  obtained 
by  the  triumph  of  Truth  and  Justice;  for  as  it  ever  hath 
been,  so  shall  it  ever  be, 

"Truth's  enemy  wins  a  defeat  with  victory." 

[Applause.] 

In  the  triumph  of  the  Republican  Union  party,  Truth, 
Justice,  Liberty,  Nationality,  triumphed.  The  fiat  has  gone 
forth;  the  verdict  of  the  Union  soldiers  and  Union  electors  at 
the  ballot-box  is,  that  the  nation  shall  live,  and  that  slavery 
shall  die.     [Applause.] 

"Who  shall  estimate  the  importance  of  this  victory? 
What  thoughts  or  words  shall  I  employ  to  impress  its  gran- 
deur upon  you?  By  what  standard  shall  we  measure  it,  so  as 
to  estimate  its  worth  to  us,  and  its  value  to  the  human  race? 
[Applause.] 

A  victory  of  such  moral  worth  as  this,  Providence  grants 
to  mankind  but  once  in  a  century.  What  a  grand,  heroic 
age  in  which  to  live.  What  a  cause  to  battle  for,  and  if  need 
be,  to  die  for.  Who  does  not  thank  God  that  he  can  be  an 
actor  in  such  scenes? 


—  314  — 

As  the  force  of  no  great  truth  is  lost  in  traveling*  dowtr. 
the  centuries,  so  shall  the  moral  power  of  this  great  victory 
vibrate  through  all  coming  time,  and  amid  "the  music  of 
falling  chains  "  which  rings  in  the  ravished  ears  of  the  world 
to-night,  downtrodden  humanity  shall  take  fresh  courage, 
and  the  true  democratic  idea  take  more  firmly  hold  of  the 
hearts  of  men. 
"When   a   deed   is  done  for  Freedom,   through  the  broad 

earth's  aching  breast 
Runs  a  thrill  of  joy  prophetic,  trembling  on  from  East  to 

West, 
And  the  slave,  where'er  he  cowers,  feels  the  soul  within  him 

climb 
To  the  awful  verge  of  manhood,  as  the  energy  sublime 
Of  a   century  bursts  full-blossomed  on  the  thorny  stem  of 

Time." 

[Applause.] 


ADDRESS 

OF  MR.  ASHLEY  AT  NAPOLEON,  NOV.  24th,  1864. 


FROM  THE  TOI.EDO   COMMERCIAL 


We  lay  before  our  readers  the  masterly  address  delivered 
by  Hon.  J.  M.  Ashley,  at  Napoleon,  on  Friday  last.  We  ask 
for  it  an  attentive  perusal.  It  is  a  clear,  able  and  manly 
avowal,  or  rather  —  we  might  say  —  re-avowal  of  the  princi- 
ples by  which  he  has  ever  been  g-uided.  His  position  on  the 
g-reat  issues  of  the  day —  as  it  ever  has  been  —  is  clearly  and 
unmistakably  defined.  There  is  no  hesitation,  no  faltering", 
no  equivocation.  No  man  in  the  District,  we  care  not  to 
what  party  he  belongs,  has  ever  been  in  doubt  as  to  the 
position  of  our  honorable  Representative.  The  words  de- 
fining the  stand  he  takes  on  any  of  the  great  questions  of  the 
day  are  as  plain  and  sharp-cut  as  the  English  language  can 
furnish,  and  they  are  employed  with  an  earnestness  that  none 
can  doubt,  and  *'  the  wayfaring  man,  though  a  fool,  need  not 
err  therein."  He  is  the  same  now  that  he  ever  has  been  —  the 
fearless,  uncompromising  foe  to  every  form  of  oppression  — 
the  undaunted  advocate  of  freedom  to  all  men.  It  is  not  to 
be  supposed  that  a  man  of  his  position,  who  has  steadily  and 
fearlessly  pursued  a  course,  not  according  to  the  dictates  of 
cold,  calculating  policy,  but  in  accordance  with  his  convictions 
of  right  and  duty,  should  find  his  pathway  clear  of  obstacles. 
He  who  fearlessly  pursues  the  path  which  duty  points  out  will 
be  assailed.  The  path  is  not  lined  with  flowers,  and  those 
who  suppose  it  to  be  will  only  meet  with  sore  disappoint- 
ment. Our  Representative  has  not  been  without  his  share  of 
opposition  to  contend  with.  Calumny,  detraction,  falsehood 
and  slander  have  assailed  him  with  sleepless  activity.     His 

(315) 


—  316  — 

persecutors  have  seemed  to  vie  with  each  other  in  the  relent- 
less vindictiveness  with  which  they  have  pursued  him. 
Abashed  by  his  candor  in  the  declaration  of  the  principles  he 
entertains,  and  unable  to  pick  a  flaw  in  his  cong-ressional 
record,  either  in  speech,  or  vote,  or  act,  they  have  resorted  to 
that  easier,  but  more  detestable  method  of  attack  —  that  of 
wholesale  calumny  and  falsehood. 

A  series  of  falsehoods  have  been  persistently  indulg-ed  in, 
and  circulated  by  his  enemies  throug-h  the  District  for  more 
than  two  years  past.  In  the  speech  we  present  to-day,  he 
meets  these  base  charg-es,  and  with  the  weapon  of  truth,  he 
exposes  their  utter  absurdity,  and  administers  to  their 
authors  the  scathing"  they  so  justly  deserve. 

We  desire  that  every  citizen  in  the  District  carefully  and 
impartially  peruse  this  speech.  His  hig-h  reputation  as  a 
man,  and  his  public  record  as  a  statesman,  are  evidence 
suf&cient  to  warrant  the  confidence  of  his  constituents.  The 
malicious  detractions  of  a  few  personal  enemies,  on  account 
of  some  real  or  fancied  grievances,  cannot  for  one  moment  be 
weighed  in  the  balance  against  the  high  commendations  be- 
stowed upon  him  by  some  of  the  best  and  most  distinguished 
men  in  the  nation.  The  series  of  letters  we  published  yester- 
day should  silence  the  voice  of  detraction,  still  muttered 
o'er  by  those  who  claim  to  belong  to  the  Republican  Union 
party.  The  most  prominent  men  of  the  country  regard  him 
as  an  able  and  faithful  Representative,  one  who  has  never 
wavered  nor  hesitated  in  his  devotion  to  the  Union,  one  who 
has  ever  been  the  earnest,  determined  champion  of  freedom, 
and  the  inveterate,  uncompromising  foe  to  every  form  of 
slavery  and  rebellion. 

Hon.  Salmon  P.  Chase  says  '*his  vote  has  never  been 
separated  from  his  duty."  Hon.  Columbus  Delano,  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  local  issues  in  this  district,  says  that 
Mr.  Ashley  *'  has  under  all  circumstances,  been  true  to  the 
cause  of  justice,  humanity  and  liberty,"  and  "has  never 
faltered  in  devotion  and  loyalty  to  the  government."  Hon, 
Charles  Sumner  says,  '*  he  has  been  firm  when  others  have 
hesitated,  and  from  an  early  day  saw  the  secret  of  this  war, 
and  I  may  add,  also,  the  secret  of  victory."     Hon.  Daniel  S. 


—  317  — 

Dickinson,  of  New  York,  likewise  pays  a  tribute  to  his  "  fidelity 
and  firmness  in  the  cause  of  resisting-  rebellion."  Is  the  testi- 
mony of  these  disting-uished  champions  of  Union  and  free- 
dom, these  able  statesmen  and  loyal  men  of  the  country,  to  be 
set  aside,  and  the  vituperation  and  calumnies  of  a  few  petty 
f  actionists  to  be  received  and  countenanced?  Let  the  people 
decide. 

REUNION  AND  SUPPER  AT   NAPOI.KON,   FRIDAY,   NOV.   25,    1864. 

The  Union  men  of  Napoleon  and  vicinity  had  a  very 
pleasant  interchange  of  cong^ratulations  over  the  recent  politi- 
cal victories,  on  Friday  afternoon  and  evening". 

The  meeting"  at  the  Court  House  was  a  g-rand  success, 
both  as  it  regards  the  numbers  and  the  deep  interest  of  the 
audience,  and  the  effective  and  eloquent  speeches  which  were 
delivered. 

The  meeting  was  called  to  order,  and,  on  motion, 
William  Sheffield,  Esq.,  was  appointed  to  preside.  In  a 
short  but  forcible  speech,  the  chairman  tendered  his  acknowl- 
edgments for  the  honor  conferred,  and  stated  the  object  for 
which  they  had  assembled,  to  be  in  honor  of  the  triumph  of 
liberty,  and  of  the  friends  of  freedom,  at  the  ballot-box. 

He  affirmed  that  in  this  epoch  of  our  country's  history, 
principles  had  been  developed  which  were  of  the  highest 
moment  to  the  well-being  and  happiness  of  every  citizen.  It 
was,  therefore,  important  and  highly  proper,  that  all  true  men 
should  thus  meet  to  celebrate  the  triumphs  of  principle  and 
of  the  rights  of  humanity,  and  to  concert  plans  of  action  by 
which  their  highest  blessings  may  be  realized.  Although 
the  full  tide  of  success  had  attended  the  efforts  of  our  brave 
soldiers  on  the  battlefield,  and  al^o  the  political  conflict  at 
the  ballot-box,  yet  he  deemed  the  important  issues  still  at 
stake  as  demanding  the  calm  deliberation  and  united  action 
of  all  true  patriots.  He  considered  it  important  that  every 
man  should  possess,  at  heart,  the  highest  motive  to  action  — 
the  love  of  country.  Thus  influenced,  the  partisan  would 
merge  in  the  patriot,  and  his  regard  for  human  rights  would 
cause  him  to  triumph  over  individual  selfishness. 


—  318  — 

Tlie  President  concluded  by  introducing-  the  Hon.  J.  M. 
Ashley,  who,  on  arising-,  was  received  with  g-reat  applause, 
and  addressed  the  audience  as  follows: 

Mr.  President,  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  We  have 
met  to-day  to  celebrate  a  great  national  triumph  —  a 
triumph  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  the  republic.  I  do 
not  count  it  a  political  or  partisan  triumph,  but  a  triumph  of 
the  country.  No  poor  words  of  mine  can  add  to  the  joy  you 
all  feel.  I  will  not  attempt  this  afternoon  to  tell  you  what  I 
understand  this  victory  to  mean,  or  to  detain  you  with  a 
speech  on  its  causes  and  consequences.  I  prefer  to  leave  that 
theme  for  the  speeches  this  evening-. 

I  did  not  expect  when  I  stepped  off  the  cars  half  an  hour 
ago  to  be  called  upon  for  a  speech  this  afternoon.  It  is  but 
a  few  minutes  since  I  was  advised  that  the  Court  House  was 
filling  up  and  that  I  must  go  over;  that  many  who  were  in 
town  could  not  remain  for  the  meeting  to-night,  and  that  it 
was  your  wish  to  see  and  hear  me. 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  know  by  your  kindly  greeting 
that  I  am  in  the  midst  of  friends,  and  I  need  not  add,  tried 
and  true  friends.  I  have  no  prepared  speech  for  you.  I 
wish  I  had. 

My  invitation  said  you  were  to  have  a  supper  to-night, 
and  toasts  and  short  responses  at  the  table  by  those  who  were 
called  out.  So  I  am  rather  taken  by  surprise;  but  when  I 
look  over  this  audience  and  see  the  faces  of  the  old  men,  the 
solid  men  of  Henry  County,  who  have  stood  by  me  through 
evil  as  well  as  good  report  for  so  many  years,  I  feel  thankful 
that  I  am  able  to  speak  to  you,  and  take  so  many  of  you  by 
the  hand  this  afternoon. 

As  I  will  meet  many  of  you  again  to-night  around  the 
festal  board,  where  we  shall  exchange  congratulations  on  the 
great  triumph  achieved  by  Union  soldiers  and  citizens  in  the 
election  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  the  success  of  the  Union 
cause,  I  may  without  impropriety,  I  trust,  talk  of  some  matters 
which  would  hardly  be  in  place  at  a  mere  dinner-table  speech. 
I  embrace  the  opportunity,  all  the  more  readily,  because  a 
friend  is  present  who  can  report  me,  and  do  what  I  have  not 
time  to  do,  write  out  and  have  published  what  I  say,  so  that 


—  319  — 

my  friends  throughout  the  District  may  read  around  their 
own  firesides  what  I  say  to  you  to-day.  I  can  thus  talk  almost 
face  to  face  with  thousands  of  as  warm  and  earnest  friends  as  I 
now  have  before  me.  [Applause.]  Honored  by  a  repetition 
of  your  confidence  often er  than  any  man  who  has  preceded 
me  in  Congress  from  this  District,  I  am  deeply  sensible  of 
the  obligations  I  am  under  to  its  true  Union  electors,  and 
especially  to  the  Union  soldiers  in  the  field,  and  I  am  glad  of 
this  opportunity  to  express  to  you  and -to  them  the  gratitude 
I  feel  for  the  generous  indorsement  given  me  at  the  recent 
election.     [Applause.] 

THE  STATK  CONGRESSIONAI.  ELECTION. 

Remembering  the  condition  of  affairs  in  this  District  two 
years  ago,  and  considering  all  the  circumstances  attending 
our  recent  congressional  canvass,  the  unnatural  combinations 
formed,  the  unexpected  defection  of  some  upon  whose  support 
Tve  confidently  relied,  and  the  extraordinary  means  resorted 
to  on  the  eve  of  the  election  to  divide,  defraud  and  defeat  the 
Republican  Union  party  in  the  District,  I  feel  complimented 
by  the  large  home  vote  which  was  given  me.  Under  the 
circumstances  my  home  vote  was  as  large  in  proportion  to  the 
vote  polled  as  I  had  a  right  to  expect.     [Applause.] 

Nominated  by  acclamation  at  the  hands  of  the  regular 
Republican  Union  convention  for  the  District,  a  convention 
the  most  imposing  in  point  of  numbers  and  by  far  the  most 
respectable  for  character  and  ability,  of  any  congressional 
convention  which  has  ever  assembled  in  the  District,  since  I 
have  been  a  resident  among  you,  I  felt  pained  that  any 
respectable  number  of  gentlemen  calling  themselves  Union 
men,  should,  after  the  nomination  was  made,  have  consented  to 
co-operate  with  the  leaders  of  a  party  admitted  to  be  opposed 
to  the  prosecution  of  the  war  and  hostile  to  the  administra- 
tion of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  its  civii.  and  mii^itary  policy, 
and  above  all,  that  any  professed  Union  men  should  have 
consented  to  resort  to  the  trickery,  fraud  and  demagogism 
which  characterized  the  opposition  to  me  in  the  late  congfres- 
sional  canvass. 


—  320  — 


HIS   ANTI-SLAVERY  POSITION. 


I  may  be  pardoned  if  here  among-  friends  I  refer  to  some 
matters  of  a  local  and  personal  character,  matters  which  are 
intimately  connected  with  our  past  contests  in  this  District. 

When  first  a  candidate  to  represent  you  in  Jong-ress,  I 
laid  down  the  proposition  in  all  speeches  which  I  made  ''  that 
under  a  democratic  form  of  g"overnment  man  could  not  leg-ally 
or  rightly  be  made  property."     [Applause.] 

I  dissented  from  and  denounced  the  declaration  made  by 
Henry  Clay,  when  he  said  **  that  which  the  usag-e  of  two  hund- 
red years  .had  sanctioned  and  sanctified  as  property,  was  prop- 
erty." I  declared  that  slavery  was  the  crime  of  all  crimes,  and 
**the  sum  of  villainies;"  that  a  g-overnmen+  could  as  right- 
fully leg-alize  murder,  robbery  and  piracy  as  to  legalize  the 
ownership  and  sale  of  men,  and  I  uniformly  added  that  I  did  not 
want  a  single  elector  to  vote  for  me  who  could  not  indorse  this, 
proposition.  [Applause.]  I  was  very  desirous  of  an  elec- 
tion, as  I  always  am  when  a  candidate,  but  I  preferred  defeat 
rather  than  to  obtain  a  single  vote,  either  by  withholding 
my  opinions  or  professing  all  things  to  all  men.  [Applause.] 
You  know  the  result;  I  was  elected  in  the  ci/)se;st. Congres- 
sional District  in  the  State  by  a  larger  vote  than  was 
GIVEN  FOR  the  regular  REPUBLICAN  State  ticket.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

In  1860,  I  was  again  elected  by  an  increased  majority, 
after  a  very  spirited  canvass  with  General  Steedman,  in 
which  I  repeated  the  same  proposition,  that  man  could  r^t 
legally  be  made  property  by  any  government.     [Applause.] 

At  the  outset  of  the  war  I  declared  "that  as  slavery 

WAS   THE    CAUSE  OP  THE   REBELLION,    SLAVERY  ^SHOULD    DIE.* 

[Applause.  ]  Having  taken  this  position  at  a  time  when  the 
reaction  was  everywhere  against  anti-slavery  men,  as  you 
remember,  it  was,  for  the  first  year  or  eighteen  months  after 
the  war  broke  out,  many  Union  men  in  the  District  were 
unwilling  to  sustain  me.  That  position,  and  the  repudiation 
by  me  of  part  of  the  platform  adopted  by  the  Union  State 
convention  of  that  year,  greatly  strengthened  the  conserva- 
tive Union  candidate  for  Congress  in  the  triangular  contest 
which  unfortunately  we  then  had,  and  I  was  only  elected  by 


—  321  — 

a  plurality  of  eleven  hundred  and  eig-hty-two  votes.     [Ap- 
plause.]    The  main  part  of  the  Union  State  platform  that 
year,  all  will  recollect,  was  made  up  of  an  extract  from  a 
letter  or  speech  of  Honorable  Joseph  Holt,  of  Kentucky,  and 
the  Crittenden   resolution,  which  resolution  all  now  under- 
stand was  a  cheat  and  a  sham.     This  platform  I  said  then 
and  repeat  now,  was  most  cowardly,  and  unworthy  the  Repub- 
lican Union  party  of  the  great  State  of  Ohio,  and  I  am  sure 
its   adoption,  .tog-ether  with   some  of    the  candidates  nomi- 
nated, caused  our  defeat  in  the  State  that  year.     [That's  so.] 
The  Republican  Union  State  convention  in  1863  not  only 
g-ladly  buried  the  disg-usting-  platform  of  '62  out  of  sight, 
but  I  trust  put  it  beyond  the  hope  of  resuscitation.     [Ap- 
plause.]   .  I  was  a  delegate  in  that  convention,  and  a  member 
of  the  committee  on  resolutions  for  this  District,  and  aided 
in  putting"  it  into  its  grave,  as  I  told  the  people  of  this  Dis- 
trict it  would  be,  and,  although  the  platform  then  adopted 
was  not  all  that  I  desired  or  all  that  it  ought  to  have  been,  it 
was  not,  as  the  platform  in  1862  was,  positively  offensive  to 
the  true  anti-slavery  men  of  the  State.     [Applause.] 

The  Republican  Union  State  platform,  and  the  National 
Republican  platform  of  1864,  were  all  that]  any  friend  of 
freedom  and  republican  government  could  ask.  They  declare 
that  **  as  slavery  was  the  cause  of  the  rebellion,  slavery 
should  die."  [Applause.]  Thus,  after  a  terrible  struggle 
have  the  positions  taken  by  me  on  the  slavery  question  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion,  been  fully  indorsed  by  the 
great  party  of  which  I  am  an  humble  member,  and  ratified 
by  an  overwhelming  majority  of  the  American  people  at  the 
hallot-box.     [Applause.] 

Though  assailed,  in  1861-62,  by  men  in  our  own  party, 
with  a  fury  and  mendacity  which  always  go  hand  in  hand 
with  ignorance  and  intolerance,  for  demanding  the  liberation 
of  every  slave,  and  the  employment  of  slaves  as  soldiers  in 
the  army,  no  man  claiming  to  be  a  Union  man,  can  now  be 
found  to  condemn  me,  because  time  has  demonstrated  its 
necessity  and  the  Republican  Union  party  approves,  and  the 
nation  decrees,  emancipation.  [Applause.]  To  be  so  repeat- 
21 


—  322- 

edly  elected  in  a  District  so  close  and  conservative  as  ours, 
Iwhile  everywhere  avowing-  and  defending-  my  radical  anti- 
'slavery  opinions,  is  an  honor  of  which  I  am,  indeed,  very 
proud.  [Applause.]  As  the  workingmen  and  starving- 
operatives  of  Manchester,  England,  said  in  their  address  to 
the  President,  thanking  him  for  his  Emancipation  Proclama- 
tion, *'  Despotism  has  not  money  enough  to  make  us  betray 
Liberty,"  so  I,  a  workingman,  have  said  that  *'I  would  not 
abandon  the  sacred  cause  of  liberty  for  the  sake  of  place  and 
power,"  and  the  workingmen,  and  the  liberty-loving  men  of 
our  District,  at  home  and  in  the  army,  have  most  generously 
sustained  me.     [Applause.] 

denunciation  of  the  practice  of  defrauding  ei.ectors» 

If  I  have  one  peculiarity  which  stands  out  more  promi- 
nently than  another,  it  is,  that  I  define  clearly  and  sharply 
my  positions,  and  make  my  fight  openly  and  squarely.  I 
glory  in  making  an  open,  manly  fight,  and  I  have  the  high- 
est respect  for  an  open  and  manly  opponent.  No  elector 
has  ever  been  deceived  as  to  where  I  stood  on  any  of  the 
great  questions  of  the  day,  and  I  have  never  even  allowed 
my  name  to  be  printed  in  an  opposition  ticket,  without  giving 
the  elector  notice,  by  having  the  ticket  printed  ' '  Democratic 
ticket,  except  for  Congress,"  and  then  having  my  name 
printed  from  a  cut  on  which  was  engraved  a  f ac-simile  of  my 
handwriting.  So  particular  have  I  been  in  order  to  avoid 
even  the  appearance  of  attempting  to  deceive  any  elector 
into  voting  for  me.  [Applause.]  Some  of  my  friends  find 
fault  with  me  because,  in  speaking,  I  uniformly  say  that  I 
do  not  want  the  vote  of  a  single  elector  unless  he  indorses 
the  principles  I  advocate;  and  because  I  sometimes  say  half 
jocosely  that  I  can  be  elected  without  the  votes  of  men  who 
are  hostile  to  such  principles,  many  seem  to  think  or  fear 
that  others  may  think  that  I  will  be  understood  as  saying 
"  that  I  cannot  be  defeated."  This  is  a  mistake.  I  expect  to 
be  defeated,  and  prefer  to  be  defeated,  if  a  majority  do  not 
approve  my  principles.  [Applause.]  If  they  approve  them, 
I  expect  to  be  elected,  not  because  of  any  power  I  may  have, 


—  323  — 

or  because  I  am  the  candidate,  but  because  for  the  time  beings 
I  am  representing-  these  ideas,  that  is  all.     [Applause.] 

Any  unscrupulous  man  can  play  the  demag-og-ue  with 
ease.  The  smallest  or  meanest  of  men  are  the  only  ones  who 
do  it.  In  my  opinion  no  man  can  be  more  infamous  than  he 
who  by  fraud  or  falsehood  deceives  an  honest  elector.  [Ap- 
plause.] You  know  the  men  who,  during-  our  late  cong-res- 
sional  canvass,  have  deliberately  and  with  cool  calculation 
and  premeditation  deceived  many  honest  voters  in  this  Dis- 
trict. Let  every  one,  whether  as  principals  or  accessories, 
guilty  of  this  great  crime,  receive  from  every  honorable  man 
that  condemnation  which  his  baseness  deserves.     [Applause.] 

A  ballot  once  cast  cannot  be  recalled,  and  no  man  can 
over-estimate  in  advance  the  importance  and  moral  power  of 
a  single  vote.  Yet  men  who  know  this,  permit  themselves  to 
be  deceived  so  often  that  I  sometimes  think  electors  offer  a 
premium  to  demagogues.  [Applause.]  So  alarmingly  suc- 
cessful have  demagogues  become,  that  men  claiming  to  be 
Christian  gentlemen,  not  only  laugh  at  frauds  committed  at 
caucuses  and  on  electors,  but  permit  themselves  to  become 
parties  to  these  frauds.     [Applause.] 

But  I  am  charged  with  making  bad  and  unpopular  ap 
pointments.  Well,  gentlemen,  it  may  be  true  that,  in  some 
localities,  I  have  not  made  the  best  selections.  I  am  rather 
inclined  to  think  that  it  is  so,  but  I  have  in  every  instance 
done  what  I  thought  at  the  time  for  the  best.  Could  any 
honest  Union  man,  in  such  a  crisis  as  this,  justify  himself 
for  voting  against  Abraham  Lincoln,  because  he  persisted  in 
the  face  of  the  opposition  of  almost  every  Union  man  in  Con- 
gress, and  in  the  country,  in  keeping  McClellan,  Fitz-John 
Porter,  Buel  and  others  in  the  army,  and  men  in  some 
of  the  departments  of  the  government,  who  have  turned  out 
traitors,  defaulters  and  supporters  of  the  Chicago  platform? 
Certainly  not.  [Applause.]  Yet  a  number  of  men  voted 
against  me,  because  of  some  of  my  appointments,  who  were 
very  earnest  for  Mr.  Lincoln,  yet  I  have  never  appointed  a 
traitor  or  rebel  sympathizer,  or  a  supporter  of  the  Chicago 
platform  and  its  nominees.  [Applause.]  That  I  have  made 
mistakes,  I  admit,  but  in  every  instance  I  have  done  what  the 


—  324  — 

leading-  Republicans  of  each,  locality  recommended  and  what 
I  thought  for  the  best.  If  I  had  never  had  an  appointment 
to  make  in  this  District  or  from  it,  I  am  sure  it  would  have 
been  better  for  me.     [Applause.] 

In  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  I  intend  to  be  g-ov- 
erned  in  the  appointments  which  I  shall  make  by  the  advice 
of  the  men  who  elect  me,  and  not  by  personal  or  political 
opponents.     [Applause.] 

In  distributing"  patronage  my  motto  has  ever  been  and 
ever  shall  be,  **  justice  to  ali.,  speciai,  favors  friends 
ALONE."  [Applause.]  As  your  Representative  I  have  tried 
to  do  my  duty,  and  my  whole  duty.  How  well  I  have  suc- 
ceeded you  and  posterity  are  to  judge.  That  Ihave  served 
you  in  a  most  trying  period  in  our  history  is  true,  and  while 
many  men  who,  when  I  first  entered  Congress,  stood  high 
before  the  country  have  fallen  short  of  the  requirements  of 
the  hour,  and  been  weighed  in  the  balance  and  found  want- 
ing, thanks  to  the  constancy  and  fi^-mness  of  such  men  as  are 
before  me,  I  have  been  most  generously  sustained,  and  my 
reputation  as  a  citizen  and  Representative  fully  vindicated. 
[Applause.] 

No  man  claiming  to  be  a  loyal  man  has  dared  to  assail 
my  congressional  record,  and  whatever  may  be  the  verdict  of 
history  on  that  record,  I  know  and  you  know,  that  by  no  vote, 
or  act,  or  word  of  mine  have  the  rebels  or  their  Northern 
allies  been  strengthened,  or  the  arm  of  Abraham  Lincoln  or 
of  any  loyal  man  been  weakened.     [Applause.] 

No  speech  or  vote,  or  word  of  mine  has  breathed  a  single 
word  of  discouragement  to  soldier  or  citizen;  but  everywhere, 
in  season  and  out  of  season,  my  words  and  acts  and  votes  have 
been  to  encourage,  strengthen  and  consolidate  into  one  invin- 
cible army  the  truly  loyal  men  of  the  nation.  [Applause.] 
And  in  view  of  these  well-known  facts,  I  feel  that  I  have 
been  unjustly  treated  by  many  members  of  the  Union  party. 
I  go  into  our  party  caucuses  and  conventions  pledged,  as  I 
think  every  honorable  man  ought  to  regard  himself,  to  the 
support  of  the  nominee  of  the  convention.  Many  men  who 
opposed  me  two  years  ago  and  again  this  year,  went  into  our 
caucuses  and  conventions  determined  to  support  their  candi- 


—  32- 


date  if  they  could  get  him  nominated,  and  demand  that  I  and 
my  friends  should  do  so  also;  but  the  moment  they  found 
themselves  in  the  minority,  they  bolted  and  formed  secret  or 
open  alliances  with  the  opposition.     [That  is  true.] 

I  think  that  I  and  my  friends  have  a  rig-ht  to  complain  of 
such   unfairness.     If   the   convention  which  nominated  me 
had  selected  any  other  Union  man,  you  all  know  that  I  would 
have  g-iven  him  my  earnest  support,  as  would  also  my  friends. 
In  addition  to  this,  the  editor  of  a  professed  Union  paper  in 
our  city,  declared  to  his  readers  a  few  weeks  ag-o  that  **I 
was  not  the  candidate  of  the  Union  party  for  this  District.'* 
Now,  gentlemen,  you  know  who  nominated  me.     I  know,  as 
you  do,  that  every  man  who  was  a  member  of  that  large  and 
respectable  convention  was  a  true  Union  man.     You  know 
also  that  there  was  no  other  Union  Congressional  convention 
held  in   this  District;  that  that   convention  nominated  our 
District  candidate  for  presidential  elector,  and  selected  the 
two  delegates  who  represented  the  Republican  Union  men  of 
this  District  in  the  Baltimore  convention  which  renominated 
Abraham  Lincoln,  and  yet  this  statement  is  unblushingly 
published.     This  same  paper  charged  me  two  years  ago,  and 
again  this  fall,  with  being  a  disunionist,  and  classed  me  with 
such  men  as  George  H.  Pendleton.     I  ask  any  man  before  me 
if  I  have  ever  given  a  vote  in  Congress  or  out  of  it,  or  writ- 
ten or  spoken  a  single  word,  which  would  induce  him  to  sus- 
pect that  I  was  an  enemy  of  the  government,  or  in  sympathy 
with  the  political  opinions  of  George  H.  Pendleton.     The 
man  who  could,  with  the  unanimous  action  of  the  regular 
Republican  Union  Congressional  convention  for  this  District 
before  him,  and  with  my  congressional   record  within  his 
reach,  publish  such  declarations,  would  hesitate  at  no  state- 
Iment  to  accomplish  his  purposes.     I  appeal  to  the  Union  men 
of  this  District,  and  to  my  congressional  and  public  record, 
to  answer  and  condemn  this  slanderer.     [Applause.] 

And  I  here  take  leave  of  this  subject.  In  the  midst  of 
the  general  thanksgiving  and  rejoicing  which  surrounds  us, 
and  which  fills  the  hearts  of  all  true  Union  men  everywhere, 
let  us  forget  the  acts  and  forgive  the  real  or  fancied  wrongs 
done  us,  by  any  who   have  aided   us   in  electing  Abraham 


—  326  — 

Ivincoln.  I  want  to  forgive  and  forg-et  the  unjust  things 
which  have  been  said  of  me  by  seme  who  are  now  Union  men 
and  are  laboring-  with  me  to  save  the  republic.     [Applause.] 

I  have  only  referred  to  these  matters  to  set  myself  rigfht 
before  the  loyal  men  of  the  District,  and  especially  with  my 
personal  friends.     [Applause.] 

I  am  ready,  willing  and  anxious  to  forgive  any  Union, 
man  who  has  wronged  me,  and  to  ask  the  forgiveness  of  any 
man  whom  in  the  excitement  of  a  political  contest  I  may 
unintentionally  have  wronged.  I  have  never  intentionally 
wronged  any  man.  I  have  never  purposely  planted  a  thorn 
in  any  man's  pathway,  or  knowingl}^  said  an  unjust  word  of 
a  political  or  personal  opponent.  [Applause.]  You,  and  the 
people  of  this  Congressional  District,  have  heard  me  on  the 
stump  every  year  for  ten  years,  and  yet  amid  the  excitement 
incident  to  the  personal  conflicts  through  which  I  have  gone, 
no  man  has  ever  heard  me  traduce  the  character  of  an  oppo- 
nent or  slander  any  man,  nor  have  I  ever  said  a  single  word 
of  a  personal  or  political  rival,  that  I  would  not  have  said  of 
him,  had  he  been  present.     [Applause.] 

As  I  would  that  others  should  do  unto  me,  even  so  I 
would  do  unto  them.     [Applause.] 

A   GREAT  WORK  YET  BEFORE  US. 

Fellow-citizens,  a  great  work  is  yet  before  us.  There  is 
ample  scope  for  the  exercise  of  all  our  faculties.  A  generous 
rivalry  in  support  of  the  government  and  in  maintaining  its 
armies,  presents  a  field  broad  enough  for  the  ambition  of  all. 
Let  us  try  to  forget  and  forgive  the  errors  of  the  past,  and 
remember  only  that  our  bleeding  country  demands  the  united 
efforts  of  all  her  true  sons.  [Applause.]  We  all  want  peace. 
Every  home  which  this  war  has  made  desolate  and  draped  in 
mourning,  is  crying  for  peace.  The  wives  and  the  mothers 
of  a  million  men  are  to-day  praying  for  peace;  not  the 
peace  asked  for  by  the  coward  and  the  traitor,  but  the  peacQ 
which  comes  through  victory;  the  only  peace  which  can  be 
honorable  and  enduring.  We  cannot  have  such  a  peace  while 
we  are  divided.     [Applause.] 


—  327  — 

Oh,  my  countrymen,  let  me,  I  beseech  you,  as  you  love 
your  country,  and  have  g-lorious  hopes  for  its  future,  subordi- 
nate all  personalities  and  all  party  strife  to  the  hig-her, 
holier  and  sublimer  aspirations  of  patriotism  and  love  of 
justice. 

If  we  do  not  stand  together  we  shall  fall.  If  we  are 
united  we  shall  be  invincible.     Then 

"One  more  sublime  endeavor. 

And  behold  the  dawn  of  peace; 
One  more  endeavor,  and  war  forever 

Throughout  the  land  shall  cease; 
Forever  and  ever  the  vanquished  power 

Of  slavery  shall  be  slain, 
And  Freedom's  stained  and  trampled  flower 

Shall  blossom  white  again." 

[The  honorable  gentleman  concluded  his  eloquent  speech 
amidst  the  enthusiastic  applause  of  the  audience.] 


IMPORTANT  CORRESPONDENCE. 


NOVKMBER  14tll,  1892. 

Hon.  J.  M.  Ashi^ey,  Toledo,  Ohio. 

Dear  Sir:  In  looking-  over  the  pamphlets  and  papers 
which  you  sent  us,  we  are  disappointed  not  to  find  the  text  of 
the  13th  amendment,  and  the  first  draft  of  the  bill  for  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  as  orig-inally 
proposed  in  Cong-ress  by  you. 

James  G.  Blaine,  in  his  "Twenty  Years  of  Congress,'* 
states  that  you  introduced  the  first  proposition  for  the  entire 
abolition  of  slavery  in  this  country  by  amending"  the  Consti- 
tution, but  does  not  give  the  text. 

"We  desire  an  exact  copy  of  the  orig-inal  of  both  these 
bills,  if  we  can  get  them,  so  that  we  may  point  out  wherein 

letter  from  Bishop  Benjamin  W.  Arnett,  D.  D.,  Wilberf orce,  O. 
On  the  next  half  dozen  pag-es  wiU  be  found  a  condensed  hiatory  of  greater  importance 
to  the  negro,  and  to  the  human  race,  than  can  elsewhere  be  found  in  any  book  we  have 
ever  read.  The  story  as  presented  is  all  the  more  fascinating  because  of  the  direct 
and  simple  manner  in  which  it  is  told.  But  for  our  letter,  making  a  special  request 
for  this  history,  it  probably  would  never  have  been  written.  In  answering  our  letter 
on  this  page,  and  the  letter  of  inquiry  on  page  359,  we  have  learned  that  the  first  re- 
construction bill  reported  to  the  House  was  prepared  by  Mr.  Ashley,  and  the  bill  for 
the  Abolition  of  Slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  also  that  the  first  propo- 
sition made  in  Congress  for  amending  the  Constitution,  prohibiting  slavery  in  the 
United  States,  was  introduced  by  him.  The  public  records  show  that  no  man  in  our 
history  made  a  grander,  or  more  successful  battle,  than  did  Mr.  Ashley,  for  the  libera- 
tion and  practical  uplifting  of  the  negro.  B.  W.  Arnett, 

(328) 


—  329  — 


the  amendment  which  is  now  a  part  of  the  national  Constitu- 
tion, differs  in  the  text,  as  we  understand  it  does,  from  the 
proposition  as  you  originally  made  it.  We  know  that  the 
law  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
as  it  finally  passed,  was  radically  different  from  your  original 
bill.     I  have  the  honor  to  be. 

Very  respectfully  yours,  for  God  and  the  race, 


Chairman. 


Toledo,  Ohio,  December  22,  1892. 
My  Dear  Sir:    The  text  of  the  original  bill  introduced 
by  me  in  Congress,  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  was  as  follows: 

* '  Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representa- 
tives of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled: 

"  That  from  and  after  the  passage  of  this  act,  neither 
slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude,  except  as  a  punishment 
for  crime,  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted, 
shall  exist  in  the  District  of  Columbia;  and  thereafter  it  shall 
not  be  lawful  for  any  person  in  said  District  to  own  or  to 
hold  a  human  being  as  a  slave." 

On  my  motion  this  short  but  comprehensive  bill  was 
referred  to  the  District  of  Columbia  Committee,  of  which  I 
was  a  member,  and  of  which  Roscoe  Conkling,  of  New  York^ 
was  chairman. 

The  exitement"  and  unpleasantness  which  the  introduc- 
tion of  this  simple  bill  caused  in  the  District  of  Columbia 
Committee,  amuses  me  now,  but  at  that  time  the  opposition 
was  offensive  enough,  and  the  conduct  of  some  of  the  pro- 
slavery  members,  fanatical  almost  to  madness. 

Evidently,  my  purpose  could  not  be  misunderstood.  I 
did  not  propose  to  recognize  the  right  of  man  to  property 
in  man. 


.—330  — 

It  did  not  take  long-  to  discover  that  no  such  bill  as  I  had 
proposed  could  be  g-otten  through  the  District  of  Columbia 
Committee,  as  it  was  then  organized. 

I  had  quietly  determined  that  Congress  should  not 
adjourn,  if  I  could  prevent  it,  until  after  we  had — as  Mr. 
Lincoln  expressed  it —  **  initiated  emancipation  at  the  national 
capital." 

On  the  threshold,  I  was  confronted  with  the  certainty  of 
defeat,  unless  I  consented  to  a  radical  modification  of  my 
bill,  which  I  reluctantly  did,  at  the  urgent  request  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  Secretary  Chase,  Senator  Wade  and  others. 

Finally  a  bill  for  the  * 'ransom"  of  all  slaves  held  in  the  Dis- 
trict was  prepared  by  Senator  Morrell,  of  Maine,  and  myself, 
with  the  co-operation  of  President  Lincoln,  Governor  Chase 
and  others,  and  passed  substantially  as  reported.  An  appro- 
priation of  one  million  dollars  was  agreed  upon  to  pay  loyal 
slave-owners,  provided  the  amount  paid  should  not  exceed 
three  hundred  dollars  for  each  slave  so  emancipated. 

In  my  address  before  the  "  Ohio  Society  of  New  York," 
you  will  learn  why  I  consented  to  * '  ransom "  the  slaves  by 
compensating  the  slave-owners,  as  provided  in  the  bill  agreed 
upon  by  the  Senate  and  House  Committees,  which  became  a 
law.  I  spoke  in  favor  of  and  voted  both  in  the  Committee  and 
in  the  House,  for  the  bill  as  reported,  and  as  it  passed.  My 
speech  in  the  House  maybe  found  in  the  *' Appendix  to  Con- 
gressional Globe  for  the  Second  Session  of  the  Thirty- 
seventh  Congress,"  pages  101-2. 

The  text  of  the  Thirteenth  Amendment,  as  it  finally 
passed  Congress  and  became  part  of  our  national  Constitution, 
reads  as  follows: 

ARTICLE  13. 


(( ' 


Section  1.  Neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude, 
except  as  a  punishment  for  crime,  whereof  the  party  shall 
have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  exist  in  the  United  States,  or 
any  place  subject  to  their  jurisdiction. 

**  Section  2.     Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  this 
ARTICLE  by  appropriate  legislation." 

The  language  of  the  original,  as  prepared  and  introduced 
by  me  on  the  14th  day  of  December,  1863,  was  the  same  as  the 


—  331  — 

above,  except  five  words.  On  my  motion,  the  amendment 
which  I  proposed  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  the 
Judiciary,  of  which  I  was  not  a  member. 

The  phraseology  of  section  one,  at  the  end,  was  changed 
in  one  word,  and  the  words  **  their  jurisdiction"  used,  instead 
of  **  ITS  jurisdiction,"  as  I  had  it. 

The  granting  clause  in  my  original  proposition  read: 

**  Section  2.  The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce 
this  ARTICLE,  by  law  duly  enacted." 

A.S  it  finally  passed,  it  reads  as  follows: 

"Section  2.     Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  this 

article  by  APPROPRIATE  LEGISLATION." 

It  will  be  observed,  that  the  first  section  had  one  word 
substituted  for  another,  and  that  section  two  was  materially 
improved  by  striking  out  the  four  words  in  small  capitals  in  my 
proposition,  and  substituting  two  better  words  in  their  place, 
at  the  end  of  the  section. 

The  five  words  designated  were  the  only  changes  made 
in  my  original  draft  of  the  Thirteenth  Amendment,  as  it  now 
appears  in  the  constitution.  In  preparing  my  amendment,  I 
simply  followed  the  suggestions  contained  in  the  Ordinance 
of  1787.  I  did  so,  because  that  Ordinance  was  familiar  to  the 
public,  and  the  language  had  received  a  judicial  interpreta- 
tion. 

I  used  substantially  the  same  language  a  year  before,  in 
my  original  bill  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia. 

There  were  some  thirty  such  constitutional  amendments, 
proposing  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  United  States, 
offered  in  the  Senate  and  the  House,  by  as  many  different 
members,  and  so  far  as  I  remember,  all  of  them,  except  Mr. 
Sumner's,  were  substantially  copies  (as  mine  was)  of  the 
language  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787.  Each  and  all  of  said 
proposed  amendments,  so  introduced,  either  in  the  Senate  or 
House,  were  appropriately  referred  to  the  Committee  on  the 
Judiciary. 

Neither  by  speech,  nor  in  writing,  have  I  ever  said  a  word 
for  publication,  touching  the  inside  history  of  the  passage  by 
Congress  either  of  the  bill  to  **  ransom  "  the  slaves  in  the  Dis- 


—  332  — 

trict  of  Columbia,  or  the  passag-e  of  the  Thirteenth  Amendment 
abolishing-  slavery  throughout  the  republic,  except  what  I 
said  in  an  address  before  the  "  Ohio  Society  of  New  York,"  a 
copy  of  which  I  sent  your  committee.  And  I  must  be  excused 
from  saying"  more  now.  So  many  noble  men  were  associated 
with  me  in  the  passag-e  of  both  these  important  measures, 
and  each  did  so  much  to  secure  their  enactment  into  law> 
that  I  have  scrupulously  refrained  from  claiming*  any  credit 
for  myself,  or  designating-  any  member  as  especially  entitled 
to  more  credit  than  another,  for  their  passage  by  that  Con- 
gress, fearing  I  might  fail  to  accord  the  full  credit  to  which 
each  were  entitled. 

Every  friend  of  the  right,  will,  I  am  sure,  agree  with  me,, 
that  each  man  who  did  his  duty  in  that  eventful  hour,  and 
voted  for  these  great  national  measures,  is  entitled  in  history 
to  generous  recognition  and  equal  commendation,  without 
questioning  whether  he  came  to  their  support  first  or  last. 

If  any  of  the  Representatives  in  that  Congress,  who  voted 
for  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  to  the  national  Constitution 
abolishing  slavery,  are  entitled  to  more  credit  than  another, 
it  seems  to  me  that  the  thirteen  men  in  the  House,  from  the 
then  border  slave  States  of  Delaware,  Maryland,  West  Vir- 
ginia, Kentucky  and  Missouri,  are  entitled  to  that  honor. 
As  I  now  look  back  at  their  manly  acts  and  votes  in  favor  of 
the  constitutional  abolition  and  prohibition  of  slavery  every- 
where beneath  our  flag,  their  self-sacrificing  heroism  rises 
into  the  sublime. 

Truly  yours, 

J.    M.    ASHI.KV. 

Rev.  Benjamin  W.  Arnett,  D.  D., 

Chairman  Publication  Committee. 


SPEKCH 

OF  HON.  J.  M.  ASHLEY,  OF  OHIO, 
In  thb  Housk  of  Rkprksentatives,  January  6,  1865. 


ON    THE     CONSTITUTIONAI.    AMENDMENT    FOR     THE    ABOI^ITION 

OF  SI.AVERY. 


AMEND  THE    CONSTITUTION  —  IT    IS    THE  WAY    TO   UNITY    AND 

PEACE. 


Mr.  Ashley  said;  I  desire  to  call  up  this  morning',  pur- 
suant to  notice  previously  given,  the  motion  to  reconsider  the 
vote  by  which  the  joint  resolution  proposing-  an  amendment 
of  the  Constitution  in  reference  to  slavery  was  rejected. 

Mr.  Hoi^man:  Does  the  g-entleman  call  it  up  for  action 
to-day? 

Mr.  Ashi^ey:  No,  sir;  but  for  discussion,  intending*  to 
let  that  discussion  run  on  until  the  House  sees  fit  to  order  the 
main  question  to  be  put. 

The  Speaker:  This  being*  private  bill  day,  it  requires  a 
majority  vote' to  set  aside  the  consideration  of  private  bills. 

The  consideration  of  private  bills  was  set  aside  by  a 
majority  vote,  and  the  motion  to  reconsider  was  taken  up. 

Mr.  Ashley:  Mr.  Speaker,  *'If  slavery  is  not  wrong, 
nothing  is  wrong.  "  Thus  simply  and  truthfully  hath  spoken 
our  worthy  Chief  Magistrate. 

The  proposition  before  us  is,  whether  this  universally 
acknowledged  wrong  shall  be  continued  or  abolished.  Shall 
it  receive  the  sanction  of  the  American  Congress  by  the 
rejection  of  this  proposition,  or  shall  it  be  condemned  as  an 
intolerable  wrong  by  its  adoption? 

(  333  ) 


—  334^ 

If  slavery  had  never  been  known  in  the  United  States, 
and  the  proposition  should  be  made  in  Congress  to-day  to 
authorize  the  people  of  the  several  States  to  enslave  any 
•portion  of  our  own  people  or  the  people  of  any  other  country, 
it  would  be  universally  denounced  as  an  infamous  and  crimi- 
nal proposition,  and  its  author  would  be  execrated,  and 
justly,  by  all  right-thinking-  men,  and  held  to  be  an  enemy  of 
the  human  race. 

I  do  not  believe  such  a  proposition  could  secure  a  single 
vote  in  this  House;  and  yet  we  all  know  that  a  number  of 
gentlemen  who  could  not  be  induced  to  enslave  a  single  free 
man,  will  nevertheless  vote  to  keep  millions  of  men  in  sla- 
very, who  are  by  nature  and  the  laws  of  God  as  much  entitled 
to  their  freedom  as  we  are.  I  will  not  attempt  to  explain 
this  strange  inconsistency,  or  make  an  argument  to  show  its 
fallacy.     I  content  myself  with  simply  stating  the  fact. 

It  would  seem  as  if  no  man  favorable  to  peace,  concord, 
and  a  restored  Union,  could  hesitate  for  a  moment  as  to  how 
he  should  vote  on  this  proposition.  Certainly,  whatever  of 
strife,  sectional  bitterness,  and  personal  animosity  these  halls, 
have  witnessed  since  my  appearance  in  Congress,  or,  indeed, 
I  may  say,  since  the  organization  of  parties  in  1836,  slavery 
has  usually  been  the  sole  cause.  No  observer  of  our  history, 
or  of  the  political  parties  which  have  been  organized  and  dis- 
banded, now  hesitates  to  declare  that  slavery  is  the  cause  of 
this  terrible  civil  war.  All  who  understand  anything  of  our 
troubles,  either  in  this  country  or  Europe,  now  know  that 
but  for  slavery  there  would  have  been  no  rebellion  in  this 
country  to-day. 

In  the  very  nature  of  things  it  was  impossible  for  a 
government  organized  as  ours  to  endure  half  slave  find 
half  free;  and  nothing  can  be  clearer  to  the  reader  of 
history  than  that  the  men  who  made  our  Constitution 
never  expected  nor  desired  the  nation  to  remain  half  slave 
and  half  free.  Our  fathers  were  men  of  ideas,  and  they 
believed  that  with  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  slavery 
would  cease  to  exist.  Sir,  while  demanding  liberty  for  them- 
selves, and  proclaiming  to  the  world  the  inalienable  right  of 
all  men  to  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  they 


—  335  — 

were  not  guilty  of  the  infamy  of  making*  a  Constitution 
which,  by  any  fair  rules  of  construction,  can  be  interpreted 
into  a  denial  of  liberty,  happiness  and  justice  to  an  entire 
race. 


THE  NATION  CAN  NOT  ENDURE  HALF  SLAVE  AND  HALF  FREE. 

That  the  founders  of  the  Republic  were  sadly  disap- 
pointed in  their  expectations  that  slavery  would  cease  on  the 
adoption  of  the  national  Constitution  is  undoubtedly  true. 
Instead  of  disappearing-,  as  they  confidently  expected,  circum- 
stances unforeseen  by  them  so  streng-thened  slavery  that  in 
less  than  eig-hty  years  it  became  the  dominant  interest  in  the 
nation,  and  in  1860  openly  demanded  the  entire  control  of  the 
National  Government.  Because  this  demand  was  refused 
by  the  free  laboring-  men  of  the  North,  the  slave  barons  of 
the  South  org-anized  this  the  most  wicked  of  all  rebellions, 
and  for  nearly  four  long-  years  have  wag-ed  this  terrible  war 
with  the  avowed  purpose  of  destroying-  the  best  form  of 
government  ever  vouchsafed  to  man,  in  order  to  establish  in 
lits  stead  a  government  whose  corner-stone  should  be  human 
slavery.  This  is  the  logic  of  the  contest.  It  has  at  last  so 
fully  developed  itself  that  all  the  world,  including  its  most 
STUPID  EDITORS,  now  Understand  it.  The  government  of  our 
fathers  must  either  be  maintained,  and  slavery  die,  or  slavery 
must  live  and  the  government  be  destroyed.  The  conflict  is 
*'  irrepressible,"  and  beyond  compromise.  The  nation  cannot 
longer  endure  half  slave  and  half  free. 

Had  statesmen  administered  this  government  for  the  past 
twenty  years,  instead  of  the  trading  politicians  who  have  dis- 
graced it,  first  by  apologizing  for,  then  justifying,  and  at 
last  openly  defending  slavery  as  a  right  guaranteed  by  the 
national  ConstitutioM,  we  should  have  had  no  such  desolat- 
ing war  as  we  have  in  this  country  to-day. 

If  the  national  Constitution  had  been  rightfully  inter- 
preted, and  the  government  organized  under  it  properly 
administered,  slavery  could  not  have  legally  existed  in 
THIS  country  for  A  SINGLE  HOUR,  and  practically  but  a  few 
years  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.     Only  because 


—  336  — 

the  fundamental  principles  of  the  g-overnment  have  been 
persistently  violated  in  its  administration,  and  the  Constitution 
g-rossly  perverted  by  the  courts,  is  it  necessary  to-day  to  pass 
the  amendment  now  under  consideration.  I  say  this  much 
in  vindication  of  the  memory  of  the  g-reat  and  g-ood  men  who, 
when  establishing-  this  g-overnment,  made  a  Constitution 
which,  to-day,  is  the  best  known  among-  men. 


DENUNCIATION  OF  SI^AVERY. 

As  for  myself,  I  do  not  believe  any  constitution  can 
leg-alize   the   enslavement  of  men.     I  do  not  beliEvk  any 

OOVERNMENT,  DEMOCRATIC  OR  DESPOTIC,  CAN  RIGHTFUI^I^Y  MAKE 

Ia  single  slave;  and  that  which  a  g-overnment  cannot  rig-ht- 
fully  do,  it  cannot  rig-htfully  or  legally  authorize  or  even 
permit,  its  subject  to  do.  I  do  not  believe  that  there  can  be, 
legally,  such  a  thing  as  property  in  man.  A  majority  in  a 
republic  cannot  rightfully  enslave  the  minority,  nor  can  the 
accumulated  decrees  of  courts  or  the  musty  precedents  of 
governments  make  oppression  just.  I  do  not,  however,  wish 
to  go  into  a  discussion  of  the  question  of  slavery  as  an  abstract 
question.  It  is  a  system  so  at  war  with  human  nature,  so 
revolting  and  brutal,  and  is,  withal,  so  at  variance  with  the 
precepts  of  Christianity  and  every  idea  of  justice,  so  abso- 
lutely indefensible  in  itself,  that  I  will  not  uncover  its  hideous 
blackness  and  thus  harrow  up  my  own  and  the  feelings  of 
others  by  a  description  of  its  disgusting  horrors,  or  an 
attempted  recital  of  its  terrible  barbarism  and  indescribable 
villainy. 

It  is  enough  for  me  to  know  that  slavery  has  forced  this 
terrible  civil  war  upon  us — a  war  which  we  could  not  have 
avoided,  if  we  would,  without  an  uncoiviitional  surrender  to 
its  degrading  demands.  It  has  thus  attempted  to  strike  a 
death-blow  at  the  national  life.  It  has  shrouded  the  land  in 
mourning  and  filled  it  with  widows  and  orphans.  It  has 
publicly  proclaimed  itself  the  enemy  of  the  Union  and  our 
unity  as  a  free  people.  Its  barbarities  have  no  parallel  in 
the  world's  history.    The  enormities  committed  by  it  upon  cur 


0^^^.    J^-^^^t^^  //?.  Q^^d^^^ 


As  he  Appeared  when  the   Thirteenth  Amendment  was  Passed. 


—  337  — 

Union  prisoners  of  war  were  never  equaled  in  atrocity  since 
the  creation  of  man. 

For  more  than  thirt}^  years  past  there  is  no  crime  known 
among"  men  which  it  has  not  committed  under  the  sanction 
of  law.  It  has  bound  men  and  women  in  chains,  even  the 
children  of  the  slave-masters,  and  sold  them  in  the  public 
shambles  like  beasts.  Under  the  plea  of  Christianizing" 
them,  it  has  enslaved,  beaten,  maimed,  and  robbed  millions 
of  men  for  whose  salvation  the  Man  of  Sorrows  died.  It  so 
constituted  its  courts  that  the  complaints  and  appeals  of 
these  people  could  not  be  heard,  by  reason  of  the  decision 
**  that  black  men  had  no  rights  which  white  men  were  bound 
to  respect."  It  has  for  many  years  defied  the  g-overnment 
and  trampled  upon  the  national  Constitution  by  kidnapping, 
imprisoning,  mobbing  and  murdering  white  citizens  of  the 
United  States  guilty  of  no  offense  except  protesting*  against 
its  terrible  crimes.  It  has  silenced  every  free  pulpit  within 
its  control,  and  debauched  thousands  which  ought  to  have 
been  independent.  It  has  denied  the  masses  of  poor  white 
children  within  its  power  the  privilege  of  free  schools,  and 
made  free  speech  and  a  free  press  impossible  within  its  do- 
main; while  ignorance,  poverty,  and  vice  are  almost  universal 
wherever  it  dominates.  Such  is  slavery,  our  mortal  enemy, 
and  these  are  but  a  tithe  of  its  crimes.  No  nation  could 
adopt  a  code  of  laws  which  would  sanction  such  enormities, 
and  live.  No  man  deserves  the  name  of  statesman  who  would 
consent  that  such  a  monster  should  live  in  the  republic  for  a 
single  hour. 


CAN  SI,AVERY    BE    ABOLISHED  IN  STATES    BY    CONSTITUTIONAI, 

AMENDMENT? 

Mr.  Speaker,  if  slavery  is  wrong*  and  criminal,  as  the 
great  body  of  enlightened  and  Christian  men  admit,  it  is  cer- 
tainly our  duty  to  abolish  it,  if  we  have  the  power.  Have 
we  the  power?  The  fifth  article  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  reads  as  follows: 
22 


—  338— 

"The  Congress,  whenever  two-thirds  of  both  Houses 
shall  deem  it  necessary,  shall  propose  amendments  to  this 
Constitution,  or,  on  the  application  of  the  legislatures  of 
two-thirds  of  the  several  States,  shall  call  a  convention  for 
proposing-  amendments,  which,  in  either  case,  shall  be  valid 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  as  part  of  this  Constitution,  when 
ratified  by  the  legislatures  of  three-fourths  of  the  several 
States,  or  by  convention  in  three-fourths  thereof,  as  one  or  the 
other  mode  of  ratification  may  be  proposed  by  the  Congress; 
provided  that  no  amendment  which'may  be  made  prior  to  the 
year  1808  shall  in  any  manner  affect  the  first  and  fourth 
clauses  in  the  ninth  section  of  the  first  article;  and  that  no 
State,  without  its  consent,  shall  be  deprived  of  its  equal  suf- 
frage in  the  Senate." 

The  question  which  first  presents  itself  in  examining 
this  provision  of  the  Constitution  is,  what  constitutes  two- 
thirds  of  both  Houses?  or,  what,  in  the  eye  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, is  two-thirds  of  the  House  of  Representatives?  Is  it 
two- thirds  of  the  entire  number  of  members  to  which  all  the 
States,  including  the  States  in  rebellion,  would  be  entitled, 
if  they  were  all  now  represented,  or  is  it  two-thirds  of  the 
members  who  have  been  elected  and  qualified? 

This  question  would  have  entered  largely  into  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  subject  now  under  consideration,  had  not  your 
predecessor,  Mr.  Speaker,  decided,  and  this  House  sustained 
him  in  declaring,  that  a  majority  of  the  members  ei.ECTEi> 
and  RECOGNIZED  by  the  House  made  a  constitutional  quorum. 

It  has,  so  far  as  the  action  of  this  body  can  dispose  of 
the  question,  been  authoritatively  settled,  and  settled,  as  I 
think  it  should  have  been,  by  declaring  that  a  majority  of 
the  members  elected  and  qualified  constitutes  a  quo- 
rum, and  that  two-thirds  of  a  quorum  can  constitutionally 
pass  this  amendment.  The  question  having  been  thus  dis- 
posed of,  I  do  not  care  to  make  an  argument  in  support  of  a 
proposition  thus  authoritatively  settled. 

My  colleague  from  the  First  District  (Mr.  Pendleton),  in 
a  speech  which  he  made  at  ^the  last  session  against  the  pas- 
sage of  this  amendment,  raised  the  question  as  to  the  consti- 
tutional power  of  Congress  to  propose,  and  three-fourths  of 
the  legislatures  of  the  States  to  adopt,  an  amendment  of 
the   character    of    the    one    now  under   consideration.     He 


—  339--. 

claimed  that,  thoug-h  Congress  passed  the  proposed  amend- 
ment by  the  requis»*te  two- thirds,  and  three-fourths  of  the 
leg-islatures  of  the  several  States  adopted  it,  or,  indeed  all 
the  States  save  one,  it  would  not  leg-ally  become  a  part  of  the 
national  Constitution.     These  are  his  words: 

**But  neither  three-fourths  of  the  States,  nor  all  the 
States  save  one,  can  abolish  slavery  in  that  dissenting-  State, 
because  it  lies  within  the  domain  reserved  entirely  to  each 
State  for  itself,  and  upon  it  the  other  States  cannot  enter." 

Is  this  position  defensible?  If  I  read  the  Constitution 
aright,  and  understand  the  force  of  lang-uag-e,  the  section 
which  I  have  just  quoted  is  to-day  free  from  all  limitations 
and  conditions  save  two,  one  of  which  provides  that  the  suf- 
frag-e  of  the  several  States  in  the  Senate  shall  be  equal,  and 
that  no  State  shall  lose  this  equality  by  any  amendment  of 
the  Constitution  without  its  consent;  the  other  relates  to 
taxation.     These  are  the  only  conditions  and  limitations. 

In  myjudg-ment,  Con g-r ess  may  propose,  and  three-fourths 
of  the  States  may  adopt,  any  amendment  republican  in  its 
character  and  consistent  with  the  continued  existence  of  the 
nation,  save  in  the  two  particulars  just  named. 

If  they  cannot,  then  is  the  clause  of  the  Constitution 
■just  quoted  a  dead  letter,  the  States  sovereig-n,  the  g-overn- 
ment  a  confederation,  and  the  United  States  not  a  nation. 


THE   STATE   SOVEREIGNTY  HERESY  EXPOSED. 

The  extent  to  which  this  question  of  State  rig-hts  and 
State  sovereignty  has  aided  this  terrible  rebellion,  and 
manacled  and  weakened  the  arm  of  the  National  Government 
can  hardly  be -estimated.  Certainly,  doctrines  so  at  war  with 
the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Constitution  could  not  be 
accepted  and  acted  upon  by  any  considerable  number  of  our 
citizens  without  eventually  culminating-  in  rebellion  and 
civil  war. 

This  fatal  heresy  doubtless  carried  many  men  of  charac- 
ter and  culture  into  the  rebellion  who  were  sincerely  attached 
to  the  Union.     If  we  may  credit  the  recently  published  pri- 


—  340  — 

vate  letters  of  General  Lee,  written  in  the  spring-  of  1861,  to 
his  sister  and  friends,  and  never  intended  for  publication,  he 
was  induced  to  unite  his  fortunes  with  the  insurgents  by  the 
so-called  secession  of  Virginia,  under  the  belief  that  his  first 
and  highest  allegiance  was  due  to  his  State.  Sir,  I  know 
how  hard  it  is  for  loyal  men  to  credit  this.  To  thinking  men, 
nothing  seems  more  absurd  than  the  political  heresy  called 
States  rights,  in  the  sense  which  makes  each  State  sovereign 
and  the  National  Government  the  mere  agent  and  creature  of 
the  States.  Why,  sir,  the  unity  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  antedates  the  Revolution.  The  original  thirteen  colo- 
nies were  never  in  fact  disunited.  The  man  who  had  the 
right  of  citizenship  in  Virginia  had  the  same  right  in  New 
York.  As  one  people  they  declared  their  independence,  and 
as  one  people,  after  a  seven  years'  war,  conquered  it.  But 
the  unity  and  citizenship  of  the  people  existed  before  the 
Revolution,  and  before  the  national  Constitution.  In  fact, 
this  unity  gave  birth  to  the  Constitution.  Without  this 
unity  and  pre-existing  nationality  —  if  I  may  so  express  my- 
self—  the  Constitution  would  never  have  been  formed.  The 
men  who  carried  us  through  the  revolutionary  struggle  never 
intended,  when  establishing  this  government,  to  destroy  that 
unity  or  lose  their  national  citizenship.  Least  of  all  did 
they  intend  that  we  should  become  aliens  to  each  other  and 
citizens  of  petty,  independent,  sovereign  States.  In  order  to 
make  fruitful  the  blessings  which  they  had  promised  them- 
selves from  independence,  and  to  secure  the  unity  and  national 
citizenship  for  which  they  periled  life,  fortune  and  honor, 
they  made  the  national  Constitution.  They  had  tried  a  con- 
federation. It  did  not  secure  them  such  a  Union  as  they  had 
fought  for,  and  they  determined  to  *'form  a  more  perfect 
Union."  For  this  purpose  they  met  in  national  convention, 
and  formed  a  national  constitution.  They  then  submitted  it 
to  the  electors  of  the  States  for  their  adoption  or  rejection. 
They  did  not  submit  it  to  the  States  as  States,  nor  to  the 
governments  of  the  several  States,  but  to  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States  residing  in  all  the  States.  This  was  the  only 
"way  in  which  they  could  have  submitted  it  and  been  consist- 
ent with  the  declaration  made  in  the  preamble,  which  says 


—  341  — 

**that  we,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  form 
a  more  perfect  Union,  do  ordain  and  establish  this  Constitu- 
tion," etc.  The  whole  people  were  represented  in  this  con- 
vention. Through  their  representatives  they  pledg-ed  each 
other  that  whenever  the  people  of  nink  States  shall  ratify 
and  approve  the  Constitution  submitted  to  them,  it  should  be 
the  Constitution  of  the  nation. 

In  the  lig-ht  of  these  facts,  to  claim  that  our  govern- 
ment is  a  confederation  and  the  States  sovereign,  is  an 
absurdity  too  transparent  for  serious  argument.  Not  only  is 
the  letter  of  the  Constitution  against  such  a  doctrine,  but 
history  also.  Since  the  adoption  of  the  national  Constitution 
TWENTY-TWO  States  have  been  admitted  into  the  Union,  and 
clothed  with  part  of  the  national  sovereignty.  The  territory 
out  of  which  twenty-one  of  these  States  were  formed  was  the 
common  territory  of  the  nation.  It  has  been  acquired  by 
cession,  conquest  or  purchase.  The  sovereignty  of  the 
National  Government  over  it  was  undisputed.  The  people 
who  settled  upon  it  were  citizens  of  the  United  States. 
These  twenty-one  States  were  organized  by  the  concurrent 
action  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  the  National 
Government.  Without  the  consent  of  Congress  they  would 
have  remained  Territories.  What  an  absurdity  to  claim  that 
the  citizens  of  the  New  England  States,  or  of  all  the  States, 
or  of  any  section  of  the  Union,  may  settle  upon  the  territory 
of  the  United  States,  form  State  governments,  with  barely 
inhabitants  enough  to  secure  one  Representative  in  the 
House  under  the  apportionment,  secure  admission  as  a  State, 
and  then  assume  to  be  a  sovereign  and  master  of  the  National 
Government,  with  power  to  secede  and  unite  with  another  and 
hostile  government  at  pleasure,  and  to  treat  all  citizens  of 
the  United  States  as  alien  enemies  who  do  not  think  it  their 
duty  to  unite  with  them.  This  is  the  doctrine  which  deluded 
many  men  into  this  rebellion,  and  which  seems  to  delude 
some  men  here  with  the  idea  that  the  national  Constitution 
cannot  be  amended  so  as  to  abolish  slavery,  even  if  all  the 
States  in  the  Union  demanded  it  save  Delaware.  Under  this 
theory  of  State  sovereignty,  States  like  Florida  and  Arkan- 
sas, erected  on  the  national  domain,  may,  as  soon  as  they 


—  342  — 

secure  admission  into  the  Union,  secede  and  embezzle  all  the 
property  of  the  nation,  including*  the  public  lands,  and  forts, 
and  arsenals,  declare  all  citizens  of  the  United  States  who  do 
not  unite  with  them  alien  enemies,  confiscate  their  property, 
rob  them  of  their  liberty  by  impressing"  them  into  their  army 
to  fig-ht  against  their,,  own  country  and  g"overnment,  and  if 
they  refuse,  punish  them  by  imprisonment  and  death.  After 
doing-  this,  if  the  authority  to  commit  such  wholesale  rob- 
bery, impressments  and  murders  is  denied  them  by  the 
National  Government,  they  set  up  the  claim  that  they  are 
sovereig"n  and  independent,  and  are  only  defending*  their 
homes,  their  firesides  and  household  g^ods,  and  we  have  men 
all  over  the  North  who  to-day  defend  this  monstrous  assump- 
tion. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  presume  no  man,  not  even  my  colleag*ue, 
will  deny  that  when  the  thirteen  colonies  or  States  assembled 
by  their  representatives  in  convention  to  make  the  present 
national  Constitution,  they  might  have  abolished  slavery  at 
once.  Or,  if  the  theory  of  the  old  parties  is  true,  that  a 
republican  government  may  authorize  or  permit  the  enslave- 
ment of  men,  which  I  deny,  they  could  have  provided  for  the 
emancipation  of  all  slaves  in  twenty  or  fifty  years,  if  they 
had  seen  fit;  and  if  the  people  of  nine  States  had  voted  to 
ratify  such  a  constitution,  slavery  could  not,  after  the  period 
named,  have  existed  by  State  law  and  in  defiance  of  the 
national  Constitution,  either  in  one  of  the  old  thirteen  States 
ratifying  it,  or  in  any  one  of  the  States  admitted  into  the 
Union  after  its  adoption.  If  it  was  competent  for  the  men 
who  made  the  national  Constitution  to  prohibit  slavery  at 
the  time,  or  to  provide  for  its  future  prohibition,  why  is  it 
not  just  as  competent  for  us  now?  The  framers  of  the  Con- 
stitution provided  for  its  amendment  in  the  section  which  I 
have  already  quoted.  They  provided  that  when  an  amend- 
ment was  proposed  and  adopted  in  the  manner  and  form 
prescribed,  it  should  become  a  part  of  the  national  Constitu- 
tion, and  be  as  valid  and  binding  as  though  originally  a  part 
of  that  instrument. 

Had  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  desired  the  protec- 
tion and  continuance  of  slavery,  they  could  easily  have  pro- 


—  343  — 

vided  against  an  amendment  of  the  character  of  the  one  now 
before  us  by  g-uarding-  this  interest  as  they  did  the  right  of 
the  States  to  an  equal  representation  in  the  Senate.  They 
did  not  do  it,  because,  as  the  history  of  the  convention 
abundantly  proves,  the  g-reat  majority  of  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution  desired  the  speedy  abolition  of  slavery,  and  I 
contend  that,  so  far  from  the  Constitution  prohibiting*  such 
an  amendment,  it  has  expressly  provided  for  it. 

Mr.  Speaker,  there  is  not  a  single  section  or  clause  in 
the  national  Constitution  which  clothes  the  political  organ- 
izations which  we  call  States  with  any  of  the  attributes  of  a 
sovereign  power,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  prohibits  in  positive 
and  unmistakable  language  any  State  from  doing  any  act 
which  a  sovereign  might  do,  without  the  consent  of  Congress. 

The  supreme  power  of  the  National  Government  is  rigor- 
ously maintained  throughout  the  Constitution,  and  it  is  most 
emphatically  ordained  in  article  six,  clause  two,  of  the  Con- 
stitution, as  follows: 

"This  Constitution,  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
which  shall  be  made  in  pursuance  thereof;  and  all  treaties 
made,  or  which  shall  be  made,  under  the  authority  of  the 
United  States,  shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land;  and  the 
Judges  in  every  State  shall  be  bound  thereby,  anything  in 
the  constitution  or  laws  of  any  State  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing." 

Section  eight,  article  one,  enumerates  skv^nteejn  dis- 
tinct sovereign  powers  of  a  national  character  conferred  on 
Congress  by  the  Constitution,  and,  as  if  to  leave  no  doubt  on 
the  minds  of  any,  this  extraordinary  enumeration  of  powers 
is  followed  by  this  sweeping  and  significant  provision  : 

"  To  make  all  laws  which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper 
for  carryinfy-  into  execution  the  foregoing  powers,  and  all 
oth2r  powers  vested  by  this  Constitution  in  the  government  of 
the  United  States,  or  in  any  department  or  officer  thereof." 

If  I  understand  this  provision  correctly,  it  means  that 
the  framers  of  tho  Constitution  intended  that  the  National 
Government  should  ba  intrusted  with  the  interpretation  of  the 
Constitution,  no"-  onh'  as  to  tho  construction  of  the  powers 
delegated  by  it  to  Congrc3s,  but  to  all  departments  of  the 
National  Government.     They  never  intended  that  any  State, 


—  344  — 

or  any  number  of  States,  nor  the  officials  of  State  govern- 
ments, should  be  competent  in  any  capacity  to  judge  of  the 
infractions  of  the  national  Constitution  by  any  department 
of  the  National  Government,  nor  of  the  propriety  of  any  law 
passed  by  Congress.  Any  citizen  has  the  undoubted  right  to 
express  his  opinions,  and  criticise  the  action  of  the  General 
Government  or  of  any  department  thereof;  but  neither  is  a 
State,  nor  are  the  officials  of  a  State,  clothed  with  any 
authority  to  decide  as  to  the  constitutionality  of  any  law 
passed  by  Congress,  nor  as  to  the  propriety  of  any  act  done 
"by  any  department  of  the  National  Government. 

It  is  past  comprehension  how  any  man  with  the  Consti- 
tution before  him,  and  the  history  of  the  convention  which 
formed  the  Constitution  within  his  reach,  together  with  the 
repeated  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  against  the  assump- 
tion of  the  States  rights  pretensions,  can  be  found  at  this 
late  day  defending  the  State  sovereignty  dogmas,  and  claim- 
ing that  the  national  Constitution  cannot  be  so  amended  as  to 
prohibit  slavery,  even  though  all  the  States  in  the  Union 
save  one  give  it  their  approval. 

That  provision  of  the  national  Constitution  which  im- 
poses upon  Congress  the  duty  of  guaranteeing  to  the  several 
States  of  the  Union  a  republican  form  of  government,  is  one 
which  impresses  me  as  forcibly  as  any  other  with  the  idea 
of  the  utter  indefensibility  of  the  State  sovereignty  dogmas, 
and  of  the  supreme  power  intended  by  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution  to  be  lodged  in  the  National  Government. 

In  this  connection  we  ought  not  to  overlook  that  pro- 
vision of  the  Constitution  which  secures  nationality  of  citizen- 
ship. The  Constitution  guarantees  that  the  citizens  of  each 
State  shall  enjoy  all  the  rights  and  'privileges  of  citizens  of 
the  several  States.  It  is  a  universal  franchise  which  cannot 
be  confined  to  States,  but  belongs  to  the  citizens  of  the  repub- 
lic. We  are  fighting  to  maintain  this  national  franchise,  and 
prevent  its  passing  under  the  control  of  a  foreign  power, 
where  this  great  privilege  would  be  denied  us,  or  so 
changed  as  to  destroy  its  value.  The  nationality  of  our 
citizenship  makes  our  army  a  unit,  although  from  distant 
States   and  makes  them  also  invincible. 


345 


THREE-FOURTHS  OF  THE    STATES  NOW  REPRESENTED   MAY 
AMEND    THE   CONSTITUTION. 

It  is  objected  that  if  we  pass  this  proposition  the  requis- 
ite number  of  States  cannot  now  be  secured  for  its  adop- 
tion. In  answer  to  this  objection,  I  have  to  say  that  Con- 
gress has  not,  in  submitting*  the  proposed  amendment, 
limited  the  time  in  which  the  States  shall  adopt  it;  nor  has 
Congress  attempted  authoritatively  to  declare  that  it  will  re- 
quire the  ratification  of  twenty-seven  States  to  adopt  this 
amendment. 

I  hold  that  whenever  three-fourths  of  the  States  now 
represented  in  Congress  give  their  consent  to  this  proposition 
it  will  legally  become  a  part  of  the  national  Constitution, 
unless  other  States,  now  without  civil  governments  known  to 
the  Constitution,  establish  governments  such  as  Congress 
shall  recognize,  and  such  States,  together  with  the  new 
States,  which  may  be  admitted,  shall  be  represented  in  Con- 
gress BEFORE  three-fourths  of  the  States  now  represented 
adopt  the  proposed  amendment;  in  which  event  the  States 
thus  recognized  or  admitted  must  be  added  to  the  number  of 
States  NOW  represented  in  Congress,  and  the  ratification  of 
three-fourths  of  the  States  thus  recognized,  and  none  others, 
is  all  that  will  be  required  to  adopt  this  amendment. 

I  lay  it  down  as  a  proposition  which  I  do  not  believe  can 
be  successfully  controverted,  that  neither  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  nor  the  constituted  authorities  under  it  can 
know  of  the  existence  of  a  State  in  this  Union,  unless  it  has 
a  civil  government  organized  in  subordination  to  and  work- 
ing in  harmony  with  the  national  Constitution.  This  princi- 
ple has  been  fully  recognized  by  all  the  co-ordinate  branches 
of  the  government  since  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion.  In 
this  house  we  have  authoritatively  declared  that  a  majority 
of  the  members  elected  and  qualified  are  a  quorum  competent 
to  transact  business.  The  Senate,  at  this  session,  have 
adopted  this  rule  also.  Two-thirds  of  this  quorum,  then,  if 
this  decision  be  correct,  as  I  believe  it  is,  may  constitutionally 
pass  the  proposition  before  us.  If  we  may  constitutionally 
pass  this  amendment  by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  a  quorum  of 


—  346  — 

this  House  and  Senate  as  now  constituted,  three-fourths  of 
the  States  now  represented  in  Cong-ress  may  constitutionally 
adopt  it,  PROVIDED  they  do  so  before  any  new  States  are 
admitted,  or  before  a  rebel  State  government  is  organized  and 
recog-nised  by  the  joint  action  of  Congress  and  the  Executive. 
I  believe  this  is  the  true  theory  of  the  Constitution.  Cer- 
tainly it  is  the  only  theory  consistent  with  the  national  exis- 
tence. If  we  adopt  the  theory  that  a  State  once  a  State  is 
always  a  State,  we  have  no  safety  from  factions  and  revolu- 
tions. Suppose  that  within  the  territorial  jurisdiction  known 
on  the  map  of  the  United  States  as  South  Carolina,  there 
should  be  no  civil  government  organized  in  the  next  fifty 
years  such  as  Congress  will  recognize,  do  gentlemen  claim 
that  at  the  expiration  of  that  time  the  old  State  organization 
would  be  still  in  existence,  and  that  in  order  to  secure  the 
adoption  of  a  constitutional  amendment,  such  a  State  ought 
to  be  included  in  the  number  from  which  the  constitutional 
three-fourths  of  the  States  must  be  secured  for  the  ratifica- 
tion of  an  amendment?  If  not,  then,  with  what  propriety 
can  it  be  claimed  as  necessary  to-day?  The  constitutional 
State  government  of  South  Carolina  is  as  completely  de- 
stroyed at  this  moment  as  though  their  Representatives  had 
not  been  in  these  halls,  or  their  local  government  recognized 
by  Congress  for  the  past  fifty  3'ears.  Certainly  no  thought- 
ful man  who  has  carefully  examined  this  subject  will  defend 
the  absurdity  of  the  constitutional  existence  of  political  com- 
munities, which  we  call  States,  after  their  constitutional  State 
governments  have  been  destroyed  by  the  action  of  their  own 
citizens. 

Speeches  were  made  at  the  last  session,  and  indeed  at 
every  session  of  Congress  since  the  rebellion,  to  prove  that 
the  several  acts  of  secession  of  the  rebel  States,  being  ille- 
gal, were  therefore  void,  and  that  the  State  constitution  in 
those  States  not  only  remained,  but  that  the  government  of 
such  States  could  at  any  time  be  put  in  motion  without  the 
consent  of  Congress,  whenever  ten  or  more  loyal  men  could 
be  found  to  assume  the  governorship  and  a  few  of  the  subor- 
dinate of&ces  therein.  Loyal  citizens  of  the  rebel  States  are 
fast  being  cured  of  this  fallacy.     They  have  learned  by  expe- 


—  347  — 

rience  that  the  government  of  the  United  States  is  supreme, 
and  the  local  governments  in  rebel  States  cannot  be  put 
in  motion  without  the  consent  of  Congress.  The  mass  of 
men  did  not  at  first  seem  to  recognize  the  fact  that  while  acts 
of  secession  were  illegal  and  void  as  affecting  the  rights  of 
the  National  Government,  its  jurisdiction  and  sovereignty, 
nevertheless  it  was  such  a  crime  that  those  committing  it 
forfeited  all  rights  guaranteed  them  by  the  national  Consti- 
tution under  their  State  organization. 

Mr.  Speaker,  can  there  be  such  a  thing  known  to  our 
national  Constitution  as  a  State  without  a  constitutional 
g-overnment?  In  my  opinion,  sir,  a  State  government,  to  be 
constitutional,  must  be  organized,  and  act  in  subordination 
to  the  national  Constitution,  and  in  obedience  to  the  laws  of 
Congress.  The  national  Constitution  requires  the  officers  in 
each  State  to  swear  to  support  it  while  discharging  the 
duties  of  any  State  office  to  which  they  may  have  bee«i  elected 
or  appointed.  If  a  State  does  not  act  in  subordination  to  the 
national  Constitution,  and  its  officers  do  not  take  an  oath  to 
support  it,  and  they  send  no  Senators  or  Representatives  to 
Congress,  there  can  be  no  constitutional  State  government  in 
such  State.  Add  to  this  the  crime  of  secession,  rebellion, 
and  levying  war,  and  the  taking  of  an  oath  by  the  officers  of 
such  State  to  support  another,  a  hostile  government,  and  I 
claim  it  terminates  of  necessity,  and  of  right  ought  to  termi- 
nate the  existence  of  a  constitutional  government  in  every 
such  State.  In  a  constitutional  point  of  view,  if  there  is  no 
loyal  State  government  such  as  I  have  described,  but  in  its 
stead  a  government  unknown  to  the  Constitution,  established 
by  the  action  of  its  citizens,  then,  in  fact,  there  is  no  consti- 
tutional State  government,  and,  of  course,  no  State  known 
to  the  Constitution.  The  States  then  in  rebellion  have  no 
constitutional  governments.  They  have  civil  organizations, 
however,  hostile  to  the  United  States;  organizations  which 
are  recognized  as  dk  facto  rebel  governments.  When  the 
rebellion  is  suppressed  there  will  be  no  constitutional  State 
governments,  in  fact,  in  one  of  the  rebel  States,  and  cer- 
tainly the  rebel  de  facto  governments  cannot  remain  or  be 
recognized  by  us  after  the  rebellion  is  put  down.     The  peo- 


—  348-^ 

pie  residing"  within  the  limits  of  these  so-called  States  will 
be  under  the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  Congress,  because,  in 
point  of  fact,  they  cannot  be  subject  to  the  laws  of  a  State 
which  has  no  State  government  known  to  the  national  Con- 
stitution. 

I  may  be  answered  that  it  is  the  duty  of  Congress  to  g-uar- 
antee  to  each  State  a  republican  form  of  g'overnment,  and  that 
this  provision  of  the  Constitution  implies  the  continued  exis- 
tence of  the  State,  although  its  g-overnment  may  Jhave  been 
overthrown  by  violence  or  by  the  deliberate  acts  of  a  majority 
of  its  citizens.  Grant  it,  for  the  sake  of  the  arg-ument;  but 
what  will  be  the  legal  condition  of  such  State  if  the  minority 
do  not  call  upon  Congress  to  secure  them  a  republican  g-ov- 
ernment? What  will  be  its  condition  if  Congress,  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  its  constitutional  power,  attempts  to  secure  such 
State  a  republican  g-overnment,  and  loyal  citizens  cannot  be 
found  in  sufficient  numbers  to  maintain  a  State  government? 
Is  not  the  condition  of  such  State  for  the  time  being  that  of 
a  QUASI  Territory?  Certainly,  during  the  time  it  remains  in 
rebellion,  and  is  unable  to  maintain  a  State  government,  it  is 
not  a  State.  If  so,  then,  for  practicai,  purposes,  whether  of 
national  administration  or  for  the  adoption  of  this  amend- 
ment. States  in  rebellion,  and  without  civil  g-overnments 
which  Congress  can  recognize,  are  not  States  within  the 
meaning  of  the  Constitution,  and  cannot  act  upon  this 
amendment  to  the  Constitution,  or  do  any  other  act  which  a 
loyal  State  of  the  Union  may  lawfully  do. 

In  pursuing  this  argument,  we  must  keep  steadily  in 
view  the  fact  that  the  United  States  are  not  a  confederation, 
but  a  nation;  that  the  national  Constitution  is  the  supreme 
law  of  the  land;  and  that  the  government  organized  under  it 
is  clothed  with  the  sovereignty  of  the  whole  people.  The 
first  and  highest  allegiance  is  due  from  the  citizen  to  the 
National  Government;  he  is  also  subject  to  the  laws  consti- 
tutionally enacted  by  his  own  local  State  government.  If 
there  be  no  local  State  government  in  existence,  the  citizen 
is  legally  subject  only  to  the  laws  of  Congress.  In  the  ab- 
sence of  a  constitutional  State  g-overnment  in  any  portion  of 
the  territory  of  the  United   States,  where   a   State   g-overn- 


—  349  — 

ment  formerly  existed,  Congress  has  all  the  authority  of  a 
State  g-overnment  within  such  territory.  If,  then,  in  the 
rebellious  States  there  are  no  constitutional  civil  g-overnments, 
are  they  States  within  the  contemplation  of  the  Constitution? 
I  ag-ain  ask  the  question,  can  there  be  such  a  thing*  known  to 
our  national  Constitution  as  a  State  without  a  constitutional 
g-overnment?  If  not,  then  the  rebel  States  having*  no  con- 
stitutionally organized  civil  governments,  are  not  States 
within  the  meaning  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  territory 
and  the  citizens  residing  therein  are  subject  to  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  Conger  ess,  the  same  as  citizens  in  any  territory  of  the 
United  States. 


AN   UNANSWERABLE   PROPOSITION. 

If  the  contrary  theory  is  true,  and  a  State  once  a  State  is 
always  a  State,  nothing  can  be  clearer  to  my  mind  than  that 
the  Constitution  ought  to  be  so  amended  at  once  as  to  make 
it  impossible  for  a  minority  of  the  States  to  destroy  the  gov- 
ernment, as  they  might  do  every  four  years,  if  the  Electoral 
College  failed  to  elect  a  President  and  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States. 

In  the  event  of  the  Electoral  College  failing  to  elect, 
the  duty  devolves  on  the  House  of  Representatives,  each 
State  having  one  vote.  Two-thirds  of  kll  the  States  must  be 
present,  and  a  majority  of  all  the  States  is  required  to  elect  a 
President.  The  same  rule  applies  when  a  Vice-President  is 
to  be  elected  by  the  Senate.  These  are  the  words  of  the  Con- 
stitution: 

*'But,  in  choosing  the  President,  the  votes  shall  be  taken 
Ijy  States,  the  representation  from  each  State  having  one 
vote;  a  quorum  for  this  purpose  shall  consist  of  a  member  or 
members  from  two-thirds  of  the  States." 

Now,  suppose  that  from  any  cause  two  of  the  States  rep- 
resented here  were  not  represented,  and  there  were  but  twenty- 
three  States  represented  in  this  House,  and  there  had  been 
no  election  in  1864  of  a  President  by  the  Electoral  College. 
The  election  for  President  in  that  event  would  have  devolved 
on  this  House. 


—  350  — 

Would  3'ou,  Mr.  Speaker,  have  decided,  when  the  ques- 
tion was  raised,  as  it  would  have  been,  "Is  there  a  constitu- 
tional quorum  present?"  that  it  required  the  presence  of 
members  in  the  House  from  two-thirds  of  the  States,  includ- 
ing- the  eleven  rebel  States;  or,  in  other  words,  that  twenty- 
four  States  must  be  represented  here,  and  that  it  would  require 
a  majority  of  thirty-six  States,  or  nineteen  votes,  to  elect  the 
President?  If  you  would  have  so  decided,  and  the  House 
should  have  sustained  that  decision,  and  if  but  twenty-three 
States  were  present,  there  would  have  been  an  end  of  the 
government.  If  we  could  not  proceed  to  elect  a  President 
with  the  Representatives  of  twenty-three  out  of  the  twenty- 
five  loyal  States,  the  government  would  have  fallen  to  pieces 
for  want  of  an  Executive.  If  the  duty  of  electing  a  President 
had  devolved  on  this  House  at  this  session,  and  but  twenty- 
three- States  were  present,  the  question  would  not  only  have 
been  raised  as  to  what  constituted  a  quorum,  but  the  question 
also  as  to  whether  we  should  receive  and  count  the  electoral 
votes  which,  in  the  event  of  no  election  of  President  by  the 
Electoral  College,  would  probably  have  been  sent  here  from 
several  of  the  rebel  States  to  embarrass,  distract  and  divide 
us.  Sir,  no  loyal  man  can  contemplate  a  contingency  such  as 
I  have  suggested  without  a  shudder.  If  the  theory  that  a  State 
once  a  State  is  always  a  State,  is  to  obtain  in  the  national 
administration,  there  ^s  no  safety  or  security  for  the  govern- 
ment. I  do  not  know,  sir,  how  you  would  have  decided  such 
a  question  if  it  had  been  raised  under  circumstances  such  as 
I  have  suggested;  but  I  have  faith  to  believe  that  you  would 
have  decided  as  I  would  have  decided,  that  This  Housk  can- 
not KNOW  OF  THK  EXISTENCE  OF  A  STATE  IN  THIS  UniON 
WHICH  HAS  NOT  A  CIVII.  GOVERNMENT  ORGANIZED  IN  SUBOR- 
DINATION TO,  AND  WORKING   IN  HARMONY  WITH  THE  NATIONAL 

Constitution.  Any  other  decision  would  have  been  fatal  to 
our  national  existence.  Let  us  not  set  'a  bad  precedent  now 
by  declaring  that  it  will  require  the  ratification  of  twenty- 
SEVEN  States  to  secure  the  adoption  of  this  constitutional 
amendment. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  find  ample  authority  in  the  Constitution 
for  the  National  Government  to  protect  itself  against  any 


—  351  — 

action  which  a  minority  of  the  States  might  attempt  by  con- 
federating- ag-ainst  it.  The  Constitution  clothes  Congress 
with  the  power  "to  declare  the  punishment  of  treason."  It 
clothes  Congress  with  all  power  necessary  to  defend  and  pre- 
serve the  g-overnment  which  it  created.  **  Levying"  war 
ag-ainst  the  United  States  "  is  declared  by  the  Constitution  to 
be  treason.  A  State  which,  by  its  constituted  authorities, 
supported  by  a  majority  of  its  citizens,  enters  into  any 
'*  treaty,  alliance  or  confederation,"  and  makes  war  upon  the 
National  Government,  commits  the  crime  of  treason,  and  it  is 
competent  for  Cong-ress  to  inflict  any  penalty  it  may  deem 
expedient.  I  want  the  National  Government  to  inflict  punish- 
ment so  terrible  upon  the  authors  of  this  rebellion  that  in 
all  coming-  time  there  shall  be  no  such  rebellion  ag-ain.  I 
want  no  precedent  established  which  shall  pave  the  way  for 
a  minority  of  the  States  and  a  minority  of  the  people  to 
destroy  this  g-overnment.  I  want  the  precedent  established 
that  the  States  and  people  remaining-  loyal  to  the  g-overn- 
ment, as  disting-uished  from  those  who  rebel  against  it,  shall 
be  clothed  with  the  sovereignty  of  the  Nation.  In  this 
way  only  can  we  come  out  of  this  contest  safely,  and  **  obtain 
indemnity  for  the  past  and  security  for  the  future." 

But  I  have  already  detained  the  House  much  longer  and 
said  more  on  this  point  than  I  intended.  I  discussed  this 
question  at  greater  length  at  the  last  session,  and  experience 
has  only  confirmed  me  in  the  views  then  expressed.  Gentle- 
men who  have  made  speeches  in  this  House,  and  editors  who 
have  charged  me.  and  those  agreeing  with  me  on  this  ques- 
tion, with  being  practical  disunionists,  and  with  recognizing 
the  doctrines  of  secession,  because  holding  that  the  lawful 
governments  in  the  rebel  States  were  destroyed  by  their  acts 
of  treason  and  rebellion,  will  not  care,  probably,  after  our 
experience,  to  repeat  such  speeches  and  opinions,  nor  to  have 
them  republished  to  enlighten  their  readers  or  their  constit- 
uents. 

THK   FINANCIAL  ASPECT  OF  THIS   QUESTION. 

There  is  another  consideration  which  ought  not  to  be 
overlooked  when  weighing  the  practicability  and  expediency 


—  352  — 

of  this  measure,  and  that  is  its  financial  aspect.  Doubtless 
many  g-entlemen  think  this  question  has  less  connection  with 
our  finances  and  the  credit  of  the  country  than  any  other 
before  us.  Not  so.  In  my  opinion,  and  I  know  I  but  utter 
the  opinions  of  many  practical  business  men,  the  passag-e  of 
this  amendment  will  give  the  government  a  credit,  both  at 
home  and  abroad,  which  no  victory  of  our  arms,  important 
and  invaluable  as  many  of  them  have  been,  has  yet  given  us. 
Its  passage  will  give  a  guarantee  for  peace,  unity,  stability, 
prosperity,  power.  It  will  be  a,  pledge  that  the  labor  of  the 
country  shall  hereafter  be  unfettered  and  free,  and  I  need  not 
say  that  under  the  inspiration  of  free  labor  the  productions 
of  the  country  will  be  tripled  and  quadrupled.  It  will  be  a 
pledge  to  the  industrious  German,  and  to  all  the  free  labor- 
ing men  of  Europe  who  are  seeking  homes  among  us,  that 
they  shall  no  longer  be  excluded,  as  they  have  been  practi- 
cally, from  a  country  whose  climate  is  softer  and  fertility 
greater  than  any  on  the  continent. 

I  need  not  detain  the  House  with  an  array  of  facts  and 
figures  to  demonstrate  the  great  advantage  of  free  over  slave 
labor.  All  thinking  men  have  examined  and  comprehend 
the  priceless  value  of  free  labor.  Pass  this  amendment,  and 
the  free  laboring  men  of  the  North  and  of  Europe  will  flock 
to  the  South,  so  that,  in  twenty-five  years  or  less,  there  will 
be  four  or  five  producing  men  in  -the  rebel  States  where 
there  was  one  before  the  rebellion;  add  to  this  vast  number 
the  four  million  emancipated  slaves,  and  3^ou  have  a  free 
labor  force  which,  under  the  security  thus  given  to  capital, 
and  the  inspiration  thus  given  to  labor,  will  make  the  land 
to  blossom  like  the  rose,  and  by  their  energy,  enterprise,  and 
power,  the  free  laboring  men  of  the  South  will  obliterate,  in 
a  few  years,  all  trace  of  this  terrible  and  desolating  war, 
and  make  it  a  country  which  for  prosperity  and  wealth  shall 
acknowledge  no  superior,  and  a  government  which  for  sta- 
bility shall  have  no  equal. 

Suppose  your  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  goes  into  the 
market  to-morrow  to  borrow  $500,000,000,  payable  in  thirty 
or  forty  years,  what  will  be  the  first  question  asked  by  the 
capitalist?     Will  it  be  as  to  the  rate  of  interest  you  are  will- 


—  353  — 

ing  to  g"ive,  or  will  it  be  rather  as  to  your  ability  to  pay  the 
principal?     I  take  it  that  that  would  be  the  first  inquiry.     He 
would  ask  you,  *' What  will  be  the  condition  of  your  country 
and  government  thirty  or  forty  years  hence?"     If  you  could 
answer  him,  as  you  might  truthfully  answer  him  were  this 
amendment  adopted,   "Sir,  in  thirty  or  forty  years  we  shall 
not  be  indebted,  at  home  or  abroad,  a  single  dollar,  and  then 
will  we  be  the  most  powerful  and  populous,  the  most  enter- 
prising and  wealthy  nation  in  the  world."     If  you  could  tell 
him  this,  and  add,  as  you  may,  that  in  thirty  or  forty  years 
we  will  show  the  world  a  government  whose  sovereignty  on 
the  North  American  continent  will  not  be  questioned  from 
ocean  to  ocean,  and  from  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  to  the  ice- 
bound regions  of  the  North;  and  tell  him,  also,  that  our  sys- 
tem of  free  labor,  guaranteed  by  the  national  Constitution  to 
all  generations  of  men,  with  free  schools  and  colleges,  and  a 
free  press,  with  churches  no  longer  fettered  with  the  mana- 
cles of  the  slave-master,  with  manufactures  and   commerce 
exceeding  in  vastness  anything  which  had  ever  been  known, 
and  a  nation   of   men   unrivaled   in  culture,  enterprise  and 
wealth,  and  more  devotedly  attached  to  their  country  than 
the  people  of  any  other  nation,  because  of  the  constitutional 
guarantee  of  the  government  to  protect  the  rights  of  all  and 
secure  the  liberty  and  equality  of  its  people;  if  you  could  tell 
him  this,  and  that  such  a  race  of  free  men  would  make  the 
South  and  the  entire  nation  what  New  England  is  to-day, 
your  Secretary  could  have  all  the  money  he  wanted,  and  on 
his  own  terms. 


Mr.  Speaker,  what  say  the  soldiers  of  the  Union  army  to  the 
proposition  before  us?  Shall  not  their  voices  be  heard  and  their 
wishes  be  respected  by  their  representatives  in  the  American 
Congress?  Sir,  there  are  no  men  in  the  republic  to  whose 
wishes  and  judgment  I  would  more  willingly  defer  on  this  ques- 
tion than  to  the  brave  men  who  are  periling  life  and  all  for 
country;  to  the  men  who  have  vanquished  the  enemy  wher- 
23 


—  354  — 

ever  they  have  met  them,  saved  the  nation,  and  by  their 
heroism  on  the  battlefield,  and  their  fidelity  to  principle  at 
the  ballot-box,  made  the  passage  of  this  amendment  possible. 
Almost  every  letter  I  receive  from  the  brave  men  who  are  in 
the  army  from  my  District  contains  the  anxious  inquiry, 
*'what  of  the  constitutional  amendment;  will  it  pass?"  And 
I  doubt  not  that  the  same  question  has  been  asked  by  the 
constituents  at  home  and  soldiers  in  the  field  of  four-fifths 
of  the  Representatives  upon  this  floor.  What  shall  be  our 
official  answer?  Shall  the  g-lad  news  go  forth  to  cheer  alike 
the  soldier  and  the  citizen  and  the  friends  of  the  govern- 
ment everywhere,  that  the  deliberately  expressed  will  of  the 
people  is  to  be  respected  and  enacted  into  law;  that  on  this 
great  question  there  are  no  longer  party  divisions,  but  that 
practically  the  representatives  are  as  united  as  the  people, 
in  demanding  the  passage  of  this  constitutional  amendment? 
If  this  shall  be  our  answer,  a  shout  will  go  up  from  our  brave 
men  in  front  of  Richmond,  at  Savannah,  and  all  along  the 
Union  lines,  and  throughout  the  entire  country,  such  as 
never  before  arose  from  the  hearts  and  lips  of  men  on  the 
passage  of  any  act  by  the  American  Congress. 

A   MBMORABI^K   YKAR. 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  year  which  has  just  closed  has  been  a 
year  of  anxiety  and  also  a  year  of  joy.  The  ordeal  through 
which  as  a  nation  we  have  passed,  has  been  a  terrible  one, 
I  speak  of  the  ordeal  on  the  battlefield  and  at  the  ballot-box. 
We  have  presented  to  the  world  a  sublime  spectacle.  We 
have  tested  our  strength,  and  know  the  constancy  and  cour- 
age of  our  men.  Such  disinterestedness,  such  heroism  and 
devotion  to  country,  the  world  has  never  witnessed.  Conse- 
crated by  a  dispensation  of  fire  and  blood,  the  children  of  the 
republic  have  grown  to  the  full  stature  of  manhood.  Stand- 
ing here,  in  the  nation's  council  halls,  in  the  beginning  of  a 
new  year,  on  the  threshold  of  a  new  era,  and  in  the  presence 
of  such  events,  let  us  comprehend  the  duty  of  true  statesmen, 
and  while  legislating  for  the  present,  legislate  also  for  the 
generations  of  men  which  are  to  succeed  us.     The  eyes  of  the 


—  355  — 

■wise  and  good  in  all  civilized  nations  are  upon  us.  The  men 
who  embrace  and  defend  the  democratic  idea  in  Europe  are 
patiently  and  anxiously  waiting-  to  have  us  authoritatively 
proclaim  to  the  world  that  liberty  is  the  sign  in  which  we 
conquer;  that  henceforth  freedom  is  to  be  the  animating 
principle  of  our  government  and  the  life  of  our  Constitution. 

PUTY  OF  THE   STATESMAN. 

Mr.  Speaker,  while  the  Union  soldier  fights  to  vanquish 
the  enemies  of  the  government,  the  duty  of  the  true  states- 
man is  to  provide  that  the  enemy,  once  vanquished,  shall 
never  again  be  permitted  for  the  same  cause  to  reorganize 
and  make  war  upon  the  nation.  Pass  this  joint  resolution,! 
submitting  to  the  people  for  their  ratification  or  rejection 
this  proposed  amendment  to  the  national  Constitution,  and  I 
am  sure  the  nation  will  adopt  it  with  shouts  of  acclamation, 
and  when  once  adopted,  you  know,  sir,  and  I  know,  and  the 
enemies  of  this  government  know,  that  we  shall  have  peace, 
and  that  no  such  rebellion  will  ever  be  possible  again.  Pass 
this  amendment,  and  the  gloomy  shadow  of  slavery  will 
never  again  darken  the  fair  fame  of  our  country  or  tarnish 
the  glory  of  democratic  institutions  in  the  land  of  Washing- 
ton. Pass  this  amendment,  and  the  brightest  page  in  the 
history  of  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress,  now  so  near  its  close, 
will  be  the  one  on  which  is  recorded  the  names  of  the  req- 
uisite number  of  members  voting  in  its  favor.  Refuse  to 
pass  it,  and  the  saddest  page  in  the  history  of  the  Thirty- 
eighth  Congress  will  be  the  one  on  which  is  recorded  its  de- 
feat. Sir,  I  feel  as  if  no  member  of  this  House  will  ever  live  ta 
witness  an  hour  more  memorable  in  our  history  than  the  one 
in  which  each  for  himself  shall  make  a  record  on  the  ques- 
tion now  before  us.  I  implore  gentlemen  to  forget  party,, 
and  remember  that  we  are  making  a  record,  not  only  for 
ourselves  individually,  but  for  the  nation  and  the  cause  of 
free  government  throughout  the  world.  While  members  of 
the  Thirty-eighth  Congress  we  cannot  change  the  record 
which  each  must  now  make,  and  those  who  do  not  return  to 
the  next  Congress  can  never  reverse  their  votes  of  to-day,  but 


—  356  — 

must  forever  stand  recorded,  if  voting-  ag-ainst  the  amend- 
ment, among-  those  voting-  to  justify  the  rebellion  and  per- 
petuate its  cause. 

The  g-enius  of  history,  with  iron  pen,  is  waiting*  to  record 
our  verdict  where  it  will  remain  forever  for  all  the  coming- 
generations  of  men  to  approve  or  condemn.  God  g-rant  that 
the  verdict  may  be  one  over  which  the  friends  of  liberty,  im- 
partial and  universal,  in  this  country  and  Europe,  and  in 
every  land  beneath  the  sun,  may  rejoice;  a  verdict  which 
shall  declare  that  America  is  free;  a  verdict  which  shall  add 
another  day  of  jubilee,  and  the  brig-htest  of  all  to  our 
n-ational  calendar.  If  this  verdict  is  not  g-iven  by  the  present 
Cong-ress,  I  know,  and  you  all  know,  it  will  be  g-iven  by  the 
next  Congress,  and  that,  too,  with  alacrity.  The  decree  has 
gone  forth;  the  people  have  pronounced  it;  and  now  is  the 
golden  hour  in  which  we  may  all  unite,  if  we  will,  and  in- 
augurate a  new  era  in  our  history.  Let  no  man  put  forth 
his  puny  hand  to  stay  the  certain  approach  of  the  hour  in 
which  this  act  shall  pass,  or  of  the  grand  jubilee  which  shall 
follow  its  enactment  into  law.  Let  no  member  of  this  House 
attempt  to  postpone  this  great  measure,  with  the  hope  of 
being  able  to  circumvent,  by  some  petty  scheme  of  com- 
promise, the  plainly  written  decree  of  Omnipotence.  Let  no 
loyal  man,  in  such  an  hour  as  this,  record  his  vote  against 
this  just  proposition,  and  thus  vote  to  prolong  the  rebellion 
and  perpetuate  the  despotism  of  American  slavery  in  this 
Republic. 


The  following  resolutions  explain  themselves.  They 
show  how  thoroughly  Mr.  Sumner  and  Mr.  Ashley  were  in 
accord  on  the  great  questions  of  that  day. 

United  States  Senate.  ) 

Saturday,  February  4,  1865.  J 

Mr.  Sumner  introduced  the  following  resolutions: 

THE   THREE   FOURTHS'   VOTE   OF  RATIFICATION. 

Mr.  Sumner:  I  send  to  the  Chair  resolutions  which  I 
ask  to  have  read  and  printed.  I  shall  call  them  up  at  a 
future  day. 


357 


The  resolutions  were  read,  as  follows. 
Concurrent  resolutions  declaring*  the  rule  in  ascertaining-  the 
three-fourths  of  the  several  States  required  in  the  ratifi- 
cation of  a  constitutional  amendment: 

Whereas  Congress,  by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  both 
Houses,"  has  proposed  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution, 
prohibiting-  slavery  throug-hout  the  United  States,  which, 
according-  to  the  existing-  requirement  of  the  Constitution, 
will  be  valid,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  as  part  of  the  Con- 
stitution, when  ratified  by  the  leg-islatures  of  three-fourths 
of  the  several  States;  and  whereas,  in  the  present  condition 
of  the  country,  with  certain  States  in  arms  against  the 
National  Government,  it  becomes  necessary  to  determine  what 
number  of  States  constitutes  the  three-fourths  required  by 
the  Constitution:     Therefore, 

Resolved  by  the  Senate  (the  House  of  Representatives 
concurring").  That  the  rule  followed  in  ascertaining-  the  two- 
thirds  of  both  Houses  proposing-  the  amendment  to  the  Con- 
stitution should  be  followed  in  ascertaining-  the  three-fourths 
of  the  several  States  ratifying-  the  amendment;  that,  as  in 
the  first  case,  the  two-thirds  are  founded  on  the  simple  fact 
of  representation  in  the  two  Houses,  so  in  the  second  case, 
the  three-fourths  must  be  founded  on  the  simple  fact  of 
representation  in  the  g-overnment  of  the  country  and  the 
support  thereof;  and  that  any  other  rule  establishes  one  basis 
for  the  proposition  of  the  amendment,  and  another  for  its 
ratification,  placing-  one  on  a  simple  fact,  and  the  other  on  a 
claim  of  right,  while  it  also  recog-nizes  the  power  of  rebels 
in  arms  to  interpose  a  veto  upon  the  National  Government  in 
one  of  its  highest  functions. 

Resolved,  That  all  acts,  executive  and  legislative,  in  pur- 
suance of  the  Constitution,  and  all  treaties  made  under  the 
authority  of  the  United  States,  are  valid,  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  throughout  the  United  States,  although  certain 
States  in  rebellion  fail  to  participate  therein,  and  that  the 
same  rule  is  equally  applicable  to  an  amendment  of  the  Con- 
stitution. 

Resolved,  That  the  amendment  of  the  Constitution,  pro- 
hibiting slavery  throughout  the  United  States,  will  be  valid, 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  as  part  of  the  Constitution, 
whenever  ratified  by  three-fourths  of  the  States,  de  facto, 
exercising  the  powers  and  prerogatives  of  the  United  States 
under  the  Constitution  thereof. 

Resolved,  That  any  other  rule  requiring  the  participa- 
tion of  the  rebel  States,  while  illogical  and  unreasonable,  is 
dangerous  in  its  consequences,  inasmuch  as  all  recent  presi- 


-358  — 

dential  proclamations,  including*  that  of  emancipation,  also 
all  the  recent  acts  of  Congress,  including*  those  creating*  the 
national  debt  and  establishing*  a  national  currency,  and  also 
all  recent  treaties,  including*  the  treaty  with  Great  Britain  for 
the  extinction  of  the  slave  trade,  have  been  made,  enacted,  or 
ratified,  respectively,  without  any  participation  of  the  rebel 
States. 

Resolved,  That  any  other  rule  must  tend  to  postpone 
the  g*reat  day  when  the  prohibition  of  slavery  will  be  valid, 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  as  part  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States;  but  the  rule  herewith  declared  will  assure  the 
immediate  ratification  of  the  prohibition,  and  the  consumma- 
tion of  the  national  desires. 

The  resolutions  were  ordered  to  be  printed. 

Letter  from  W.  S.  Scarboroug-h,"A.  M.,  LI*.  D.,  Ph.  D., 

Wilberforce,  O. 
Ill  an  interview  which  we  find  reported  in  the  Tolbdo 
Blade,  Mr.  Ashley  says  "  that  from  my  first  meeting"  with  Whit- 
tier  in.  1850,  no  one  of  all  the  grreat  anti-slavery  leaders  exercised 
a  stronger  or  healthier  Influence  on  my  life."  Every  reader  of 
this  volume  will  recognize  how  thoroughly  Whittier's  philoso- 
phy and  gentleness  took  firm  hold  of  Mr.  Ashley's  head  and 
heart.  Of  all  his  early  anti-slavery  speeches  before  us,  runningr 
w.  s.  SCARBOROUGH,  back  to  1854,  a  majority  are  strengthened  and  embellished  by 
striking  quotations  from  Whittier.  During  the  darkest  hours  of  our  country's  history, 
when  many  faltered  and  deserted  our  standard,  Mr.  Ashley  stood  erect  and  firm,  never 
failing,  never  faltering,  and  *'  like  a  prophet  sent  to  free  this  world  from  every  bond 
and  stain,"  he  unfurled  the  true  republican  banner  on  which  was  writ :  "  rREEDOM, 

THE  BIRTHRIGHT  OF  THE  HUMAN  RACE,'*     *'  ThE  NATION  OP  PEOPLE  WHO  DO  NOT  RULE 

IN  RIGHTEOUSNESS  SHALL  PERISH  FROM  THE  EARTH."  Were  there  no  Other  reason  for 
stamping  the  speeches  in  this  book  with  moral  power  and  intellectual  force,  the  quo- 
tations made  from  Whittier,  and  the  proclaiming  of  those  maxims  of  freedom,  would, 
be  enough.  W.  S.  Scarborough. 


COPY  OF  THE   FIRST  RECONSTRUCTION  BILL, 
Introduced  in  Congress  by  Mr.  Ashley. 


A  LETTER  OF  HISTORIC   VALUE. 


The  Publication  Committee  obtained  from  Mr.  Ashley  a 
copy  of  his  first  reconstruction  bill,  and  by  special  request, 
the  following-  brief  statement  of  the  inside  history  of  its 
preparation. 

The  subjoined  correspondence,  with  copy  of  the  original 
reconstruction  bill,  tog-ether  with  the  recorded  yea  and  nay 
vote  by  which  his  first  reconstruction  bill  was  laid  on  the 
table,  will  be  of  historic  interest  to  the  reader. 

November  22,  1892. 
Hon.  J.  M.  Ashley,  Toledo,  Ohio. 

Dear  Sir  :  It  appears  to  us,  that  your  speeches  in  Con- 
g-ress  and  in  California,  on  the  subject  of  reconstruction, 
ought  to  be  accompanied  with  a  copy  of  at  least  one  of  the 
bills  introduced  by  you,  for  the  reorganization  of  the  South- 
ern States.  If  you  can  furnish  us  with  a  copy  of  one  of  the 
reconstruction  bills  prepared  by  you,  with  the  history  of  such 
bill,  so  as  to  make  the  record  more  complete  than  we  now 
have  it,  we  will  be  under  renewed  obligations. 

1  have  the  honor  to  be. 

Very  respecfuUy  yours,  for  God  and  the  race, 


Chairman. 
(3S9) 


—  360  — 

Dkar  Sir  :  My  first  bill  for  the  government  of  the  States 
and  districts  in  rebellion,  was  prepared  in  June,  1861,  before 
leaving-  home,  to  attend  the  extra  session  of  Cong-ress,  con- 
vened by  President  Lincoln,  July  4th  of  that  year.  This 
fact  tells  its  own  story.  It  will  tell  you,  that  I  then  had  no 
doubt  of  our  ability  to  crush  the  rebellion  at  an  early  day. 
I  need  not  add,  that  it  took  us  longer  than  I,  at  that  time, 
supposed. 

In  one  of  my  reconstruction  speeches  in  Congress  which 
I  sent  you,  I  give  in  brief  the  history  of  the  first  reconstruc- 
tion bill  and  its  fate. 

Immediately  after  the  House  was  organized,  in  July, 
1861,  I  invited  the  Republican  members  of  the  Committee  on 
Territories  to  meet  me  at  my  rooms  in  Washington,  for  con- 
sultation. 

At  that  meeting  I  laid  before  them  my  bill  for  the  re- 
organization and  government  of  the  rebel  States. 

I  soon  learned  that  not  one  of  my  Republican  colleagues 
on  the  committee  were  then  prepared  to  say  that  they  would 
vote  for  my  bill.  Thereupon,  I  resolved  to  submit  my  pro- 
posed bill  to  Governor  Chase  (Secretary  of  the  Treasury), 
and  to  Senator  Sumner,  Henry  "Winter  Davis,  and  other  per- 
sonal friends,  for  their  opinions.  After  securing  their  gen- 
eral approval  to  the  central  proposition  embodied  in  the 
bill,  viz. :  "That  Congress  had  power  under  the  Constitu- 
tion, to  legislate  for  the  government  of  States  and  districts  in 
rebellion,"  I  went  to  work  to  convert  one  by  one,  the  Re- 
publican members  of  my  committee. 

On  the  23d  of  December,  1861,  at  the  regular  session,  I 
caused  a  resolution  to  be  introduced  in  the  House,  which 
passed,  "  instructing  the  Committee  on  Territories  [of  which 
I  was  chairman]  to  inquire  into  the  legality  and  expediency 
of  establishing  territorial  governments  within  the  limits  of 
disloyal  States  or  districts  in  rebellion,  and  to  report  by  bill 
or  otherwise." 

Not  long  after  this,  all  the  Republican  members  of  my 
committee  save  one  (Mr.  Wheeler  of  New  York,  Vice-Presi- 
dent under  Hayes),  came  to  my  support,  and  united  with  me 
in  reporting  the  bill,  as  it  appears  in  the  printed  copy  enclosed. 


—  361  — 

No  such  bill  had  ever  before  been  presented  to  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States.  No  occasion  had  ever  before 
arisen  for  such  a  bill.  In  undertaking-  to  legislate  for  new 
and  unknown  conditions,  we  had  to  blaze  our  way  through  a 
wilderness  of  leg-al  and  political  complications.  Timid  men 
hesitated,  and  men  who  never  move,  or  who  when  they  do 
move,  walk  only  in  beaten  paths,  were  frightened.  So 
when  by  direction  of  a  majority  of  the  Committee  on  Terri- 
tories, my  bill  was  reported  to  the  House,  on  the  twelfth  of 
March,  1862,  it  was  on  motion  of  Mr.  Pendleton,  of  Ohio,  laid 
on  the  table,  some  twenty  Republicans  voting  against  me,  and 
with  the  Democrats,  to  table  it. 

The  MINORITY  of  the  Territorial  Committee  denounced 
this  bill  in  terms  that,  in  the  light  of  history,  seem  weak  and 
superficial. 

The  only  statement  made  by  them  in  their  minority  re- 
ports, which  contained  the  shadow  of  what  proved  to  be  the 
truth,  was  the  declaration,  **that  the  bill  was  intended  to 
emancipate  at  once,  and  forever,  all  slaves,  and  to  seize  all 
public  lands  belonging"  to  the  rebel  States,  and  lease  or  g-ive 
such  lands,  and  forfeited  or  confiscated  estates,  to  slaves  so 
emancipated.'*  That  was  undoubtedly  my  purpose,  and  there 
are  to-day,  thousands  of  thinking  men,  who  now  believe  that 
Cong^ress  was  criminally  guilty,  because  it  failed  to  do  this 
act  of  prudence  and  justice. 

Even  here  at  home,  I  was  charged  by  men  who  called 
themselves  Republicans,  with  recognizing-  and  confirming-  by 
my  reconstruction  bill,  the  secession  of  all  the  rebel  States, 
and  much  more  of  the  same  sort  of  shallow  sophistry  and 
amazing  logic. 

In  a  day  or  two  after  my  bill  had  been  laid  on  the  table> 
Senator  Colomore,  of  Vermont  (who  was  opposed  to  my  plan 
of  reconstruction),  came  to  my  seat  in  the  House,  and  said, 
**  Ashle}^,  where  do  you  find  a  precedent  for  your  bill,  to  estab- 
lish such  g"overnments  as  you  propose,  for  the  States  in  rebel- 
lion?" I  answered  him  sharply  and  with  some  feeling-,  by  say- 
ing: **  Sir,  we  make  precedents  here,"  and  added,  **  before  we 
get  through  with  this  rebellion,  we  will  compel  all  loyal  men 
in  Congress  to  vote  for  measures  far  more  radical  than  my 
bill; "  and  so  we  did. 


—  362  — 

But  experience  has  taug"ht  us,  that  the  reconstruction 
measures  finally  enacted  by  Cong-ress,  were  not  as  safe,  nor 
as  desirable,  as  my  orig-inal  bill,  which  provided  for  putting" 
the  rebel  States  in  territorial  condition,  until  Cong-ress 
should  provide  by  law  for  their  reorg-anization,  a  copy  of 
which  I  now  send  you,  so  that  you  may  publish  it  if  you 
like. 

I  was  a  member  of  the  select  Committee  on  "Reconstruc- 
tion," of  which  Henry  Winter  Davis,  of  Maryland,  was  chair- 
man, and  voted  in  that  committee  and  in  the  House,  for  the  re- 
construction bill  as  it  finally  passed.  It  was  the  best,  and  in 
fact  all  the  bill  we  could  get  that  Committee  to  report.  But 
I  thoug'ht  then,  and  think  now,  that  we  fell  short  of  our  duty 
to  the  black  man. 

Yours  truly. 


J.   M.   ASHI.EY. 


Rev.  Benjamin  W.  Arnett,  D.  D., 

Chairman  Publication  Committee, 


United  States  House  of  Representatives, 

Washington,  D.  C 
Committee  Room  on  Territories,  March  8,  1862 


62.  f 


The  Committee  on  Territories,  to  whom  was  referred  a 
resolution  passed  by  the  House  on  the  23d  of  December,  1861, 
instructing-  them  "  to  inquire  into  the  leg-ality  and  expediency 
of  establishing-  territorial  g-overnments  within  the  limits  of 
disloyal  States  or  districts  in  rebellion,  and  report  by  bill  or 
otherwise,"  have  had  the  same  under  careful  consideration, 
and  submit  the  following-  bill  providing-  for  temporary  civil 
governments  over  the  districts  of  country  now  in  rebellion 
against  the  United  States,  with  the  recommendation  that  it 
do  pass. 

J.     M.    ASHI.EY. 

F.  C.  Beaman. 
A.  Scott  Sloan. 
Owen  Lovejoy. 

G.  F.  Bailey. 


—  363  — 

A  Bill  to  Establish  Temporary  Provisional  Governments 
OVER  THE  Districts  of  Country  in  Rebellion  against 
THE  United  States. 

March  12,  1862. — Read  twice  and  laid  on  the  table. 

Whereas  a  conspiracy  has  been  for  many  years  in  prog"- 
ress  and  has  resulted  in  insurrection  and  rebellion  in  that 
part  of  the  United  States  heretofore  known  and  desig-nated 
as  the  States  of  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Florida,  Georgia, 
Louisiana,  Mississippi,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina, 
Tennessee,  Texas,  and  Eastern  Virginia;  and  whereas,  by 
the  act  of  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  as  well  as  by 
an  attempted  alliance  with  foreign  powers  to  wage  war 
against  said  government,  and  granting  letters  of  marque 
and  reprisal,  the  said  States  violated  the  national  Constitu- 
tion, which  is  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  and  which 
declares  that  no  State  shall  enter  into  any  treaty,  alliance, 
or  confederation,  grant  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal,  and 
shall  not  without  the  consent  of  Congress  lay  any  duty  on 
tonnage,  keep  troops  or  ships  of  war  in  time  of  peace,  enter 
,  into  any  agreement  or  compact  with  another  State  or  with  a 
foreign  power;  and  whereas  said  acts  of  nullification,  rebel- 
lion, and  levying  war  against  the  United  States,  and  their 
alliance  under  a  confederated  government  have  terminated 
and  of  right' ought  to  terminate,  the  legal  existence  of  said 
State  governments;  and  whereas  the  loyal  citizens  residing 
in  the  aforesaid  rebellious  districts,  on  account  of  the  over- 
throw of  the  State  governments  and  the  tribunals  of  justice, 
both  State  and  Federal,  therein,  as  well  as  the  loyal  citizens 
of  other  parts  of  the  United  States,  are  deprived  of  all  ade- 
quate redress  for  injuries  to  their  persons  and  property,  and 
of  all  civil  remedies  for  the  redress  of  grievances;  and  where- 
as the  sovereignty  of  the  United  States  over  the  district  of 
country  now  in  rebellion  is  supreme  by  the  express  terms  of 
the  Constitution;  and  whereas  the  establishment  of  a  hostile 
despotic  government  within  any  part  of  the  territory  of  the 
United  States  is  incompatible  with  the  stability,  safety,  and 
dignity  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  and  also 
with  the  principles  of  constitutional  liberty:    Therefore, 


—  364  — 

Br  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives OP  THE  United  States  op  America  in  Congress 
ASSEMBI.ED,  That  the  President  be,  and  he  is  hereby  author- 
ized and  required  to  take  possession  of  and  to  occupy  the 
insurrectionary  States  named,  and  to  institute,  establish^ 
and  protect  with  the  military  and  naval  forces  of  the  United 
States,  a  temporary  civil  government,  with  such  names,  and 
within  such  g-eog'raphical  boundaries  as  he  may  by  proclama- 
tion designate;  that  said  civil  government  shall  be  main- 
tained and  continued  in  each  of  the  districts  thus  named  and 
designated  until  such  time  as  the  loj^l  people  residing 
therein  shall  form  new  State  governments,  republican  in 
form,  as  prescribed  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States^ 
and  apply  for  and  obtain  admission  into  the  Union  as  States. 

Sec.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted.  That  the  tempo- 
rary governments  hereby  authorized  for  each  of  said  dis- 
tricts shall  consist  of  an  executive,  a  legislative,  and  judicial 
department.  The  executive  power  shall  be  vested  in  a 
governor,  whose  powers  and  duties  shall  be  the  same  as 
those  conferred  by  act  of  Congress  upon  the  governor  of  the 
Territory  of  Washington;  and  in  addition  he  shall,  during 
the  continuance  of  the  rebellion,  have  power  to  do  such  acts 
as  may  be  necessary  to  secure  the  due  enforcement  of  the 
laws  and  decrees  of  the  United  States  or  of  the  provisional 
government.  The  legislative  power  shall  be  vested  in  a  coun- 
cil of  not  less  than  seven,  nor  more  than  thirteen,  as  the 
President  may  determine.  The  judicial  power  shall  be  vested 
in  a  superior  court,  and  such  inferior  courts  as  the  council 
may  establish.  The  superior  court  shall  consist  of  three 
judges,  a  majority  of  whom  shall  constitute  the  provisional 
court  of  each  district;  and  Congress  shall  have  power  at  any 
time  to  remove  any  one  or  all  officers  created  by  this  act;  and 
the  term  of  office  of  the  governor  and  all  other  officers  whose 
creation  and  appointment  are  hereby  authorized,  shall  con- 
tinue until  otherwise  directed  by  Congress;  and  each  of  the 
officers  designated  by  this  act  shall  be  appointed  by  the 
President,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate. 

Sec.  3.  And  be  it  further  enacted.  That  the  legisla- 
tive authority  of  said  districts  shall  be  vested  in  the  governor 


—  365  — 

and  leg-islative  council,  whose  powers  and  duties  shall  extend 
to  all  rightful  subjects  of  leg-islation,  not  inconsistent  with 
the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States  and  the  pro- 
visions of  this  act;  but  no  act  shall  be  passed  by  said  council 
establishing,  protecting,  or  recognizing  the  existence  of  sla- 
very, nor  shall  said  temporary  government,  or  any: depart- 
ment thereof,  give,  sanction,  or  declare  the  right  of  one  man 
to  property  in  another  in  either  of  said  districts;  and  no  law 
or  act  of  said  governor  or  legislative  council  shall  be  valid 
which  is  disapproved  by  Congress.  The  legislative  council 
shall  assemble,  after  their  first  appointment,  at  such  time 
and  place  as  the  President  may  designate,  and  afterwards  at 
such  time  and  place  as  the  governor  and  legislative  council 
may  fix  by  law;  they  shall  select  from  one  of  their  own 
number  a  speaker,  who  shall  be  their  presiding  officer,  and 
they  may  elect  a  clerk  and  sergeant-at-arms,  who  shall  hold 
their  offices  during  the  pleasure  of  the  council,  and  the  clerk 
and  sergeant-at-arms  so  appointed  may  be  allowed  such 
assistants  as  in  the  opinion  of  the  legislative  council  may  be 
necessary,  and  the  compensation  of  said  clerk  and  sergeant- 
at-arms  and  their  assistants  shall  be  such  as  the  legislative 
council  may  by  law  prescribe,  not  to  exceed  four  dollars  per 
day.  If,  from  any  cause,  a  vacancy  occurs  in  any  of  the  of- 
fices hereby  authorized  to  be  appointed  by  the  President,  the 
governor  or  acting  governor  of  the  district  shall  forthwith 
notify  the  President,  and  an  appointment  shall  be  made  by 
liim  to  fill  such  vacancy  immediately. 

Sec.  4.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  the  governor 
and  legislative  council  are  hereby  authorized  to  take  posses- 
sion of  all  abandoned,  forfeited,  or  confiscated  estates  within 
the  limits  of  said  districts,  in  the  name  and  on  behalf  of  the 
President  and  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and  to 
lease  the  realty  thereof,  on  such  terms  and  for  such  time, 
not  to  exceed  five  years,  as  the  governor  and  legislative 
council  may  by  law  prescribe:  Provided,  that  all  leases 
shall  be  to  actual  occupants,  who  are  loyal,  and  have  not 
been  in  rebellion  against  the  government  of  the  United  States: 
And  provided  further,  that  all  leases  shall  be  for  limited 
quantities,  not  to  exceed  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  to  any 


—  366  — 

person,  it  being*  the  intent  and  purpose  of  this  act  to  estab- 
lish justice  and  promote  the  peace,  safety  and  welfare  of  the 
inhabitants  by  securing-  all  in  the  enjoyment  of  life,  liberty, 
and  the  fruits  of  their  own  labor. 

Sec.  5.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  it  shall  be 
the  duty  of  the  governor  and  legislative  council  of  each  dis- 
trict to  establish  schools  for  the  moral  and  intellectual  culture 
of  all  the  inhabitants,  to  provide  by  law  for  the  attendance 
of  all  children  over  seven  and  under  fourteen  years  of  age, 
not  less  than  three  months  in  each  year;  and  to  prescribe  and 
fix  the  number  of  hours,  not  to  exceed  twelve,  which  shall 
constitute  a  day's  work  for  field  hands  and  laborers. 

Sec.  6.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  all  public 
lands  in  each  of  said  districts,  held  by  said  recent  States  at 
the  time  of  their  act  of  secession,  shall  be  seized,  occupied, 
and  held  b^'-  '♦•he  governor  of  the  districts  in  which  they  may 
be  located,  in  the  name  of  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
until  otherwise  disposed  of  by  Congress.  That  all  public 
lands  thus  acquired  and  which  may  become  vested  in  the 
United  States  by  confiscation  or  forfeiture  by  the  provisions  of 
any  law  now  in  force,  or  which  may  hereafter  be  passed,  shall 
be  held  for  the  use  of  the  soldiers,  sailors,  and  marines,  regular 
and  volunteer,  who  have  been  or  may  be  called  into  the  service 
of  the  United  States  to  crush  the  existing  rebellion,  and  who 
shall  be  honorably  discharged  at  the  close  of  the  war,  and  the 
widows  and  minor  children  of  such  as  may  be  killed  in  battle  or 
die  in  the  service,  or  die  of  wounds  received,  or  by  diseases  con- 
tracted in  the  service,  and  for  the  purpose  of  compensating 
such  loyal  citizens  of  said  recent  States  as  may  sustain 
damages  or  losses  by  reason  of  the  said  revolt,  or  by  the  pro- 
visions of  this  act,  to  be  distributed  and  apportioned  as  Con- 
gress may  hereafter  provide. 

Sec.  7.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  the  superior 
court  hereby  authorized  shall  hold  such  terms  and  at  such 
times  and  places  as  a  majority  of  the  judges  may  from  time 
to  time  determine,  and  they  may  appoint  a  clerk  and  establish 
and  modify  rules  of  practice  within  each  district,  and  shall 
exercise  such  jurisdiction,  and  hear  and  determine  all  such 
causes  and  matters  within  their  respective  districts  as  are  by 


—  367— 

law  cog"nizable  by  the  circuit  and  district  courts  of  the 
United  States  or  the  territorial  courts  and  also  such  as  may 
by  act  of  Congress  or  the  provisional  leg-islature  of  the  dis- 
trict be  made  cog'nizable  by  the  said  court,  and  the  final 
judgments  or  decrees  of  said  courts  shall  be  subject  to  rever- 
sals, affirmation,  or  revision  on  appeals  or  writs  of  error  by  i 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  like  manner  and 
under  the  same  regulations  as  from  the  circuit  court  of  the 
United  States,  where  the  value  in  controversy  to  be  ascer- 
tained by  the  oath  or  affirmation  of  either  party  or  other 
competent  witnesses  shall  exceed  one  thousand  dollars. 

Sec.  8.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  all  loyal 
persons,  and  all  who  may  be  admitted  by  the  legislative 
council  to  the  privileges  of  electors  in  said  districts,  shall  be 
qualified  to  serve  as  grand  or  petit  jurors  of  the  county  in 
which  they  reside,  and  they  shall,  until  the  legislative  coun- 
cil for  each  district  otherwise  direct,  be  selected  in  such 
manner  as  the  judges  of  said  superior  court  respectively  shall 
prescribe:  Provided,  that  no  person  who  has  heretofore 
held  office,  or  a  commission,  either  civil  or  military,  under 
the  government  of  the  United  States,  or  any  one  of  the 
States,  or  any  lawyer  or  any  person  who  has  taken  an  oath 
to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  or  any  pro- 
fessed minister  of  the  gospel  who  has  been,  now  is,  or  may 
hereafter  be,  in  open  rebellion  against  the  National  Govern- 
ment, or  who,  in  any  manner,  has  given  or  may  give  aid  and 
comfort  to  the  enemies  of  the  United  States,  shall  act  as 
juror,  or  be  entitled  to  the  privileges  of  an  elector,  or  be 
eligible  to  any  office  under  the  General  Government,  or  in 
either  of  said  districts. 

Sec.  9.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  there  shall 
be  appointed  within  each  district  organized  as  aforesaid,  a 
secretary,  a  marshal,  and  a  district  attorney,  who  shall  exer- 
cise the  powers,  discharge  the  duties,  and  receive  the  com- 
pensation for  like  offices  created  by  act  of  Congress  estab- 
lishing the  territorial  government  of  Washington;  and  the 
governor  of  each  of  said  districts  shall  receive  for  his  ser- 
vices $2,500  per  annum,  each  member  of  the  couucil  $1,000 
and  the  judges  $2,000  each  per  annum. 


—  368  — 

Sec.  10.  And  b^  it  further  enacted,  That  the  Presi- 
dent may,  by  proclamation,  until  Congress  shall  otherwise 
direct,  establish  such  ports  of  entry  and  delivery  within  the 
districts  of  any  provisional  g-overnment  authorized  by  this 
act  as  he  may  deem  necessary,  and  appoint  collectors  and  all 
other  needed  officers  now  for  other  ports  in  like  manner 
appointed;  may  also  appoint  or  authorize  the  appointment  of 
such  other  officers  as  are  usual  in  such  ports;  and  all  such 
officers  shall  have  the  same  powers  and  discharg-e  such  duties 
as  like  officers  in  other  ports  of  the  United  States.  The  col- 
lector for  each  port  shall  receive  $1,500  per  annum,  but  no 
additional  officer  shall  receive  more  than  $1,000  per  annum, 
and  all  provisions  of  law  relating*  to  other  ports  of  entry  in 
the  United  States  shall  be  applied,  so  far  as  practicable,  to 
the  ports  hereby  authorized. 

Sec.  11.  And  be  it  further  enacted.  That  all  acts 
and  parts  of  acts  inconsistent  with  the  provisions  of  this  act 
be,  and  the  same  are  hereby  repealed. 

Mr.  Pendleton.    I  move  to  lay  the  bill  upon  the  table. 

Mr.  Bingham,  of  Ohio.  I  demand  the  yeas  and  nays 
upon  that  motion. 

The  yeas  and  nays  were  ordered. 

The  question  was  taken;  and  it  was  decided  in  the  affir- 
mative— yeas  65,  nays  56;  as  follows: 

Yeas — Messrs.  Ancona,  Joseph  Bailey,  Biddle,  Francis 
P.  Blair,  Jacob  B.  Blair,  George  H.  Browne,  William  G. 
Brown,  Calvert,  Casey,  Clements,  Cobb,  Colfax,  Corning, 
Cravens,  Crisfield,  Crittenden,  Delano,  Diven,  Dunlap,  Dunn, 
English,  Fisher,  Granger,  Grider,  Gurley,  Ilaight,  Harding, 
Harrison,  William  Kellog,  Killinger,  Law,  Lazear,  Leary, 
Lehman,  McKnight,  Mallory,  May,  Menzies,  Morris,  Nixon, 
Noble,  Noell,  Norton,  Pendleton,  Perry,  Timothy  G.  Phelps, 
Porter,  Alexander  H.  Rice,  Richardson,  Sheffield,  Shella- 
barger,  Shiel,  JohnB.  Steele,  Stratton,  Benjamin  F.  Thomas, 
Francis  Thomas,  Train,  Wadsworth,  Ward,  Webster, 
Wheeler,  Whaley,  Clinton  A.  White,  Wickliff.  and  Wood 
—  65. 

Nays  —  Messrs.  Aldrich,  Arnold,  Ashley,  Baker,  Baxter, 
Beaman,  Bingham,  Samuel  S.  Blair,  Blake,  Buffinton,  Camp- 


—  369  — 

bell,  Chamberlin,  Clark,  Frederick  A.  Conkling",  Koscoe 
Conkling-,  Cutler,  Davis,  Duell,  Edgerton,  Edwards,  Eliot, 
Fessenden,  Franchot,  Frank,  Hale,  Hooper,  Horton,  Hutchins, 
Julian,  Kelley,  Francis  W.  Kellog-g",  Lansing",  Loomis,  Love- 
joy,  McPherson,  Mitchell,  Moorhead,  Anson  P.  Morrill, 
Justin  S.  Morrill,  Pike,  Pomeroy,  Jolin  H,  Rice,  Riddle, 
Edward  H.  Rollins,  Sargent,  Sedgwick,  Sloan,  Stevens, 
Trowbridge,  Van  Valkenburgh,  Wall,  Charles  W.  Walton,  E. 
P.  Walton,  Wilson,  Windom,  and  Worcester — 56. 
So  the  bill  was  laid  upon  the  table. 


GENERAL  ASHLEY'S  SPEECH 
Art  San  Francisco,  Cawfornia,   September  17i?h,    1865. 


FROM  TH:«  SAN   FRANCISCO   Bin.X.STlN. 


"  We  give  in  our  columns  to-day,  the  speech  made  by  Gen- 
eral Ashley  at  Piatt's  Hall,  last  nig"ht.  In  speaking"  of  this 
terse,  sound,  practical  common  sense  production  of  Mr. 
Ashley's,  we  cannot  do  better  than  to  give  the  language  of 
the  Alta  Cawfornian,  the  most  conservative  newspaper  of 
the  West: 

"  *  The  speech  of  General  Ashley  last  evening,  at  Piatt's 
Hall,  was  a  great  oration,  splendid  in  its  ability,  and  powerful 
in  its  effect.  The  auditory  were  charmed  with  the  eloquence, 
and  impressed  with  the  nobleness  of  the  man  before  them. 
There  was  no  tinsel,  no  trickery  of  speech,  no  flimsiness  or 
tawdriness  of  rhetoric.  The  applause  was  frequent,  pro- 
longed and  enthusiastic,  and  it  represented  no  doubt  the 
general  sentiment  of  the  Union  people  of  San  Francisco  — 
that  is  the  sentiment  of  admiration  for  such  a  speech.  His 
eminent  position  and  his  oratorical  ability  give  attraction  to 
everything  he  may  say,  and  render  his  remarks  worthy  of 
attentive  perusal.' " 


MR.    ASHI^EY  on   RECONSTRUCTION. 

In  accordance  with  the  announcement,  the  Hon.  J.  M. 
Ashley,  Congressman  from  Ohio,  and  Chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Territories  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  ad- 
dressed the  citizens  of  San  Francisco  in  Piatt's  Hall  last  even- 
ing.    A  very  large  audience  was  present.     Collector  James 

(370) 


—  371  — 

^was  appointed  Chairman,  and  Louis  R.  Lull,  Secretary.  Mr. 
Ashley  was  introduced  to  the  audience  by  Col.  James  with  a 
few  complimentary  remarks,  in  which  he  was  given  the  credit 
of  having"  done  more  than  any  other  man  to  carry  through 
Congress  the  constitutional  amendment  forever  prohibiting 
slavery  in  the  United  States.  Among  the  many  distinguished 
persons  who  have  visited  our  State  of  late,  none  was  more 
worthy  of  our  regard  and  admiration  than  he.  He  would  ad- 
dress us  this  evening  upon  questions  of  general  and  local  in- 
terest, and  whatever  may  be  his  views,  we  could  be  assured 
that  they  came  from  a  clear  head  and  a  ripe  experience,  and 
would  be  deserving  of  our  careful  consideration. 

On  stepping  to  the  desk,  Mr.  Ashley  was  received  with 
prolonged  cheers  by  the  audience,  and  after  quiet  was  re- 
stored, he  spoke  as  follows: 


SPEECH   OP  MR.    ASHI^^y. 

Mr.  President,  and  Ladies  and  Genti^emen  of  San 
Francisco  :  I  thank  my  friend  for  his  very  flattering  introduc- 
tion, and  trust  I  shall  not  disappoint  you.  He  has  been 
pleased  to  refer  in  complimentary  terms  to  my  political  record, 
to  all  of  which  I  can  only  say  that  when  the  smoke  of  the  bat- 
tle has  cleared  off,  and  the  prejudices  and  passions  of  the 
hour  shall  have  passed,  and  the  motives  of  men  can  be  read 
in  the  clear  light  of  history,  I  hope  my  record  will  be  one  of 
which  neither  my  friends  nor  my  children  will  have  cause  to 
feel  ashcin^d. 

If  in  our  great  anti-slavery  struggle,  or  during  the  war 
for  the  preservation  of  the  nation,  it  shall  be  found  that  I 
contributed  to  the  triumph  of  both,  whether  by  clearing  away 
the  underbrush  or  by  occasionally  felling  some  of  the  larger 
timber,  I  shall  be  amply  compensated  for  all  such  labor  and 
for  the  unmeasured  abuse  of  which  I  have  been  the  recipient. 
But  in  this  practical  age  it  is  not  so  much  what  a  man  has 
done,  as  what  he  can  do  which  interests  the  public  in  him. 
On  this  point  I  think  I  may  say  with  safety,  that  I  am  sure 
the  States  and  Territories  west  of  the  Missouri  will  receive 
no  detriment  because  of  my  visit. 


—  372  — 

Mr.  President,  one  week  ag-o  yesterday  afternoon,  as  I 
passed  from  the  Pacific  through  the  Golden  Gate  into  your 
m  ag-nificent  harbor,  and  beheld  for  the  first  time  your  beau- 
tiful city,  I  felt  as  if  one  of  the  earliest  dreams  of  my  boy- 
hood had  been  realized,  and  that  I  had  been  fully  compen- 
sated for  the  toil  and  hazard  of  an  overland  trip  from  the  Mis- 
souri river  by  stag-e  to  Denver,  Salt  Lake  and  Montana, 
thence  down  the  Snake  throug-h  Idaho  to  the  Columbia  River 
many  hundred  miles  on  horseback  and  buckboard,  thence 
down  the  Columbia  to  Portland,  Oreg-on,  and  across  to 
Olympia  and  Pug^et  Sound,  and  from  Victoria  by  steamer  here. 

When  a  boy  I  had  read  the  account  g-iven  by  Lewis  and 
Clark  of  their  explorations,  and  I  long-ed  to  see  the  g-reat 
plains,  the  wonderful  rivers  and  still  more  wonderful  moun- 
tains, which  I  find  they  have  so  faithfully  described.  In  my 
journey  I  passed  over  many  points  of  interest  made  historic 
by  them  and  by  Fremont,  Stevens,  Mullen,  Lander  and  others, 
but  interesting-  and  wonderful  as  many  of  these  localities 
were  to  me,  none  have  impressed  me  more  favorably  than 
your  beautiful  seven-hilled  city  of  less  than  twenty  years' 
g-rpwth. 

If  a  man  who  had  never  heard  of  San  Francisco  should 
enter  your  harbor  as  I  did,  and  see  shipping-  from  all  parts  of 
the  world  so  numerous  as  to  make  a  perfect  forest  of  masts, 
and  witness  the  bustle  and  activity  of  business,  and  be  told 
that  your  population  exceeded  125,000  he  would  naturally  con- 
clude that  he  was  entering- one  of  the  oldest  and  most  wealthy 
cities  on  the  continent.  I  cannot  tell  you  how  this  sig-ht 
stirred  my  heart  with  national  pride  as  I  beheld  in  all  that  I 
saw  the  results  of  American  g-enius  and  American  enterprise. 

When  the  g-reat  railroad  of  the  continent,  forty  miles 
of  which  I  am  told  is  now  ironed  and  which  with  such  com- 
mendable zeal  you  are  pushing-  forward  so  rapidly,  shall  have 
been  completed,  and  our  eastern  cities  of  the  Atlantic  are 
united  with  your  metropolis  by  iron  bands,  one  of  the 
dreams  of  my  early  manhood  will  be  realized.  Thanks  to 
the  energy  with  which  you  are  pushing  forward  the  Pacific 
division,  soon  the  shrill  whistle  of  the  iron  horse  will  awaken 
echoes  through  the  canons  and  gorges  oi  the  mountains,  as 
it  passes  over  and  descends  to  the  plains  on  the  eastern  slope 


—  373  — 

of  the  Sierra  Nevadas.  When  this  is  accomplished  it  will  be 
a  proud  day  for  California,  because  to  you  will  be  due  the 
credit  of  having-  demonstrated  to  the  world  the  practicability 
of  this  g"reat  enterprise,  around  which  so  many  hopes,  present 
and  prospective,  cling*. 

Next  in  importance  to  this  coast  is  the  mining"  interests 
of  California,  and  of  the  States  and  Territories  west  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  I  have  visited  most  of  the  mining*  dis- 
tricts, and  my  observations  have  confirmed  my  judgment  that 
no  policy  could  be  more  suicidal  than  to  sell  the  mines.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

The  speaker  dwelt  at  some  leng-th  upon  the  subject,  and 
repeated  his  conviction  after  a  thorough  examination  of  the 
mining"  districts  and  frequent  conversations  with  the  miners  — 
many  of  whom  had  spent  16  years  in  developing-  this  coast — 
that  no  g-reater  blunder  and  no  g-reater  wrong-  could  be  com- 
mitted by  the  g-overnment  than  to  deprive  them  of  the  mines 
by  g-eneral  sale.  It  would  put  a  stop  to  prospecting*,  retard 
the  development  of  the  mines,  and  he  was  satisfied  would  not 
add  $20,000,000  to  the  coffers  of  the  g-overnment.  The  in- 
come tax  accruing-  from  the  present  system  of  mining-  would 
bring-  a  larg-er  amount  to  the  treasury  in  10  years  than  the 
entire  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  mines.  Capitalists  would 
combine,  and  both  the  miner  and  the  g-overnment  would  be 
defrauded.  The  result  of  the  sale  of  our  mines  would  be  to 
reduce  them  to  the  condition  of  the  Mexican  mines,  which 
certainly  no  one  desired  to  see.     [Applause.] 

Taking-  leave  of  this  subject  the  speaker  proceeded  as 
follows: 

And  now,  fellow-citizens,  permit  me  to  pass  to  the  con- 
sideration o^  a  subject  which  ought  to  interest  every  loyal 
man  in  the  nation. 

The  last  rebel  army  has  been  defeated  and  disbanded* 
The  Union  army  has  returned  home  in  triumph  beneath  its  torn 
and  blood-stained  banners.  In  its  march,  the  seared  and 
weather-beaten  veterans  shook  the  very  earth  beneath  their 
tread.  I  saw  them,  as  they  passed  in  their  two  days'  review 
throug-h  the  National  Capital,  and  you  know  that  in  every 
city  and  hamlet  they  were  g-reeted  with  shouts  and  tears,  and 


—  374  — 

received  the  homage  and  benediction  of   the  nation.      fAp- 
plause.] 

At  their  country's  call  more  than  a  million  men  volun- 
tarily left  their  quiet  and  peaceful  homes  to  peril,  and,  if 
need  be,  to  yield  up  their  lives  to  save  the  nation's  life.  To- 
day the  remnant  of  this  patriotic  and  heroic  army  are  return- 
ing* to  their  homes  to  assume  again  the  peaceful  and  respon- 
sible duties  of  American  citizens.  This  is  a  spectacle  the 
glory  and  grandeur  of  which  dazzles  the  world  with  its 
splendor,  and  is  worthy  to  be  written  in  the  Book  of  Life  by 
the  recording  angel.      [Applause.] 

With  the  return  of  this  army  ends  the  struggle  to  main- 
tain our  national  existence  by  force  of  arms,  and  a  struggle 
unlike  any  in  our  history  us  to  take  its  place.  Who  shall  be 
authorized  to  reorganize  loyal  State  governments  in  the  late 
rebel  States?  Shall  it  be  loyal  men  or  disloyal  men?  Shall 
educated  treason  be  clothed  with  the  power  or  uneducated 
loyalty?  Shall  the  men  who  for  the  past  four  years  have 
labored  with  might  and  main  to  destroy  the  government,  and 
whose  hands  are  red  with  the  blood  of  my  loyal  countrymen, 
be  entrusted  with  full  power  to  govern  not  only  themselves 
and  the  loyal  men  of  the  South,  but,  by  uniting  with  their 
late  Northern  allies,  govern  us  also? 

These  are  practical  questions,  it  seems  to  me  —  and 
questions  of  tr,anscendent  importance  to  us  as  a  free  people. 
If  the  loyal  men  of  the  nation  would  answer  them  as  the 
returned  Union  soldiers  have  answered  them,  I  should  have  no 
anxiety  for  the  future.  If  one  question  could  be  satisfac- 
torily answered,  there  would  be  no  serious  disagreement 
among  loyal  men.  That  question  is  this  — What,  during  the 
war,  has  been,  and  what  is  now  the  legal  status  of  the  late 
rebel  States? 

I  hold,  that,  when  the  people  of  the  thirteen  colonies  adopt- 
ed our  present  national  Constitution,  the  old  confederation  was 
abolished,  and  the  United  States  became  a  nation;  that  the 
national  *' Constitution  is  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  any- 
thing in  the  constitutions,  laws  or  judicial  decisions  of  the 
States  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding;"  that  the  National 
Government  thus  created  is  clothed  with  full  powers  for  its 
self-preservation;  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States 


—  375  — 

is  a  g-overnment  of  the  people  and  not  a  g-overnment  of  thirty- 
six  sovereig-n  States;  but  a  government  of  the  people  residing- 
in  territorial  subdivisions  which  we  call  States,  and  which 
have  State  governments,  organized  in  subordination  to,  and 
in  conformity  with  the  national  Constitution;  that  the  people 
who  maintain  such  State  g-overnments,  and  they  alone,  are 
constitutionally  clothed  with  the  power  of  g-overning*  the  na- 
tion.    [Applause.] 

I  hold  that  when  the  people  of  the  States  recently  in 
rebellion  confederated  together  in  violation  of  the  national 
Constitution,  and  organized  and  maintained  by  force  of  arms 
a  D'Bi  FACTO  hostile  g-overnment,  and  the  rebellion  assumed 
proportions  formidable  enough  to  claim  and  to  have  conceded 
to  it  by  the  United  States  and  by  the  great  powers  of  Europe, 
belligerent  rights,  from  that  hour  constitutional  State  govern- 
ments in  each  of  the  States  so  confederated  together  ceased 
to  exist,  and  until  State  governments  are  organized  in  each  of 
said  States  in  subordination  to  the  national  Constitution,  and 
are  recognized  by  Congress,  there  can  be  no  constitutional 
State  governments  in  such  States.     [Applause.] 

I  hold  that  whenever  the  people  residing  in  any  one  or 
more  States  neo-lect  or  refuse  to  maintain  constitutional 
State  governments,  whether  it  be  by  abolishing  their  State 
constitutions  and  refusing  to  ordain  new  ones,  or  by  con- 
federating together  with  other  States,  or  with  foreign 
powers,  to  make  war  upon  the  nation,  from  that  moment  the 
governing  power,  whether  for  national  or  State  purposes, 
which  was  lodged  by  the  national  Constitution  and  laws  of 
the  United  States  in  the  people  of  such  State  or  States,  ter- 
minates, and  remains  in  the  people  residing  in  the  States 
which  maintain  constitutional  governments.  In  other  words, 
that  the  sovereigfnty  of  the  nation  cannot  be  destroyed  or  im- 
paired within  the  territorial  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States, 
by  the  action,  or  the  refusal  to  act  of  any  one  or  more  States. 
[Applause.] 

I  hold  that  the  people  of  any  State  may  alter  or  abolish 
their  State  constitutions  and  governments  whenever  they  see 
fit  to  do  so,  and  they  may  refuse  to  establish  others,  and  that 
there  is  no  power  in  the  National  Government  to  compel  the 
majority   of   the   people  in   any  State  to   maintain  a  State 


—  376  — 

gfovernment  or  to  elect  Senators  or  Representatives  to  Con- 
gress, or  to  vote  for  Presidential  electors.  Nevertheless,  the 
sovereignty  of  the  United  States  over  the  territory  and  peo- 
ple within  such  State  or  States  remains  unimpaired;  the  laws 
of  the  United  States  are  legally  in  full  force,  and  the  alle- 
giance of  every  citizen  residing  within  the  territorial  limits 
of  the  nation,  whether  in  organized  or  unorganized  States, 
is  due  to  the  United  States,  whatever  may  be  the  action  of 
a  majority  of  the  people  in  any  State.     [Applause.] 

Those  who  can  see  in  these  propositions  a  recognition  of 
the  right  of  secession  are  remarkable  logicians. 

The  speaker  then  spoke  for  nearly  half  an  hour  in  de- 
fense of  these  propositions,  and  continued  as  follows: 

If,  in  our  efforts  to  reorganize  loyal  State  governments 
in  the  late  rebel  States,  we  permit  the  question  of  loyal  suf- 
frage to  remain  an  open  question,  widespread  agitation  is 
inevitable,  and  I  fear  disaster  and  defeat,  not  only  to  the 
Union  cause  in  most  of  the  rebel  States,  but  in  some  of  the 
loyal  States  also.  If  however,  all  loyal  men,  without  distinc- 
tion of  race  or  color,  are  invited  and  permitted  to  vote  for 
delegates  to  the  proposed  constitutional  conventions,  which 
are  to  be  or  ought  to  be  held  in  each  of  the  late  rebel  States, 
and  for  the  acceptance  or  rejection  of  any  constitution  which 
may  be  framed  by  such  conventions,  whatever  the  result, 
there  can  be  no  violent  agitation  or  formidable  division  of 
the  Union  party.     [Applause.] 

If  the  loyal  whites  and  loyal  blacks  of  the  South,  in 
reorganizing  loyalj  State  governments,  see  fit  to  limit  the 
right  of  the  elective  franchise  to  the  blacks  who  can  read 
and  write  the  English  language  and  to  all  **who  have  been 
in  the  military  -or  rival  service  of  the  United  States,'* 
whether  they  can  read  and  write  or  not,  I  think  a  majority  of 
the  Union  party  would  acquiesce -- certainly  much  of  the 
excitement  which  will  follow  if  the  colored  soldiers  are 
excluded  would  be  avoided.  But  if  the  loyal  blacks,  including 
all  the  black  soldiers,  are  to  be  excluded,  and  none  but  the 
loyal  whites  and  those  professedly  loyal,  together  with  all 
the  pardoned  and  unrepentant  rebels  in  these  States,  are  to 
vote  for  delegates  to  conventions  to  reorganize  loyal  State 
governments,  there  will  be  dissatisfaction  among  the  loyal 


—  377  — 

men  of  the  nation,  and  justly;  and  for  one  I  fear  the  conse- 
quences. [Applause.]  If  President  Johnson  should  to- 
morrow issue  instructions  to  his  recently  appointed  pro- 
visional governors  in  the  rebel  States  requiring-  them  to  in- 
vite and  see  that  alMoyal  black  men  were  not  only  permitted, 
but  protected,  in  voting*  for  deleg-ates,  and  for  or  ag-ainst 
accepting"  any  State  constitution  which  might  be  framed  by 
such  conventions,  nineteen-twentieths  of  all  the  professed 
Union  men  in  the  North  now  opposing-  negro  sufPrag-e  would 
give  in  their  adhesion  to  the  plan,  whilfe  all  thenhangers-on 
of  the  party  would  at  once  become  vociferous  in  its  favor. 
[Applause.] 

Every  party,  as  every  army,  has  its  camp-followers.  The 
Republican  and  Union  party,  since  it  came  into  power,  has. 
had  its  full  share  of  them.  We  have  thousands  of  men  in 
the  Union  party,  who,  on  this  negro  suffrage  question,  are 
skirmishing  along,  near  enough  to  the  main  column  of  our 
advancing  army  to  rush  in  and  claim  the  benefit  of  a  victory 
if  we  obtain  one,  and  yet  close  enough  to  the  rear  to  beat  a 
hasty  retreat  if  we  should  be  defeated,  to  enable  them  to 
join  the  enemy  without  any  perceptible  change  of  base.  This 
is  political  strategy.     [Laughter  and  applause.] 

I  once  asked  a  man  in  Washington  how  it  came  that  he 
was  retained  in  office  for  so  many  years,  under  so  many  dif- 
ferent administrations.  "By  Heavens!"  he  exclaimed  with 
an  air  of  triumph,  and  much  apparent  satisfaction,  "I  would 
like  to  see  the  people  elect  a  President  oftener  than  I  can 
change."  Do  you  suppose  any  man  ever  will  be  elected 
President  who  can  issue  proclamations  faster  than  the  flun- 
kies and  camp-followers  of  his  party  will  approve  them?  If 
you  do,  I  do  not.     [Laughter.] 

You  all  remember  how  many  editors  and  politicians  were 
indifferent  to,  or  opposed  the  demand  of  the  anti-slavery  men 
for  an  emancipation  policy,  before  it  was  adopted  by  Mr. 
Lincoln.  As  soon,  however,  as  the  proclamation  was  issued, 
there  was  a  sudden  and  general  conversion,  and  these  very 
men  were  the  first  to  appear  at  every  public  meeting  to  give 
in  their  adhesion,  and  to  rush  into  every  nominating  conven- 
tion and  take  the  front  seats  without  a  scruple,  and  demand 
the  best  offices  without  a  blush.     [Laughter  and  applause.] 


—  378— 

If  Mr.  Johnson  should,  to-day,  issue  such  a  proclamation 
as  the  loyal  suffrage  men  of  the  nation  have  asked  him  to 
issue,  and  such  a  proclamation  as  I  hope  he  will  yet  issue  — 
for  I  hold  he  is  not  committed  ag-ainst'it — I  do  not  believe  ten 
men  occupying*  respectable  positions  in  the  Union  party, 
either  as  editors,  or  Senators  and  Representatives  in  Con- 
gress, could  be  found  to  oppose  him  in  such  a  movement. 

Mr.  Lincoln  once  said  to  me,  that  he  had  more  to  fear 
from  a  class  of  men  who  crawled  in  the  back  door,  approved 
whatever  they  supposed  to  be  his  policy  while  denouncing 
and  slandering  the  anti-slavery  men,  whom  he  knew  and 
admitted  to  be  the  most  steadfast  Union  men,  as  well  as  his 
most  reliable  friends.  This  same  class  of  camp  followers 
were  the  first  to  rush  in  person  to  the  presidential  mansion, 
and  fawningly  approve  the  new  policy,  the  moment  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  was  issued.  They  flooded  the 
mails  with  their  letters  of  commendation,  and  filled  five 
columns  of  their  papers  in  laudation  of  the  new  policy,  for 
every  one  used  by  anti-slavery  papers.  So  it  would  be  now, 
if  the  President  would  issue  a  proclamation  to-morrow  in 
favor  of  loyal  suffrage  without  regard  to  the  race  or  color 
of  the  voter.  The  opposition  in  the  Union  party  would  not 
have  force  or  courage  enough  to  make  a  ripple  on  the  face  of 
the  smoothest  water.     [Applause.] 

All  I  demand  in  the  reorganization  of  State  governments 
in  the  rebel  States,  is  justice — justice  alike  to  loyal  white 
and  loyal  black — justice  to  the  late  rebels  also — justice  tem- 
pered with  mercy,  if  you  will,  but,  nevertheless,  justice  — 
that  justice  which  secures  the  personal  rights  of  all,  by  plac- 
ing in  their  hands  the  ballot  — the  only  sure  weapon,  in  a 
republic,  of  protection  and  defense  to  the  poor  man,  whether 
white  or  black.  To  me  the  ballot  is  the  political  stone  *'  cut 
out  of  the  mountain  without  hands,  which  shall  fill  the 
whole  earth,  break  every  yoke  and  let  the  oppressed  go  free." 
*' Whosoever  shall  fall  on  this  stone  shall  be  broken,  but 
on  whomsoever  it  shall  fall,  it  will  grind  him  to  powder." 
[Applause.] 

And  here  I  may  be  pardoned  if  I  digress  a  few  moments 
and  refer  to  some  unfriendly  criticisms  which  have  been  made 
by  Eastern  papers  upon  extracts  which  purport  to  have  been 


—  379  — 

copied  from  a  speech  made  by  me  on  the  evening-  before  I 
left  Ohio. 

I  have  never  seen  the  paper  from  home  containing*  the 
speech  referred  to,  and  only  since  I  reached  your  city  have  I 
read  what  purported  to  be  extracts  from  it,  and  the  criticisms 
made  upon  them.  Perhaps  I  oug-ht  also  to  say  that  I  did  not 
expect  the  few  remarks  which  I  made  on  that  night,  at  a 
private  business  meeting",  to  appear  in  any  publication,  as  a 
speech.  I  supposed  a  notice  of  the  meeting*  would  probably 
appear,  and  that  some  reference,  in  g-eneral  terms,  might 
perhaps  be  made  editorially  to  what  was  said  —  nothing* 
more.  If  I  had  known  that  what  I  said  about  my  interviews 
with  the  President  on  the  loyal  suffrag*e  question  was  to  ap* 
pear  as  a  speech,  I  would  have  asked  the  privilege  of  read- 
ing* and  correcting-  the  manuscript  or  proof,  if  it  needed  cor- 
recting* —  as  speeches  not  unf requently  do,  even  when  spoken 
with  studied  deliberation  and  reduced  to  writing*  by  the  best 
reporters,  to  say  nothing*  of  the  occasional  necessity  of  cor- 
recting* typographical  blunders  in  the  best  regulated  printing* 
establishments. 

Part  of  what  I  have  seen  quoted  is  substantially  correct. 
I  did  say  that  *'the  President  assured  me  that  he  was 
anxious  to  secure  to  all  men  their  rights,  without  regard  to 
color."  I  also  said,  and  on  this  point  I  hope  I  may  never  have 
cause  to  change  my  impresssions,  **that  from  all  the  conver- 
sations I  had  with  the  President,  I  was  satisfied  that  he  de- 
sired so  to  administer  the  government  as  to  reflect  the  wishes 
and  sentiments  of  the  Union  men  of  the  nation." 

What  I  said  when  speaking*  of  the  future  action  of  the 
anti-slavery  men  and  dang*er  of  division,  and  the  eventual 
defeat  of  the  Union  party  if  the  loyal  suffrage  policy  was 
not  adopted,  I  believe  to  be  true  and  so  repeat  it  now. 

I  said  substantially,  *'[that  the  anti-slavery  men  of  the 
Ufflited  States  had  destroyed  the  old  Whig*  and  Democratic 
parties;  that  all  along*  the  political  coast  the  wrecks  of 
Northern  statesmen  were  lying*  thicker  than  the  blockade  run- 
ners from  England;  that,  true  to  the  principles  of  freedom 
and  philanthropy  thoroughly  implanted  in  their  characters, 
they  would  remember  the  terrible  ordeal  through  which  they 
passed  for  more  than  thirty  years,  and  be  ever  faithful  to 


—  380  — 

their  convictions;  that  as  they  had,  during-  many  long*,, 
weary  years  of  discourag-ements  and  apparent  defeats,  labored 
with  a  fidelity  that  never  tired,  and  a  determination  which 
never  faltered,  to  impress  their  anti-slavery  ideas  upon  the 
mind  and  heart  of  the  nation,  so  for  the  next  third  of  a 
century,  or  long-er,  if  necessary,  they  would  consecrate  them^ 
selves  to  the  g-r.eat  work  of  securing-  the  complete  enfranchise- 
ment of  the  men  whom  their  labors  had  liberated  from  the 
thraldom  of  slavery;  [applause]  that  if  statesmen  and  par- 
ties stood  in  the  way  of  success,  such  statesmen  would  be 
destroyed  and  such  parties  perish,  and  go  into  common  graves^ 
as  the  pro-slavery  statesmen  of  the  North  and  the  old  Whig 
and  Democratic  parties  had  gone  before  them,  because  false 
to  freedom."     [Applause.] 

I  did  not  say  this  in  a  violent  or  threatening  manner,  as 
I  am  reported  to  have  done,  but  with  sadness  and  apprehen- 
sion, rather. 

I  believe  that  by  the  adoption  of  the  policy  which  I  have 
indicated,  a  division  and  conflict  such  as  then  appeared,  and 
now  seems  inevitable,  might  be  avoided,  and  the  political 
homogeneity  of  the  nation,  and  the  oneness  in  principle  and 
purpose  of  the  Republican  party,  be  secured.     [Applause.] 

I  knew  that  the  adoption  of  this  policy  would  make,  as 
the  emancipation  policy  had  made,  the  Republican  party  a 
unit;  and  I  believed,  if  it  was  not  adopted,  that  the  old  war- 
worn veterans  of  the  anti-slavery  army  would  blow  a  blast 
upon  their  bugles  which  would  call  around  them  a  million  of 
men,  who  never  followed  presidents  or  parties  for  position  or 
plunder;  that  they  would  camp  on.  the  battlefield,  as  they 
did  during  their  thirty  years  of  anti-slavery  warfare,  and 
with  the  banner  of  impartial  suffrage  to  all  loyal  men,  white 
and  black,  flying  over  their  heads,  that  they  would,  sooner  or 
later,  vanquish  all  opposition,  by  destroying  men  and  parties^ 
and  come  off,  as  they  had  in  their  conflict  with  the  rebels, 
conquerors  and  more  than  conquerors.     [Applause.] 

I  believed  then,  and  believe  now,  that  divisions  among 
Union  men  would  bring  certain  defeat,  and  I  am  sure  the 
loyal  men  of  this  nation  cannot  be  defeated  without  my  going 
down  with  them.  In  my  anxiety  to  avoid  this,  I  pointed  to 
the  disasters  of  the  past  and  warned  as  a  friend,  rather  than 


—  381  — 

threatened  as  an  enemy.  The  g-oodbook  says,  "  Faithful  are 
the  reproofs  of  a  friend,  but  the  kisses  of  enemies  are  deceitful. " 
I  do  not  disg-uise  the  fact  that  I  am  anxious  for  the  future  of 
the  Republican  party.  I  have  labored  too  long-  and  earnestly 
to  secure  its  triumph  to  be  indifferent  to  its  future  now.  It 
is  only  the  camp-followers  and  plunderers  who  are  indifferent 
to  political  revolutions.  Any  change  is  better  for  such  men 
than  stability.  Divisions  and  sudden  political  changes  may 
throw  such  men  to  the  surface  —  without  these,  they  remain 
mere  camp-followers  and  the  blind  partisans  of  power. 

It  would  not  be  necessary,  if  the  persistent  repetition  of 
a  falsehood  did  not  sometimes  cause  it  to  be  accepted  as  true, 
unless  contradicted,  for  me  to  'refer  to  a  remark  reported  to 
have  been  make  by  the  President  in  reply  to  what  I  said, 
when  urging-  him  to  adopt  in  his  reconstruction  policy, 
*' universal  loyal  suffrag-e,"or,  in  other  words,  negro  suffrage. 
It  is  said  that  he  bade  me,  or  those  with  me,  *'  good  morn- 
ing," with  an  intimation  that  he  did  not  desire  to  have  any- 
thing- more  from  us  on  the  question  of  neg-ro  suffrag-e.  I  do 
not  know  how  the  story  obtained  currency,  nor  do  I  care,  for 
that  matter.  Certainly  neither  to  me,  nor  to  any  g-entlemen 
with  me,  did  the  President,  either  by  word  or  act  ever  express 
displeasure  at  anything-  said  during-  any  of  my  interviews 
with  him  on  the  question  of  negro  suffrage.  My  relations  with 
the  President  are  of  the  most  friendly  character,  and  I  ex- 
pect them  to  remain  of  that  character  while  he  continues  to 
represent  the  loyal  men  of  the  nation.  I  know  him  and  his 
Cabinet  well.  His  Cabinet  is  made  up  of  able,  tried  and  true 
men.  [Applause.]  A  majority  of  them  have  held  responsi- 
ble public  positions  during-  the  past  four  years,  and  all  have 
rendered  important  services  in  aiding-  to  carry  the  nation 
safely  through  the  terrible  war  just  closed.  They  are  en- 
titled to  the  nation's  confidence  and  the  nation's  gratitude, 
[Applause.]  Their  experience  oug-ht  to  render  their  services 
invaluable.  If  the  loyal  men  of  the  nation  cannot  trust  the 
President,  with  such  a  Cabinet  co-operating-  with  him,  I  do 
not  know  whom  they  can  trust.  At  all  events,  until  Mr. 
Johnson  proves  false  to  the  party  which  elected  him,  I  shall 
support  his  administration.  It  does  not  seem  to  me  possible, 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  slave  barons  always  hated  and 


m 

>82  -  1 


feared  him  —  in  view  of  the  splendid  record  he  has  made 
since  the  war,  and  the  pledges  he  has  made  in  public  and 
private,  that  he  can  now  hesitate  to  follow  the  logic  of  events. 
When  I  remember  all  that  he  has  said,  and  the  pledge  which 
he  voluntarily  made  to  the  black  men  at  Nashville,  when  he 
promised  them  to  be  their  Moses,  to  lead  them  out  of  the 
house  of  bondage,  I  cannot  believe  that  he  will  now  turn  back 
to  the  worship  of  the  Golden  Calf,  or  that  he  will  ever  again 
fall  down  before  the  Moloch  of  slavery. 

That  I  shall  differ,  and  that  many  of  you  will  differ  with 
the  President,  his  Cabinet  and  with  Congress,  on  some  of  the 
new  questions  which  must  necessarily  arise,  is  more  than 
probable.  I  am  not  a  believer  in  the  infallibility  of  Presidents- 
or  parties,  and  I  expect  to  do  some  thinking  for  myself ,  as 
these  new  questions  arise.  After  a  full  and  free  discussion  of 
them,  and  when  they  shall  have  been  passed  upon  by  Con- 
gress and  the  co-ordinate  departments  of  the  government,  it 
will  be  time  enough  to  talk  of  proscribing  men  in  a  party  sense, 
for  opinion's  sake,  if  they  refuse  to  acquiesce.  In  the  mean- 
time I  propose,  without  impugning  the  motives  of  any  Union 
man,  or  disparaging  those  who  differ  with  me,  to  do  all  I  can 
to  have  my  views  adopted  by  the  administration.  [Ap- 
plause.] I  am  free  to  say,  however,  that  I  am  committed  to 
no  theory  or  policy  which  I  will  not  gladly  abandon  for  a 
better  one;  no  preconceived  notions  on  matters  of  expediency 
that  I  will  not  yield  with  alacrity  to  accomplish  that  which 
I  have  most  at  heart,  the  unity  of  the  republic  and  the  domi- 
nation in  the  government  of  the  men  who  saved  the  nation's 
life. 

In  party  matters  I  have  enough  to  do  to  fight  the  com- 
mon enemy,  without  making  war  upon  Union  men  because 
they  may  differ  with  me  on  some  of  the  new  and  perplexing 
questions  which  the  war  has  forced  upon  us.  "Whii^k  a  mem- 
ber OF  THE  REPUBI.ICAN  PARTY,  I  SHALI.  DEFEND  ITS  SETTI.ED 
POWCY,  SUPPORT  ITS  REGUI<ARI,Y  NOMINATED  CANDIDATES  AND 
ACQUIESCE  IN  THB  FAIRI.Y  EXPRESSED  WILI.  OF  THE  MAJORITY 
OF  THE  PARTY  ON  AI^I,  POI^ITICAI,  QUESTIONS,  IF  I  CAN  DO  SO 
CONSCIENTIOUSLY.      If  I  CANNOT,  I   SHALL  OPENLY  WITHDRAW 

FROM  THE  ORGANIZATION.     I   have   always  labored  for  the 
triumph  of  ideas  rather  than  for  the  triumph  of  men,  and  I 


—  383  — 

hope  that  during-  the  residue  of  my  public  life,  whether  it  be 
long-  or  short,  I  may  continue  as  I  began.  In  any  event, 
my  friends  may  rest  assured  that  I  will  never  join  the  bush- 
whackers or  camp-followers  for  the  sake  of  place  and  power. 
Whatever  other  faults  I  may  have,  fawning-  at  the  foot  of 
power  for  place  and  plunder  has  never  been,  and  I  trust  never 
will  be,  one  of  them. 

The  speaker  here  reverted  to  the  past  and  spoke  of  the 
terrible  conflict  of  the  last  four  years,  the  panorama  of  which 
often  passed  before  his  eyes;  and  when  he  thought  of  all  the 
delays,  mistakes  and  blunders  that  had  been  made  by  the 
g-overnment,  the  awful  disasters  to  our  armies,  the  keeping- 
in  power  of  incompetent  or  traitorous  g-enerals;  and  notwith- 
standing- all  these  discourag-ements,  he  heard  the  cry  of  a 
consecrated  people  still  coming-  up,  rising-  and  swelling-  over 
the  tumult  and  carnage,  ^'We  are  coming.  Father  Abraham, 
six  hundred  thousand  more;"  when  he  reflected  upon  those 
untold  sacrifices  of  a  brave  and  loyal  people,  he  did  not  wish 
to  see  anything  left  undone  to  gain  the  object  for  which  they 
had  suffered.     [Applause.] 

I  trust,  said  he,  we  all  realize  the  fact  that  in  reorganiz- 
ing civil  society  in  the  late  rebel  States,  a  broad,  liberal  and 
wise  statesmanship  is  needed.  I  am  for  the  most  liberal 
policy  consistent  with  the  safety  and  stability  of  the  nation. 
In  laying  the  foundations  of  republican  commonwealths,  great 
prudence  ought  to  mark  our  every  step.  We  should  see  to  it 
that  every  State  is  so  organized  as  to  secure  the  equality 
before  the  law  of  every  American  citizen,  so  that  the  politi- 
cal communities  thus  organized  shall  be  a  source  of  strength 
to  the  nation  instead  of  a  source  of  weakness.     [Applause.] 

I  know  that  the  brightest  jewel  in  the  diadem  of  the 
conqueror  is  mercy;  yet  mercy  without  justice,  mercy  with- 
out discrimination,  history  and  revelation  alike  teach  us 
gives  no  security  to  governments.  [Applause.]  I  would 
pardon  many —  perhaps  too  many.  I  would  rather  err  on  the 
side  of  mercy,  than  err  on  the  other  side.  I  am  so  anxious 
for  a  nation  of  men  homogeneous  in  aim  and  purpose,  that  I 
would  go  far  to  win  back  an  erring  brother  to  his  former  love 
of  the  Union  and  Constitution  of  our  fathers;  to  the  love  of 
that  old  flag  which  is  to-day  the  emblem  of  our  national 


—  384—. 

power  and  national  g"lory ;  that  flag-  which  is  to  become  the 
flag"  of  an  ocean-bound  republic  —  the  flag-  of  destiny  and  of 
empire,  before  which  all  nations  shall  stand  with  uncovered 
heads.  Thanks  to  the  God  of  nations  and  of  men,  in  speaks 
ing-  to-nig-ht  of  that  flag",  as  it  floats  on  the  land  and  on  the 
sea  we  can  truthfully  say  : 

**  No  more  its  flaming  emblems  wave 
To  bar  from  hope  the  trembling-  slave  ; 
No  more  its  radiant  glories  shine 
To  blast  with  woe  one  child  of  Thine." 

[Applause.] 
Recog-nizing-  the  new  and  responsible  duties  which  the 
'war  has  imposed  upon  us  as  American  citizens,  let  us  g-o  for- 
-ward  to  the  discharg-e  of  those  duties  in  a  forgiving-  spirit 
and  with  thankful  hearts  ;  let  us  go  again  to  the  old  altars, 
and  take  with  us  our  children  and  our  erring  and  repentant 
brothers  also,  and  swear  before  Him  who  liveth  forever 
and  forever  that  come  what  may,  divisions,  dissensions,  rebel- 
lions, interventions  and  foreign  wars  —  that  living  or  dying, 
no  other  flag  shall  ever  float  above  our  homes  or  graves. 
[Prolonged  applause.]* 


*Col.  James,  who  presided  at  this  meeting-,  was  at  the  time  collector  of  the  Port 
■of  San  Francisco,  to  which  position  he  had  been  appointed  by  President  Lincoln.  Itt 
a  short  time  President  Johnson  removed  Col.  James  for  the  offense  of  presiding-. 


SPEECH 

OF  HON.  J.  M.  ASHLEY,  OF  OHIO, 

Dki<ivered  at  Sacramento,  California,  Friday  Evening, 
September  29,  1865. 


Governor  Low,  who  had  served  in  Congress  with  Mr. 
Ashley,  introduced  him  in  a  few  well-chosen  complimentary 
remarks,  after  which  Mr.  Ashley  spoke  as  follows: 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  op  Sacramento:  I  am  greatly 
oblig-fed  to  my  friend,  the  g-overnor,  for  his  very  flattering 
introduction  and  for  his  generous  indorsement  of  my  course 
in  Congress.  To-morrow  I  set  my  face  homeward.  On  the 
map  it  looks  like  a  distant  journey,  yet  Ohio,  you  know,  is 
in  the  very  heart  of  the  republic.  I  cannot  speak  of  that  great 
State  without  feeling  emotions  of  patriotic  pride.  When  I 
remember  all  that  Ohio  has  done  on  the  battlefield,  in 
the  Cabinet  and  in  the  nation's  council  halls,  to  make  her 
name  ever  memorable  in  history,  and  to  crown  with  glory 
the  struggle  of  the  past  four  years,  I  feel  that  to  be  one  of 
lier  Representatives  in  Congress  is  an  honor  of  which  any 
man  should  be  proud,  and  I  only  wish  I  were  a  more  worthy 
representative  of  such  a  noble  commonwealth.     [Applause.] 

I  am  told  by  some  of  your  leading  citizens  that  I  am  to 
g"o  over  the  main  trunk  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  as  far  as  the 
rails  are  laid,  some  forty  miles.  I  trust  when  I  again  visit 
California,  as  I  hope  to  do,  that  I  may  find  all  your  brightest 
anticipations  in  connection  with  this  great  enterprise  fully 
realized.  "Wherever  I  have  gone  in  your  State  my  visit  has 
been  made  so  pleasant  that  I  regret  it  could  not  be  prolonged 
for  ten  days  or  two  weeks  more.  But  time  and  tide 
waiteth  for  no  man,  and  the  ■  snows  on  mountains  and  plains 
will  not  wait  for  me  while  wife  and  children  are  waiting  and 
25  C  385  ) 


.  —386  — 

anxiously  waiting.  I  g-o  home  to  tell  our  people  that  all  the 
stories  told  of  California  are  true,  and  that  all  have  not  been 
told.  From  your  ^'Big-  Trees,"  which  are  more  wonderful 
than  the  cedars  of  Lebanon,  to  your  golden  gateway  of  the 
Pacific,  a  crimson-hued  russet-tinted  halo  everywhere  gilds 
mountain,  plain  and  tree,  and  I  am  charmed  with  a  climate 
which  is  softer,  and  landscapes  more  beautiful  than  any 
which  have  greeted  me  in  all  my  journeyings  over  half  the 
continent.  "With  a  commerce  at  San  Francisco  which  now 
rivals  and  bids  fair  to  exceed  all  the  great  cities  of  the 
Atlantic  except  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  and  with  an  in- 
exhaustible supply  of  iron,  copper,  quicksilver  and  gold,  and 
agricultural  wealth  far  exceeding  my  expectations,  I  am  con- 
fident that  with  all  these,  and  completion  of  the  Pacific 
Railroad,  the  future  of  California  cannot  be  doubtful.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

Mr.  Ashley  then  proceeded  to  the  consideration  of  the 
question  of  reconstruction,  on  which  he  had  been  invited  to 
speak.     He  said: 

On  reflection,  I  am  prepared  to  repeat  and  to  reaffirm  the 
propositions  which  I  made  in  my  speech  at  San  Francisco, 
Let  me  read  from  the  Bulletin  of  the  18th,  which  I  hold  in  my 
hand.  [The  reader  will  find  these  propositions  on  pages 
374-5.] 

After  reading  with  deliberation  the  propositions  which 
he  made  in  San  Francisco,  he  said: 

Mr.  President,  I  desire  also  to  add  another  proposition 
in  order,  if  possible,  to  prevent  any  misrepresentation  of  my 
position. 

I  hold  that  no  State  can,  either  by  legislative  act,  or  by 
a  convention  of  the  people,  constitutionality  pass  an  ordi- 
nance of  secession,  or  ordain  a  new  State  constitution  and 
government  hostile  to  the  United  States;  that  if  such  acts 
of  secession  are  passed  and  hostile  State  governments 
organized  they  are  illegal,  and  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States  residing  within  the  limits  of  such  State  do  not  owe 
allegiance  to  such  government;  but  if  a  majority  of  the 
qualified  electors  of  a  State  unite  with  its  constituted  author- 
ities, and  pass  an  ordinance  of  secession,  or  ordain  a  new 
State  government  by  abolishing  their  old  State  constitution 


—  387  — 

and  adopting"  a  new  one  unknown  to  the  national  Constitution, 
and  attempt  to  maintain  such  unconstitutional  g-overnment 
by  force,  they  do  in  fact  destroy  their  constitutional  State 
g-overnment.     [Applause.] 

To  me,  these  propositions  are  fundamentally  right;  they 
embody,  as  I  interpret  the  national  Constitution,  the  founda- 
tion principles  upon  which  the  corner-stones  of  our  national 
political  edifice  were  laid,  and  upon  which  it  was  built  and 
must  stand.  During*  the  past  four  eventful  years,  had  we 
recognized,  as  true,  the  doctrine  that  our  national  super- 
structure rested  upon  the  Calhoun  assumption  of  State 
sovereig-nty  with  the  right  of  nullification  and  secession,  we 
should  have  learned  to  our  sorrow  that  we  had  builded  upon 
the  sand,  and  that  *'when  the  rains  descended,  the  floods 
came,  and  the  winds  of  the  rebellion  blew  and  beat  upon  it," 
that  it  must  fall,  as  it  would  have  fallen,  if  the  nation  had 
hesitated  to  strike  the  hydra-headed  monster  of  secession  and 
rebellion  with  shot  and  shell  to  its  death,  and  thus  bury  as 
they  did  in  one  common  grave,  the  great  rebellion  with  this 
fallacious  and  false  political  heresy.     [Applause.] 

To  the  impartial  consideration  of  these  propositions^ 
said  Mr.  Ashley,  I  invite  your  careful  attention  and  invoke 
your  considerate  judgment. 

[He  then  made  an  argument  in  favor  of  these  propositions, 
which  we  would  like  to  see  some  able  man  of  the  oppositioa 
answer.] 

In  closing  this  part  of  his  speech  he  said,  that  President 
Lincoln  and  all  the  departments  of  the  National  Government, 
including  Congress  and  the  Supreme  Court,  have  fully  recog- 
nized and  acted  upon  this  theory.  In  fact  the  whole  policy 
of  the  government  during  the  war,  has  been  but  a  recogni- 
tion of  the  ideas  which  I  have  submitted  in  these  proposi* 
tion. 

Mr.  Johnson,  by  appointing  provisional  governors  for  each 
of  the  late  rebel  States,  has  admitted  the  fact  that  the  constitu- 
tional State  governments  of  these  States  are  destroyed,  and 
that  new  constitutional  State  governments  must  be  organized 
and  recognized  by  Congress,  before  the  people  of  such  States 
can  again  be  constitutionally  clothed  as  politicaJ  organiza* 


—  388  — 

tions  with  local  self-g-overnment  or  with  part  of  the  g-overn- 
ing"  power  of  the  nation.     [Applause.] 

If  constitutional  State  g-overnments  still  exist  in  the  late 
rebel  States,  by  what  authority  does  the  President  appoint 
provisional  g-overnors  in  such  States,  direct  the  holding*  of 
State  conventions  to  ordain  new  State  constitutions  and 
g-overnments,  and  prescribe  who  shall  vote  and  be  voted 
for,  and  that  in  the  new  governments  thus  to  be  org-anized, 
they  MUST  recog"nize  the  fact  that  slavery  is  abolished?  [Ap- 
plause.] 

If  constitutional  State  g-overnments  have  existed  dur- 
ing- the  war  in  the  late  rebel  States,  and  now  exist,  can  the 
President  appoint  provisional  g-overnors  and  order  constitu- 
tional conventions  to  assemble  in  such  States  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  NEW  State  g-overnments  such  as  he  may  think 
proper,  without  reg-ard  to  the  provisions  of  their  old  State 
constitutions  which  prescribe  the  mode  and  manner  of  call- 
ing" conventions  to  alter  or  amend  their  constitutions?  If 
he  can,  wh}^  can  he  not  do  the  siame  thing-  in  Ohio  or  Cali- 
fornia?    [Applause.] 

The  truth  is,  that  in  the  late  rebel  States  there  are  no 
constitutional  State  g-overnments  which  Cong-ress  can  recog-- 
nize,  while  in  California  and  Ohio  there  are  constitutional 
State  g-overnments  which  Cong-ress  does  recog-nize.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

I  repeat  what  I  said  at  San  Francisco — "that  any  one 
who  can  see  in  these  propositions  and  the  arg-ument  which 
I  have  made  a  recog-nition  of  the  right  of  secession  is  a 
remarkable  log-ician."       . 

It  is  illegal  to  commit  murder,  but  if  murder  is  com- 
mitted, do  I  recognize  the  right,  because  I  concede  the  fact? 
[Applause.] 

If  the  people  of  one  or  more  States  destroy  their  consti-^ 
tutional  State  governments  and  establish  others  unknown  tdl 
the  national  Constitution,  and  enter  into  alliances  with  other 
States  and  foreign  powers  —  and  make  war  upon  the  Nation c  1 
Government,  do  I  recognize  their  right  to  do  so,  because  J 
concede  that  they  have  done  so  in  fact?  I  deny  the  right  — 
all  loyal  men  deny  the  right,  but  can  I  or  can  you  deny  the: 

fact?  ! 


—  389  — 

[From  the  consideration  of  the  above  propositions,  Mr.  A. 
passed  to  the  discussion  of  a  question  new  and  interesting  to 
the  loyal  men  of  the  nation;  he  urg-ed  that  great  care  should 
be  used  in  guarding  against  any  assumption  of  rebel  debt  by 
the  States  lately  in  rebellion,  and  insisted  that  something 
like  the  following  proposition  should  be  incorporated  in  the 
several  constitutions  of  the  reorganized  States:] 

*'A11  debts  contracted,  whether  State,  city  or  municipal, 
by  the  constituted  authorities  prior  to  the  Act  of  Secession, 
shall  be  valid  against  this  State  under  this  constitution;  but 
no  engagement  entered  into  or  debt  contracted  by  the  late 
rebel,  confederate  or  State  authorities,  or  by  any  city, 
county  or  municipality,  within  this  State,  in  aid  of  the  rebel- 
lion or  to  maintain  State  or  local  civil  governments  hostile  to 
the  United  States,  shall  ever  be  paid  by  this  State,  or  by  any 
city,  county  or  municipality  within  this  State."  [Applause.] 
Mr.  A.  said  that  many  -might  think  this  precaution 
unnecessary,  but  for  his  part,  next  to  securing  impartial  suf- 
frage for  the  loyal  men  of  the  South,  white  and  black,  he 
regarded  the  adoption  of  this  proposition  as  most  important, 
to  prevent  the  possibility  of  political  combinations  being 
made  for  the  purpose  of  forcing  the  repudiation  of  our  war 
debt  or  the  assumption  of  the  rebel  debt,  State  and  con- 
federate, by  the  United  States.     [Applause.] 

In  my  judgment,  Congress,  with  whom  this  whole  ques- 
tion of  reconstruction  constitutionally  rests,  should  require 
as  a  condition  to  the  admission  of  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives from  the  reorganized  States  the  adoption  in  their  new 
constitutions  of  some  proposition  of  this  kind,  and  I  am  not 
sure  that  it  ought  not  to  be  put  m  the  form  of  a  covenant 
between  each  State  and  the  National  Government,  and  made 
forever  irrevocable  without  the  consent  of  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States. 

The  nation  ought  to  demand,  and  I  believe  will  demand, 
some  such  security  for  the  future. 

Nine-tenths  of  the  rebel  debt.  State  and  confederate,  is 
probably  held  by  the  people  of  the  late  rebel  States  and  in 
Kurope.  Undoubtedly  the  late  confederates  would  prefer  to 
have  their  debt  paid,  rather  than  help  pay  ours.  In  my 
opinion  if  Congress  does  not  provide  against  the  possibility  of 


—  Se- 
this question  being  raised,  the  Southern  politicians  will  make 
a  combination  with  their  late  Northern  allies,  who  are  now 
almost  to  a  man  committed,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  to 
the  scheme  of  repudiation,  and  insist  upon  the  incorporation 
of  their  war  debt  with  ours  or  the  repudiation  of  our  war  debt 
also. 

When  the  proposition  is  made,  as  it  will  be,  unless  we 
now  positively  prohibit  it,  to  assume  the  confederate  debt, 
and  if  not,  to  repudiate  our  own,  the  simple  discussion  of  the 
question  will  impair  our  national  credit  to  the  amount  of 
millions.  I  need  not  argue  this  point.  It  is  self  evident. 
[Applause.] 

Three-fourths  of  the  legal  indebtedness  of  the  late 
rebel  States  is  probably  held  by  Northern  capitalists.  I  mean 
the  bonds  issued  prior  to  the  rebellion. 

Congress  ought  to  see  to  it,  that  in  the  reorganization  of 
the  late  rebel  States,  they  assume  by  positive  constitu- 
tional PROVISION  the  debt  of  the  State  prior  to  the  rebellion, 
and  by  a  provision  equally  positive,  that  they  forever  prohibit 
the  payment  of  the  rebel  debt  or  any  part  thereof.  This  is 
due  to  the  Northern  men  who  are  the  holders  of  the  bonds 
issued  by  these  States  before  the  rebellion.  It  is  due  like- 
wise to  the  loyal  people  of  the  South,  that  they  be  not  taxed 
to  pay  any  part  of  the  rebel  debt.  It  is  due  also  to  the  nation 
as  the  only  indemnity  for  the  past  which  it  can  now  obtain. 
[Applause.] 

If  you  own  a  thousand-dollar  bond  of  the  State  of  South 
Carolina,  issued  before  the  rebellion,  you  may  have  some  hope, 
after  her  reorganization,  of  receiving  the  interest  due  on  that 
bond,  and  perhaps  at  its  maturity,  the  principal,  provided 
the  State  of  South  Carolina,  after  her  reorganization  and 
recognition  by  Congress,  does  not  assume  her  proportion  of 
the  rebel  confederate  debt,  and  the  debt  contracted  after 
secession  by  her  as  a  State,  in  aid  of  the  rebellion  or  to 
maintain  her  local  and  rebel  State  governments. 

If  she  is  permitted  to  assume  her  proportion  of  the  .con- 
federate debt,  and  the  debt  contracted  by  her  rebel  State 
authorities,  your  bond  for  one  thousand  dollars  would  not  be 
worth  the  paper  on  which  it  is  Written,  and  so  with  all  the 
States  recently  in  rebellion. 


—  391  — 

The  assumption  of  any  part  of  the  confederate  debt  by 
the  late  rebel  States  would  not  only  lessen  their  ability  to  pay 
their  leg-al  indebtedness,  but  lessen  also  the  ability  of  their 
people  to  aid  in  the  payment  of  the  national  debt,  which  can- 
not be  repudiated  without  national  dishonor.     [Applause.] 

Before  I  left  Washington  I  heard  more  than  one  scheme 
talked  over  for  the  incorporation  of  part  of  the  confederate 
debt  with  ours.  This  is  the  stepping-'Stone  to  repudiation, 
and  I  warn  the  loyal  men  of  the  nation  to  be  prepared  for  the 
efforts  which  will  be  made  to  consummate  this  dangerous 
scheme. 

Many  think  there  is  no  dang-er  in  this  direction,  but  I  tell 
you  that  there  is  dang-er.  In  audacity  anything-  may  be  ex- 
pected of  the  men  who  plunged  this  nation  into  the  recent 
terrible  war.  Their  late  Northern  allies  are  equally  des- 
perate, and  there  would  be  no  security  for  national  fidelity 
and  national  honor,  if  these  two  factions  unite  and  obtain 
control  of  the  National  Government.  [Applause,  long  con- 
tinued.] 


SPEECH 

OF  HON.  JAMES  M.  ASHLEY,  OF  OHIO, 
In  thb  Housb  of  Rep^sentativks,  May  29,  1866. 


IMPARTIAL  StTFFHAGK  THK   ONLY    SAFE  BASIS   OF  RECONSTRUC- 
TION. 


The  House  having-  under  consideration  the  bill  to  restore 
to  the  States  lately  in  insurrection  their  full  political  rig-hts  — 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio,  said  : 

Mr.  Speaker.  Unless  the  members  of  this  Cong-ress  who  * 
represent  the  loyal  people  of  this  country  approach  the  prop- 
osition before  us,  providing  f6r  the  restoration  of  the  late 
rebel  States,  in  a  proper  spirit  and  with  mutual  conces*sions, 
I  fear  we  shall  fail  to  accomplish  the  g-r-eat  work  committed 
to  our  hands.  I  desire  to  approach  its  consideration  with 
charity  for  all  and  malice  toward  none.  I  know  that  I  ap- 
proach it  in  a  forgiving  spirit  and  with  a  thankful  heart. 
With  thankfulness,  because  the  din  of  war  has  been  hushed 
and  the  national  conflagration  exting-uished.  In  a  forg-iving* 
spirit,  because  I  know  how  much  there  is  to  be  forgiven  if  we 
would  reunite  dissevered  and  broken  ties,  secure  the  perpet- 
ual unity  of  the  nation,  and  bind  up  its  millions  of  bleeding- 
and  broken  hearts. 

In  all  the  votes  which  I  have  g-iven  or  may  give  on  the 
propositions  for  reconstruction,  in  all  I  have  said  or  may  say, 
I  shall  keep  steadily  in  view  the  one  g-reat  desire  of  my  heart, 
which  outweighs  and  overshadows  all  others,  and  before 
which  the  petty  schemes  of  parties  and  of  men  dwindle  into 
insignificance  and  appear  to  me  criminal.  That  desire  is  to 
see  the  States  recently  in  rebellion  restored  to  all  the  rights, 
privileges  and  dignities  of  States  of  the  American  Union 
at  the  earliest  day  consistent  with  the  national  safety,  and 

(392) 


--  393  — 

upon  such  terms  as  shall  secure  the  power,  unity,  and  g'lory 
of  the  republic. 

How  can  this  most  desirable  result  best  be  accomplished? 
In  answering*  this  interrog-atory  the  first  question  which 
presents  itself  to  every  reflecting-  mind  is  this:  Has  the  g"ov- 
ernment  of  the  United  States  as  at  present  org-anized  the 
constitutional  power  to  demand  or  exact  from  the  people  in 
the  late  rebel  States  any  conditions  prior  to  the  recog-nition 
of  their  recently  reorg-anized  State  g-overnments  and  the 
admission  of  their  Senators  and  Representatives  in  Cong-ress? 
If  so,  is  it  expedient  to  exact  of  them  the  terms  or  conditions 
proposed  by  the  committee  of  fifteen,  or  such  conditions  of  a 
like  character  as  may  finally  be  agfreed  upon  by  the  two 
Houses  of  Cong-ress,  as  conditions  precedent  to  their  resump- 
tion, as  States,  of  all  constitutional  relations  to  the  National 
Government  which  were  severed  by  their  acts  of  rebellion 
and  war? 

I  claim  that  we  have  the  power,  and  that  it  is  not  only  our 
right  but  our  duty  to  demand  sftch  conditions  as  the  majority 
of  the  loyal  representatives  of  this  Cong-ress  may  deem  req- 
uisite for  the  safety  and  security  of  the  nation.  I  believe 
we  have  the  constitutional  power,  because  I  believe  the  States 
represented  in  this  Hall  during-  the  war  and  now  are  the  g-ov- 
ernment.  If  I  did  not  believe  this  I  could  not  vote  for  any 
of  the  propositions  before  the  House  or  any  proposition  of 
a  like  character. 

From  the  first  I  have  held  that  when  the  people  of  the 
late  rebel  States  abolished  their  constitutional  State  g-overn- 
ments and  confederated  tog-ether  in  violation  of  the  national 
Constitution  and  org-anized  hostile  State  governments  and  a 
national  confederate  government,  and  maintained  those  gov- 
ernments by  force  of  arms  until  the  rebellion  became  so 
formidable  as  to  claim  the  prerogatives  of  a  national  dk  facto 
government,  and  to  have  had  conceded  to  it  by  the  United 
States  and  the  great  powers  of  Europe  belligerent  rights, 
that  from  that  hour  constitutional  State  governments  ceased 
in  each  of  the  States  so  confederated  together,  and  until 
governments  are  reorganized  in  each  of  them  in  subordina- 
tion to  the  national   Constitution,  and  recognized  by  this 


—  394  — 

Congress,  there  can  be  no  constitutional  State  g-overnments 
in  such  States. 

Mr.  Randai^l,  of  Pennsylvania.  Will  the  gentleman 
allow  me  to  ask  him  who  he  intends  shall  form  the  State 
governments  —  the  people  of  the  States,  or  who? 

Mr.  ASHI.KY,  of  Ohio.  I  propose  that  the  loyal  people 
of  each  of  the  late  rebel  States  shall  reorganize  their  own 
State  governments  and  administer  them  under  such  rules  and 
restrictions  as  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  represent- 
ing the  loyal  people  of  the  nation,  shall  require. 

Mr.  Randai.1.,  of  Pennsylvania.  Then  I  understand  the 
gentleman  to  say  that  he  is  willing  that  the  loyal  people 
shall  form  State  governments,  or  shall  continue  their  State 
governments  and  protect  and  elect  Congressmen  as  part  of 
their  duty.     Do  I  understand  him  aright? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  Under  such  rules  and  restric- 
tions as  this  Congress  shall  require. 

Mr.  Randai.1,,  of  Pennsylvania.     That  is  an  after-clap. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  'Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  hope  I  can 
go  on  without  any  more  of  these  interruptions.  From  the 
outbreak  of  the  rebellion  I  have  sought  to  have  all  the  de- 
partments of  the  government  adopt  and  act  upon  this  idea. 
I  have  held  that  the  sovereignty  of  the  nation  was  in  the 
people  who  reside  in  the  States  which  maintained  constitu- 
tional State  governments,  recognizing  the  national  Constitu- 
tion as  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  and  the  government 
which  it  created  as  the  one  to  which  all  citizens  owed  a  para- 
mount allegiance.  I  have  held  that  the  sovereignty  of  the 
nation  could  not  be  impaired  or  destroyed  within  the  terri- 
torial jurisdiction  of  the  United  States  by  the  action,  or  the 
refusal  to  act,  of  any  one  or  more  States.  In  other  words, 
that  the  people  in  the  States  which  maintained  their  consti- 
tutional relations  to  the  National  Government  were  the  only 
depositaries  of  the  national  sovereignty  and  the  only  con- 
stitutional governing  power  in  the  nation. 

Holding  these  views,  I  insist  that  the  people  who  main- 
tained constitutional  State  governments,  who,  during  the 
entire  war,  were  represented  here,  and  who  are  now  repre- 
sented here,  the  people  who  maintained  this  National  Gov- 
ernment and  put  down  the  rebellion,  have  a  right  under  the 


—  395  — 

laws  of  war  as  conquerors  to  prescribe  sucn  conditions  as  in 
the  judg'ment  of  the  majority  of  this  Cong-ress  are  necessary 
for  the  national  safety  and  the  national  security.  This  is 
the  right  of  the  conqueror  under  every  law,  human  and 
divine.  If  this  be  not  the  true  theory,  then,  indeed,  is  our 
National  Government  a  rope  of  sand. 

Entertaining"  these  ideas,  at  the  extra  session  of  Con- 
g-ress in  July,  1861,  I  prepared  a  bill  embodying  them,  but  by 
the  advice  of  friends  I  did  not  present  it  until  the  regular 
session  in  December.  On  the  12th  of  March  following,  by 
the  direction  of  the  Committee  on  Territories,  I  reported  to 
this  House  *'  a  bill  to  provide  temporary  provisional  gover-n- 
ments  for  the  districts  of  country  in  rebellion  against  the 
United  States."  That  bill,  on  the  motion  of  my  then  col- 
league (Mr.  Pendleton)  was  laid  upon  tbe  table  by  a  vate 
of  65  to  56,  a  number  of  Republicans  voting  with  the  opposi- 
tion and  a  still  larger  number  not  voting  at  all. 

At  the  first  session  of  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress,  upon 
consultation,  it  was  thought  best  to  have  a  committee  on  the 
rebellious  States,  and  the  late  Henry  Winter  Davis  offered  a 
resolution  for  the  appointment  of  such  a  committee.  The 
committee  was  raised,  and  he  was  appointed  its  chairman. 

After  the  committee  was  appointed,  of  which  I  was  a 
member,  I  again  ititroduced  the  old  bill,  with  such  modifi- 
cations and  additions  as  time  had  suggested.  That  bill 
which  was  reported  passed  both  Houses  of  Congress,  but  did 
not  receive  the  sanction  of  President  Lincoln,  and  therefore 
failed  to  become  a  law. 

At  the  second  session  of  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress  I 
again  introduced  the  same  bill  with  some  modifications,  and 
by  direction  of  the  committee  I  reported  it  to  this  House. 
After  a  number  of  efforts  to  modify  it  so  as  to  secure  a  ma- 
jority vote,  it  was  lost,  and  we  were  left  at  sea  on  this  great 
question  of  reconstruction.  And  to-day  we  are  reaping  the 
fruits  of  our  stupidity  and  folly.  I  allude  to  these  facts  to 
show  how  steadily  the  national  mind  has  been  marching  up 
to  this  idea,  that  the  men  who  remained  loyal  to  this  govern- 
ment, who  maintained  constitutional  State  governments,  and 
who  during  the  war  administered  this  government,  are  the 
government. 


—  396-- 

Mr.  Wright.     Will    the   g-entleman    from    Ohio    (Mr. 
Ashley)  allow  me  to  ask  him  a  question? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  I  would  rather  the  g-entlemati 
would  ask  me  his  questions  after  I  g-et  throug-h  my  argument. 

Mr.  Wright.  I  wish  simply  to  ask  the  g-entleman  to 
give  us  his  definition  of  a  loyal  man. 

Mr.  Ashi^ky,  of  Ohio.  If  the  g-entleman  will  ask  me 
after  I  g-et  throug-h  I  will  answer  his  question. 

Mr.  Wright.     Very  well;  I  will  ask  the  g-entleman  then. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  I  was  saying-  that  I  allude  to 
these  facts  for  the  purpose  of  showing-  how  steadily  the 
national  mind  has  been  approaching-  this  idea.  And  when 
this  joint  committee  on  reconstruction,  composed  of  the 
ablest  men  in  the  nation,  made  their  report  the  other  day, 
they  recognized  th«  same  idea,  to  wit,  that  the  constitutional 
g-overnments  in  all  the  rebel  States  were  abolished;  that  dur- 
ing the  war  and  now  said  States  were  not  in  constitutional  rela- 
tions with  the  National  Government.  And  the  man,  who- 
ever he  may  be,  who  stands  up  and  says  they  are  now  in  con- 
stitutional relations  to  the  National  Government  utters  that 
which  he  knows  to  be  untrue.  The  man  that  stands  up  and 
says  that  during  the  entire  war  the  rebel  States  were  entitled 
to  be  represented  here  in  Congress,  lays  down  a  proposition 
which  would  undermine  and  sap  the  very  foundations  of  the 
government.  If  these  rebel  States  had  the  right  to  be  repre- 
sented in  Congress,  and  had  been  represented  here  during 
this  war,  the  nation  would  have  been  bound  hand  and  foot, 
and  incapable  of  resistance. 

This,  then,  being  the  idea  adopted  by  the  committee  of 
fifteen,  I  can  support  this  bill.  I  know  that  the  proposition 
submitted  by  that  committee  falls  far  short  of  what  I  expected, 
far  short  of  what  the  loyal  men  in  the  South  had  a  right 
to  expect,  far  short  of  what  the  men  who  sacrificed  so  much 
to  preserve  this  nation  had  a  right  to  expect.  But  if  I  can 
get  nothing  better  I  shall  vote  for  their  proposition,  as  I 
have  already  voted  for  the  proposed  constitutional  amend- 
ment which  was  sent  to  the  Senate  the  other  day,  .  .  . 
and  I  understand  the  Senate  has  practically  agreed  to 
sustain  the  proposition  on  representation  which  was  sent 
them  from  this  House  a  short  time  since.     It  will  be  noticed 


—  397  — 

that  in  prescribing-  the  qualifications  of  electors,  in  one  of  the 
amendments  sug-g-ested  by  me,  I  omit  the  word  "male"  and 
use  the  words  "all  citizens  of  the  United  States  above  the 
ag-e  of  twenty-one  years."  I  did  this  purposely,  as  I  am 
unwilling-  to  prohibit  any  State  from  enfranchising-  its  women 
if  they  desire  to  do  so. 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  an  amendment  which  I  desire 
to  offer  to  this  bill —  an  amendment  upon  which  I  shall  ask  a 
vote,  and  to  which  I  desire  the  attention  of  the  House. 
House  bill  No.  543,  as  reported  by  the  committee,  requires 
the  adoption  of  the  constitutional  amendment  proposed 
iDefore  any  State,  no  matter  when  it  may  be  ratified,  shall  be 
admitted  here,  thus  putting-  it  in  the  power  of  the  Northern 
States,  if  they  desire  to  do  so,  to  exclude  States  which  in 
good  faith  ratified  this  constitutional  amendment  and 
amended  their  State  constitutions  and  laws  so  as  to  comply 
with  all  the  conditions  we  make.  I  desire,  then,  to  have  the 
"bill  reported  by  the  committee  so  amended  that  whenever  any 
State  lately  in  insurrection  and  rebellion  shall  have  ratified 
this  amendment  in  g-ood  faith,  and  shall  have  modified  its 
constitution  and  laws  in  conformity  therewith,  that  its  Sena- 
tors and  Representatives  shall  be  admitted  into  Cong-ress; 
that  is,  that  the  loyal  men  of  Tennessee  and  Arkansas  now 
elected  shall  be  admitted;  but  that  as  to  the  other  States, 
they  shall,  before  being-  represented  in  Cong-ress,  after  the 
adoption  of  this  amendment  and  the  modification  of  their 
constitution  and  laws,  elect,  or  re-elect,  if  you  will,  g-over- 
nors  and  all  other  State  officers,  members  of  the  legislature, 
Senators  of  the  United  States,  and  members  of  this  House. 

Why  do  I  ask  for  this  provision?  Because  these  g-overn- 
ments,  set  up  by  President  Johnson,  set  up  over  the  heads  of 
loyal  men,  have  every  one  of  them  elected  traitors  to  official 
positions  in  those  States,  have  elected  traitors  to  this  House, 
have  elected  traitors  to  the  Senate.  I  insist  that  this  pro- 
vision shall  be  applied  to  them,  so  that  when  their  constitu- 
tions and  their  laws  are  modified  in  accordance  with  the 
proposition  which  we  lay  down,  the  loyal  men  of  those  States 
shall,  under  the  amended  constitution  and  laws,  vote  for  the 
officers  which  are  to  be  recognized  by  the  g-overnment  of  the 


—  398  — 


I 


United  States.     I  ask  the  clerk  to  read  the  amendment  which 
I  propose  to  offer. 

The  clerk  read  as  follows: 

**That  whenever  any  State  lately  in  insurrection  shall 
have  ratified,  in  good  faith  and  irrevocably,  the  above  recited 
amendment,  and  shall  have  modified  its  constitution  and  laws 
in  conformity  therewith,  and  after  such  ratification  and 
modification  of  its  constitution  and  laws  shall  have  elected  a 
g-overnor  and  the  State  officers  provided  for  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  such  State,  including-  the  State  legislature  and  Sena- 
tors and  Representatives  to  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  under  such  limitations  and  restrictions  as  may  be 
imposed  by  the  constitution  and  laws  of  such  State  when 
amended  as  herein  prescribed,  the  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives from  such  State,  if  thus  elected  and  qualified,  may,  after 
having  taken  the  oaths  of  office  required  by  law,  be  admitted 
into  Congress  as.  such:  Provided,  That  neither  the  State  of 
Tennessee  nor  Arkansas  shall  be  required  to  re-elect  a  gover- 
nor and  State  officers  or  a  State  legislature  or  Senators  or 
Representatives  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States;  but 
whenever  either  of  said  States  shall  have  ratified  the  above 
recited  amendment,  and  shall  have  modified  their  constitu- 
tions and  laws  in  conformity  therewith,  their  Senators  and 
Representatives  now  duly  elected  and  qualified  may  be 
admitted  into  Congress  on  taking  the  oaths  of  office  required 
by  law." 

Mr.  Ashi^ey,  of  Ohio.  It  will  be  observed,  Mr.  Speaker, 
that,  by  the  adoption  of  this  amendment,  every  State  which 
ratifies  in  good  faith  the  proposed  amendment  to  the  Consti- 
tution and  modifies  its  constitution  and  laws  in  conformity 
therewith,  and  after  such  modification  elects  a  governor  and 
members  of  the  legislature  and  Senators  and  members  of  this 
House,  it  shall  have  its  Representatives  admitted  here.  An 
exception,  however,  is  made  in  the  case  of  Tennessee  and 
Arkansas,  which  now  have  loyal  governors  and  other  State 
officers  and  loyal  legislatures.  Those  States  would  not  be 
required,  under  this  amendment,  to  re-elect  their  officers,  but 
the  Senators  and  Representatives  already  elected,  if  they  can 
take  the  oath,  would  be  admitted  to  seats  in  Congress,  and 


—  399  — 

their   State   officers  would  be   allowed  to  continue  in  their 
present  positions. 

I  think  this  modification  a  very  necessary  one.  Let 
g-entlemen  look  over  the  South  and  see  the  character  of  the 
men  who  have  been  elected  as  Senators.  In  almost  every 
instance,  where  they  are  not  out  and  out  open-throated  rebels, 
jWho  oug-ht  to  be  incarcerated  in  prisons  or  exiled  from  the 
country  instead  of  approaching-  this  temple  of  liberty;  in 
almost  every  instance,  I  say,  where  there  have  been  any  con- 
cessions made  to  loyal  men,  the  leg-islatures  have  elected 
moderate  men  for  the  short  term  and  the  most  malig-nant 
rebels  for  the  long-  term.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  loyal 
men  have  had  no  voice  in  those  reconstructed  governments, 
have  had  no  voice  in  their  leg"islation,  have  been  dumb  and 
silent  under  the  sway  of  these  traitors  who  were  placed  in 
power  over  them  by  the  acting-  President,  Andrew  Johnson, 
the  loyal  men  of  those  States  should  have  a  fair  opportunity 
to  select  men  who  will  truly  represent  them  under  the  Con- 
stitution and  laws  when  modified  in  accordance  with  the  con- 
stitutional amendment  proposed  by  Cong-ress. 

I  also  have  an  amendment  which  I  intend  to  offer  when 
the  other  bill  comes  up,  but  will  not  take  up  time  by  reading- 
it  now.     .     .     . 

Let  us  look,  Mr.  Speaker,  at  the  condition  in  which 
we  find  the  country.  I  hold  in  my  hand  the  propositions 
reported  by  the  committee  of  fifteen.  I  need  not  read  them. 
They  have  been  carefully  examined  by  every  member.  All 
over  the  land.  North  and  South,  a  cry  is  raised  ag-ainst  the 
report  of  that  committee.  I  ask  g-entlemen  if  they  can  put 
their  hands  on  a  sing-le  page  of  human  history  where,  after 
a  rebellion  has  been  put  down  of  the  character  of  the  one  we 
had  to  deal  with,  they  can  find  the  conquerors  making  propo- 
sitions so  mild,  so  conciliatory,  and  so  merciful  as  these  made 
by  the  committee  of  fifteen — propositions  as  applicable  ta 
the  conquerors  as  the  conquered.  Yet  we  find  men  in  this 
Hall,  men  all  over  the  South,  men  holding  high  positions  in 
the  government  before  the  rebellion,  and  high  positions  in 
the  rebel  government,  who  have  the  effrontery  to  tell  the 
people  of  this  country  that  they  will  not  accept  such  condi- 
tions.    If  they  will  not  and  we  permit  them  to  dictate  their 


—  400  — 

own  terms,  is  not  this  a  practical  surrender  on  the  part  of 
the  conqueror  to  the  conquered?  Suppose  our  position  had 
been  reversed;  suppose  the  anti-slaver}^  men  of  this  country 
liad  g-one  into  a  rebellion  as  the  South  did,  without  a  pretext, 
without  cause,  when  they  had  a  majority  in  this  and  the 
other  branch  of  Cong-ress,  simply  because  a  pro-slavery  man 
bad  been  elected  President.  Suppose  this  to  have  been  the 
case,  that  State  after  State  had  seceded,  had  captured  the 
forts  of  the  United  States,  and  had  made  war  on  the  Union 
for  four  years,  destroying-  half  a  million  of  lives,  as  well  as 
running  up  a  debt  of  over  $3,000,000,000  for  posterity  to  pay. 
I  say  suppose  this  to  have  been  the  case,  do  you  believe  any 
such  propositions  would  have  been  made  by  those  men  when 
they  had  conquered  as  have  been  made  by  this  government, 
nay,  proposed  by  this  very  House?  Do  you  suppose  that 
leading  anti-slavery  men,  like  Garrison,  Phillips,  Beecher, 
Greeley,  and  Gerrit  Smith,  would  have  been  sent  for  by  a  pro- 
slavery  executive  to  be  counseled  with  and  sent  home  as  pro- 
visional governors  to  organize  States  over  the  heads  of  the 
only  loyal  men  in  those  States?  Do  you  think  there  would 
bave  been  any  such  stupid  performance  if  the  North  had 
been  in  rebellion?  No,  sir,  we  would  have  been  stripped 
naked,  as  was  said  by  Henry  A.  Wise  the  other  evening-  at 
Alexandria. 

My  friend  from  Iowa  in  front  of  me  (Mr.  Price)  hands 
me  the  paper  containing  the  extract  I  am  quoting-  from  mem- 
ory, and  I  will  read  it: 

''If  I  had  triumphed,"  said  Governor  Wise,  "I  should 
have  favored  stripping  them  naked.  [Laughter.]  Pardon! 
They  might  have  appealed  for  pardon,  but  I  would  have  seen 
them  damned  before  I  would  have  granted  it.  For  myself, 
the  boot  being  on  the  other  leg,  I  take  no  oaths;  I  ask  no 
pardonsi  [Prolonged  cheers.]  I  give  you  that  brigade  — 
the  old,  the  lasting-,  the  enduring-  Wise  brigade.  [Cheers 
and  applause.]" 

Do  you  suppose  if  the  rebellion  in  the  North  to  which 
I  have  referred  had  been  put  down,  any  traitor  would  have 
been  permitted  to  walk  in  Boston  and  utter  such  treason 
against  the  government?  No,  sir;  and  3^et  we  are  denounced 
in  this  Congress  as  a  rump  Congress,  as  Jacobins,  as  sangui- 


—  401  — 

nary  men.  Why?  Because  we  ask,  in  restoring-  the  g-overn^ 
ments  of  the  Southern  States,  that  our  friends  shall  have  a 
fair  share  in  the  administration  of  their  State  governments, 
and  that  the  leading-  traitors  shall  be  punished. 

Sir,  under  the  administration,  as  matters  are  now  g-oing-, 
not  a  sing-le,  solitary  traitor  will  be  punished.  Rebel  soldiers 
that  were  in  prison  have  all  been  liberated,  while  the  soldiers 
of  the  g-rand  Union  Army  who  are  in  prison  for  the  slig-htest 
offenses  remain,  and  you  cannot  get  them  pardoned  out. 
These  are  unpleasant  facts,  but  I  could  not  pass  them  and  do 
my  duty  without  referring  to  them. 

What  do  we  ask?  The  loyal  men  of  the  nation  ask  that 
in  the  restoration  of  the  rebel  States  the  men  who  were  our 
friends  and  allies  during  the  rebellion — the  loyal  men —  shall 
be  clothed  with  the  power  of  the  local  and  State  governments 
of  the  South.  Is  this  asking  too  much?  If  this  is  not 
accorded  to  us,  if  these  men  are  to  come  back  here,  the  loyal 
oath  to  be  repealed  as  is  recommended,  and  no  conditions 
to  be  exacted;  if  these  men  are  to  come  back  here  next  year 
and  take  possession  of  the  government,  so  far  from  treason 
being  punished  and  made  odious  it  will  only  prove  to  have 
been  a  passport  to  favor  and  to  power. 

Sir,  has  it  come  to  this?  Can  the  unselfish  heroism  and 
bravery,  the  devotion  and  sacrifices  of  our  soldiers  and  the 
loyal  men  and  women  of  the  nation  so  soon  be  forgotten? 
Are  the  men  who  conducted  this  nation  safely  through  the 
most  terrible  war  recorded  in  history  to  admit,  now  that  the 
rebellion  is  over,  that  they  are  incapable  of  administering 
the  government  in  time  of  peace?  Are  the  men  who  fought 
the  opponents  of  this  government  on  the  battlefield  and  at 
the  ballot-box  for  the  last  four  years,  and  everywhere  van- 
quished them,  now  to  stack  their  arms  and  surrender  them- 
selves without  condition  to  their  prisoners?  That  will  be 
the  state  of  affairs  if  the  present  reconstruction  policy  of  the 
administration  succeeds.  If  in  our  work  of  reconstruction 
we  do  not  secure  the  rights  of  loyal  men  who  were  our 
friends  and  allies  in  the  late  rebel  States,  we  shall  come  short 
of  our  duty  and  be  guilty  of  a  blunder  which,  in  such  an 
hour  as  this,  is  worse  than  a  crime.  Sir,  I  want  the  loyal 
26 


—  402  — 

men  of  the  nation,  who  saved  it  in  its  hour  of  peril,  not  only 
to  administer  the  National  and  State  Governments,  South  as 
well  as  North,  but  to  say  who  shall  vote  for  their  law-makers 
in  those  States  consecrated  by  the  blood  of  half  a  million  men. 
Our  friends  are  mistaken,  honestly  mistaken  I  grant  you, 
but  nevertheless  mistaken,  when  they  say  there  are  no  loyal 
men  in  the  South.     Sir,  I  know  the  South  better  than  that, 
and  I  stand  here  to  say  that  I  do  not  believe  at  the  time  the 
ordinances  were  passed  in  the  eleven  rebel  States  that  more 
than  two   States — South    Carolina   and    Mississippi — and 
possibly  not  more  than  one,  would  have  voted  by  ballot  at  any 
fairly  conducted  election  for  secession  and  rebellion.     I  grant 
that  after  the  rebellion  was  inaugurated  a  majority  were  car- 
ried into  it,  and  that  a  majority  in  all  those  States,  unless  it 
be  in  Tennessee  and  Arkansas,  and  perhaps  even  these,  are 
hostile  at  the  present  time  to  this  government.     But  there 
are  large  numbers  of  men  in  those  States  who  are  loyal  to 
the  government,  and  I  desire  to  strengthen  their  hands  by 
giving  the  black  man  the  ballot.     In  that  way  only  can  we 
strengthen  these  men  and  preserve  the  local  State  govern- 
ments.    The   unfortunate   reconstruction    '*  experiment"   of 
the  administration  has  put  the  loyal  men,  black  and  white, 
under  the  foot  of  the  traitor  in  nearly  all  the  late  rebel  States, 
and  they  are  powerless  and  compelled  to  submit,  because  the 
government  has  bound  them  hand  and  foot  and  turned  them 
over  to  the  tender  mercies  of  their  enemies  and  ours.     Sir,  it 
is  the  cause  of  the  loyal  white  and  black  men  of  the  South 
which  I  plead;  it  is  their  cause  which  this  Congress  is  fight- 
ing.    What  I  demand,  and  what  this  Congress  demands,  is 
that  the  loyal  men  of  the  South  shall  administer  the  local 
and  State  governments  of  the  South;  that  none  shall  hold  the 
offices,  national   and   State,   but  loyal   men.     We  have  the 
right  to  demand  this. 

Sir,  if  we  would  have  loyal  representatives  here,  we 
must  first  secure  a  loyal  constituency  at  their  backs.  It  is 
idle  to  talk  of  loyal  representatives  and  disloyal  constituents. 
It  is  not  worth  while  to  deceive  ourselves  on  this  point,  or 
attempt  to  deceive  others.  The  solution  of  this  great  ques- 
tion of  restoration  is  the  work  of  statesmen,  not  of  dema- 
g'Ogiies.     All  over  the  land  demagogues  are  clamorous,  and 


—  403  — 

denounce  Congress  because  they  do  not  at  once  declare  the 
late  rebel  States  restored  to  all  their  constitutional  relations 
to  the  National  Government  and  at  once  admit  their  disloyal 
representatives,  who  have  the  unblushing-  hardihood  to 
approach  and  demand  admission  to  this  temple.  Every  v/here 
demag-og-ues  and  traitors  unite  in  denouncing*  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  because  they  have  g-iven  six  months  to 
the  consideration  of  this  new  and  difficult  problem  of  reor- 
ganizing- constitutional  State  g-overnments  in  eleven  rebel 
States.  Why,  sir,  we  have  spent  six  months  on  the  tax  bill, 
a  subject  with  which  we  are  familiar,  and  which  has  been  in 
the  hands  of  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  experienced  com- 
mittees of  this  House,  yet  with  all  the  aid  of  the  Treasury 
Department  and  the  special  commission  authorized  by  the 
last  Cong-ress  we  could  not  g-et  throug-h  with  the  tax  bill 
until  last  evening-.  This  question  of  taxation  is  an  old  and 
familiar  one,  and  if  we  commit  a  blunder  time  will  develop  it 
and  leg-islation  can  correct  it.  But  this  question  of  recon- 
struction is  a  new  and  perplexing-  question;  a  question  which 
ought  to  command  the  best  ability  of  the  nation,  because  we 
are  to  walk  in  new  and  unknown  paths,  paths  which  have 
never  been  illuminated  by  the  footprint  of  the  statesmen 
who  have  preceded  us.  If  we  commit  a  blunder  it  may  be 
fatal,  at  least  for  a  generation.  This  Congress  is  honestly 
laboring  to  secure  an  early  restoration  of  these  States,  and 
while  I  do  not  believe  the  propositions  reported  by  the  com- 
mittee are  all  the  loyal  men  of  the  South  had  the  right  to 
expect  and  demand  at  our  hands,  I  shall  vote  for  them  if  I 
can  get  nothing  better. 

But  it  is  said  that  there  are  no  loyal  men  in  the  South; 
that  all  were  swept  into  this  rebellion,  and  we  are  coolly  and 
refreshingly  told  that  the  oath  must  be  modified  in  order  that 
rebels  may  be  appointed  to  office.  Sir,  this  claim  that  there 
are  no  loyal  men  in  the  South  is  a  fallacy.  I  have  lived  in 
the  South  for  years,  and  I  know  that  there  is  not  a  State  in 
which  loyal  men  cannot  be  found  to  fill  all  the  offices  of  the 
State  and  National  Government.  If  they  have  not,  then  I 
would  import  them.  I  would  do  as  I  advised  Mr.  Lincoln  to 
do  in  1861,  when  he  had  up  the  question  of  appointing  a 
postmaster  at  Louisville.     He  happened  one  morning  when  I 


^404  — 

was  in  his  room,  and  the  case  was  up,  to  do  me  the  honor 
to  ask  me  what  I  would  do.  There  was  a  loyal  man  who  had 
been  always  faithful  to  our  ideas  an  applicant  for  the  place, 
and  also  a  new  convert.  I  said,  *'If  I  had  the  appointing- 
power,  and  there  were  but  one  man  in  the  State  who  had 
voted  for  me  or  voted  to  maintain  our  ideas,  I  would  appoint 
him  to  the  best  of&ce  in  the  State  in  the  g-if t  of  the  Executive, 
and  if  he  could  not  write  his  name  I  would  appoint  and  pay 
a  clerk  out  of  the  secret  service  fund  to  sig-n  his  name  for 
him."  You  need  not  talk  to  me  about  there  not  being"  loyal 
men  enoug^h  in  the  South  to  discharge  the  duties  of  all  the 
offices  there.  It  is  a  fallacy.  Many  honest  men  of  my  own 
personal  acquaintance  went  into  the  rebellion  believing"  it  to 
be  right;  and  before  the  close  of  the  war  and  since  the  close 
of  the  war,  have  come  out  of  it  just  as  honest,  and  are  satis- 
fied that  it  was  wrong.  ' 

Sir,  I  do  not  believe,  with  all  the  political  heresy  which 
has  been  taught  at  the  South  for  the  past  thirty  years,  with 
all  the  political  iniquity  which  has  been  taught  in  the  name 
of  religion  and  in  the  name  of  Christ  in  the  South  by  men 
professing  to  teach  the  gospel;  I  do  not  believe  that  all  this, 
with  the  war  and  all  the  terrible  consequences  which  have 
followed  in  its  train,  has  been  enough  to  obliterate  from  the 
South  an  entire  love  for  the  old  flag  and  the  old  Union. 

I  know  that  there  are  men  in  the  South  everywhere 
capable  of  filling  all  the  offices.  My  judgment  has  been 
strengthened  on  this  point  by  many  letters  which  I  have 
received  during  the  war  and  since  the  war.  A  private  soldier 
in  the  Union  Army  wrote  me  a  letter  after  Sherman  had 
passed  through  Georgia,  in  which  the  following  beautiful 
and  touching  incident  was  related:  *'At  one  of  our  military 
posts  where  thousands  came  to  receive  rations  from  the 
government  which  they  were  madly  fighting  to  destroy,  there 
came  one  morning  a  tall,  elderly  lady  of  commanding  ap- 
pearance, and  of  evident  culture  and  refinement,  asking  for 
bread.  "When  it  was  handed  to  her  by  a  brave  boy  in  blue 
who  stood  proudly  beneath  the  stars  and  stripes,  she  betrayed 
emotions  which  she  could  not  suppress,  and  the  tears  stole 
down  her  cheeks  as  she  said,  *  Little  did  I  think  three  years 
ago,  when  decking  my  three  sons  for  the  war,  that  I  would 


—  405  — 

ever  come  to  this;  then  I  had  husband,  sons,  home,  and  all 
that  heart  could  wish;  now  I  am  homeless,  childless,  a  widow, 
and  a  beg-g-ar,  asking"  alms  of  the  g"overnment  which  we 
sought  to  destroy.  But  it  is  all  right.  It  is  the  punishment 
meted  out  by  Providence  for  our  sins,  and  I  submit.' " 

Sir,  there  are  thousands  of  just  such  mothers  as  this  in 
every  State  in  the  South  to-day,  and  there  is  not  a  loyal  man 
or  woman  in  this  nation  who  would  not  do  all  in  their  power 
to  alleviate  their  wants  and  bind  up  their  bleeding  and  broken 
hearts.  i 

There  is  another  beautiful  incident  which  I  must  not 
omit.  Last  summer,  when  the  convention  met  in  North 
Carolina,  in  response  to  the  acting  President's  proclamation, 
to  reorganize  a  constitutional  State  government,  Mr.  Reade, 
the  president  of  that  convention,  on  taking  the  chair,  uttered 
words  which  thrilled  the  continent.  I  have  no  language  to 
tell  you,  Mr.  Speaker,  how  they  touched  my  heart  as  I  read 
them  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  I  know  that  every  loyal 
man  in  this  nation  called  down  benedictions  on  his  head. 
These  are  his  golden  words:     • 

*'  Fellow-citizens,  we  are  going  home.  Let  painful  recol- 
lections upon  our  late  separation  and  pleasant  memories  of 
our  early  union  quicken  our  footsteps  toward  the  old  man- 
sion, that  we  may  grasp  hard  again  the  hands  of  friendship* 
which  stand  at  the  door;  and,  sheltered  by  the  old  home- 
stead which  was  built  upon  a  rock,  and  has  weathered  the 
storm,  enjoy  together  the  long,  bright  future  which  awaits 
us." 

Sir,  every  loyal  Representative  in  this  Hall  stands  ready 
with  open  hand  to-day  to  welcome  all  who  thus  speak  from 
the  heart;  and,  sir,  whatever  of  local  interest  or  of  prejudice 
or  of  passion  may  have  carried  an  erring  brother  into  this 
rebellion,  if  he  but  set  his  face  toward  the  old  homestead, 
uttering  such  brave  words  as  these,  I  will  run  to  meet  him 
afar  off,  and  for  him  the  fatted  calf  shall  be  slain.  But  I  do 
not  propose  to  start  out  laden  down  with  pardons  and  with 
the  fatted  calf  smoking  hot  from  the  oven  and  hunt  up  and 
thrust  both  pardons  and  feast  upon  unrepentant,  malignant, 
and  defiant  rebels.  Nor  do  I  propose  to  stand  before  them, 
hat  in  hand,  and  ask  them  on  what  terms  they  propose  to 


—  406  — 

return  to  the  old  mansion.  Sir,  every  rebel  shall  resume  his 
citizenship  upon  the  terms  and  conditions  prescribed  by  the 
loyal  men  of  this  nation,  or,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned,  he  shall 
remain  an  alien  forever. 

Mr.  Speaker,  to  me  the  only  vital  and  living  question 
growing-  out  of  this  subject  of  reconstruction  is  whether  the 
loyal  men  of  the  South,  whether  all  citizens  of  the  United 
States  residing  in  the  South,  shall  have  the  right  of  the  bal- 
lot. And  when  I  say  all  loyal  citizens  I  mean  all,  black  as 
well  as  white.  I  hold  that  every  man  born  in  the  United 
States  is  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  that  every  citizen, 
native-born  or  naturalized,  has  the  right  to  a  voice  in  the 
Government  under  which  he  lives.  It  is  a  natural  right,  a 
divine  right  if  you  will,  a  right  of  which  the  government 
cannot  justly  deprive  any  citizen  except  as  a  punishment  for 
crime.  Sir,  every  American  citizen  of  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  years,  not  convicted  of  an  infamous  offense,  has  the  right 
to  vote  for  or  against  those  who  are  to  make  and  administer  the 
laws  under  which  he  lives.  That  is  the  high  prerogative  of 
every  American  citizen.  Anything  short  of  that  is  but  a 
mockery. 

I  want  this  Congress,  before  it  shall  adjourn,  to  insist 
that  every  man  who  has  been  loyal  to  the  government  in  the 
South,  whatever  his  race  or  color,  shall  have  the  right  to  the 
ballot.  We  now  have  the  golden  opportunity.  If  you  do  not 
guaranty  these  precious  rights  of  the  citizen  now,  you  leave 
the  great  work  before  us  unfinished ;  and  I  warn  you  that 
agitation  will  follow  your  refusal  to  enact  justice,  and  that 
there  shall  be  no  repose  until  every  citizen  of  the  republic  is 
enfranchised  and  stands  equal  before  the  law.  Shall  we 
falter,  Mr.  Speaker,  in  this  sublime  hour  of  victory  which 
God  has  given  us,  or  shall  we  finish  the  work  which  He  has 
committed  to  our  hands  by  securing  the  complete  enfranchise- 
ment of  all  citizens  of  the  United  States  ? 

The  voice  of  every  friend  of  this  country  in  Europe,  as 
it  comes  to  us  across  the  sea,  cries  out  to  us  to  enfranchise 
the  men  who  in  the  late  struggle  were  our  friends  and  our 
allies.  From  Switzerland,  the  grand  republic  of  the  Old 
World,  there  come  to  us  words  of  counsel  and  wisdom  which 
we  ought  not  to   disregard.     From  every  land  beneath  the 


.  —  407  — 

sun,  where  liberty  is  loved  and  human  hearts  have  been 
touched  by  our  heroic  strug-gle,  there  comes  to  us  a  plea  that 
in  reconstructing-  this  g-overnment  we  shall  first  of  all  see  to 
it  that  justice  is  the  basis  upon  which  we  build. 

And  better  than  all  this,  from  the  loyal  men  of  the  South, 
both  white  and  black,  there  comes  up  to  us  the  prayer  that 
we  will  see  to  it  that  they  have  justice  ;  that  we  will  not 
falsify  the  pledg-es  which  the  nation  has  made.  Sir,  do 
gentlemen  expect  that  we  can  make  the  pledg-es  we  have 
made,  and  then  turn  these  people  over  to  the  tender  mercies 
of  their  enemies  and  ours  without  calling-  down  upon  us  the 
execrations  and  denunciations  of  all  rig-ht-thinking-  men?  If 
they  do,  they  are  mistaken.  Shall  we  hear  and  answer  these 
words  of  counsel  and  wisdom  and  the  prayer  of  our  friends 
and  allies,  or  shall  we  turn  for  counsel  and  advice  to  our  late 
enemies? 

We  are  as  a  nation  either  to  g-o  forward  in  the  g-reat  work 
of  progress  or  go  backward  ;  we  cannot  stand  still.  And  I  am 
desirous  to  know  whether  this  Congress  is  going  to  attempt 
the  work  of  staying  the  great,  anti-slavery  revolution  which 
has  swept  over  the  country  and  obliterated  all  the  pro-slavery 
landmarks  erected  by  parties  and  by  men.  Sir,  I  have  faith 
to  believe  that  neither  President  nor  Cabinet  nor  Congress 
can  long  stay  with  their  puny  efforts  the  grand  decree  of  the 
nation.  He  who  attempts  it,  be  he  President,  Cabinet 
minister,  or  statesman,  will  fall  before  its  advancing  power, 
and  his  political  grave  will  be  marked  by  the  skeletons  of 
those  who  for  the  past  quarter  of  a  century,  having  betrayed 
liberty,  were  wrecked  along  the  political  coast  and  to-day  lie 
nnburied  and  unhonored  because  there  were  none  so  base  as 
to  do  them  reverence. 

Sir,  I  know  that  our  hour  of  triumph  may  be  delayed  ;  but 
I  have  faith  to  believe  that  we  cannot  be  defeated.  Let  the 
ballot  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  every  loyal  man  in  the  South, 
and  this  nation  is  safe — safe  from  rebellion,  safe  from  repu- 
diation, safe  from  a  war  of  races,  safe  from  the  domination 
of  traitors  in  its  councils.  Sir,  without  the  ballot  in  the 
hands  of  every  loyal  man  the  nation  is  not  safe.  The  ballot 
is  the  only  sure  weapon  of  protection  a«d  defense  for  the  poor 
man,  whether  white  or   black.     It  is  the  sword  and  buckler 


—  408— 

and  shield  before  which  all  oppressions,  aristocracies  and 
special  privileg-es  bow.  Sir,  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  a  letter  written 
to  Governor  Hahn,  of  Louisiana,  pleading-  for  the  rig-ht  of 
the  black  man  to  vote,  said  most  beautifully,  and  as  I  be- 
lieve, prophetically,  that  **in  some  trying"  time  the  vote  of 
the  black  man  may  serve  to  keep  the  jewel  of  liberty  in  the 
family  of  freedom." 

I  believe  this  most  fully ;  and  believing-  it,  I  would  be 
false  to  myself  and  false  to  my  country  if  I  did  not  demand 
it.  If  I  were  a  black  man,  with  the  chains  just  stricken  from 
my  limbs,  without  a  home  to  shelter  me  or  mine,  and  you 
should  offer  me  the  ballot,  or  a  cabin  and  forty  acres  of  cot- 
ton land,  i  would  take  the  ballot,  conscious  that,  with  the 
ballot  in  my  hand,  rightly  used,  all  else  should  be  added  unto 
me. 

Sir,  I  would  like  to  know  whether  there  is  one  professed- 
ly loyal  man  in  this  nation  who  would  rather  confer  the  bal- 
lot upon  a  traitor  to  his  country  than  upon  a  loyal  black 
man  who  has  fought  to  save  the  republic.  I  should  like  to 
hear  such  a  man  speak  out  here  or  elsewhere.  Sir,  however 
much  brazen-faced  impudence  there  is  in  every  public  assem- 
bly, there  is  no  man  in  this  House  so  bold  or  so  bad  as  to 
make  such  a  declaration. 

Mr.  Lb  B1.0ND.  With  my  colleague's  permission,  I  wish 
to  ask  him  a  question.  I  infer  from  his  remarks  that  he  is  in 
favor  of  negro  suffrage.  I  wish  to  know  whether  he  is  in 
favor  of  negro  suffrage  in  the  States. 

Mr.  Ashlky,  of  Ohio.     Everywhere. 

Mr.  Lej  B1.0ND.     In  the  State  of  Ohio? 

Mr.  Ashi.e:y,  of  Ohio.     Everywhere. 
•     Mr.  L35  Blond.     Then  I  wish  to  ask  the  gentleman  an- 
other question :  does  he  claim  that  Congress  has  the  power 
to  confer  the  right  of  suffrage  upon  negroes  in  the  States? 

Mr.  Ashi^ky,  of  Ohio.  Well,  sir,  I  do  not  intend  to  put 
myself  on  record  against  the  right  of  Congress  to  do  that.  I 
have  no  time  now  to  argue  the  point  with  my  colleague  ; 
but  I  will  say  to  him  that  when  the  time  comes  for  the  Ameri- 
can Congress  to  take  action  on  the  question,  I  will  be  ready 
to  speak.  I  will  noiksay  now  whether  I  would  vote  for  or 
against  such  a  proposition. 


—  409  — 

Mr.  Lk  Blond.  I  wish  to  ask  my  colleag-ue  one  more 
question :  is  he  in  favor  of  the  report  of  the  reconstruction 
committee? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.     Well,  sir,  I  am  voting  for  it. 

Mr.  L35  B1.0ND.  Is  my  colleague  in  favor  of  keeping  the 
States  out  until  the  conditions  prescribed  in  that  report  are 
complied  with? 

Mr.  Ashi^ey,  of  Ohio.  If  my  colleague  had  listened  to 
my  remarks  and  to  the  amendment  which  I  presented,  he 
would  not  have  felt  called  upon  to  interrupt  me  to  put  this 
inquiry. 

Mr.  Lk  BIvOnd.  I  would  like  to  inquire  why  the  gentle- 
man yields  the  question  of  suffrage,  as  he  does,  in  supporting 
the  proposition  of  the  committee. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  Because  I  cannot  get  it.  [Laugh- 
ter.]    Is  not  that  a  fair  answer? 

Mr.  Le  Blond.     That  is  honest. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  Now,  sir,  let  us  look  at  this  ques- 
tion for  a  moment  from  the  standpoint  of  the  black  man. 
And  he  who  will  not  look  at  this  question  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  black  man  is  unfit  to  sit  in  judgment  on  this 
question.  Let  me  ask  gentlemen  on  the  other  side,  with 
whom  I  always  deal  fairly,  suppose  your  ancestors  had  been  in 
bondage  for  two  hundred  years,  and  that  this  nation — this 
nation  of  hypocrites  and  liars  for  more  than  eighty  years  — 
had  enslaved  and  degraded  you  as  no  people  were  ever  de- 
graded before  —  making  merchandise  of  your  entire  race, 
while  professing  Christianity  and  a  love  for  liberty.  I  say 
suppose  this  to  have  been  j^our  condition  when  this  war  be- 
gun—  a  war  inaugurated  on  the  part  of  your  masters  to 
establish  a  government  which  should  perpetuate  your  bond- 
age —  and  after  becoming  satisfied  that  we  could  not  conquer 
your  masters  without  your  aid,  we  had  invited  you  in  the 
hour  of  the  nation's  agony  to  join  our  army  and  help  put 
down  the  rebellion,  promising  you  your  freedom,  and  that  you 
had  come  two  hundred  thousand  strong,  and  had  stayed,  if 
you  did  not  turn,  the  tide  of  battle,  thereby  giving  us  the 
victory.  I  say  suppose  this  to  be  the  case,  and  after  the 
rebellion  had  been  crushed  and  your  masters  were  put  down 
by  your  aid,  we  had  coolly  and  unblushingly  turned  you  over 


—  410  — 

to  the  control  of  local  State  g-overnments  administered  by 
your  late  masters.  I  ask,  what  kind  of  justice  you  would  call 
that? 

Mr.  E1.DRIDGK.     I  wish  to  inquire 

Mr.  ASHI.EY,  of  Ohio.  If  you  will  answer  that  question 
I  will  yield  the  floor. 

Mr.  K1.DRIDGK.     Was  that  so  from  the  beg-inning"? 

Mr.  ASHI.KY,  of  Ohio.  It  was  so  with  me.  I  do  not 
know  what  issue  the  gentleman  had.  So  far  as  his  votes 
indicated,  his  position  was  on  the  other  side. 

Mr.  EivDridgk.  Was  that  the  position  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  those  who  supported  him  from  the  beg'inning-  of  the  war? 

Mr.  ASHI.EY,  of  Ohio.  I  do  not  think  it  was  at  the  be- 
ginning*. 

Mr.  Eldridge.     Was  it  at  the  end  of  the  war? 

Mr.  AshIvEy,  of  Ohio.     Yes,  sir. 

The  Speaker.     The  gentleman's  time  has  expired. 

Mr.  Garfield.  I  move  that  my  colleague's  time  be  ex- 
tended. 

Mr.  Le  Blond.  He  is  entitled  to  credit,  and  deserves 
extension. 

There  was  no  objection,  and  it  was  ordered  accordingly. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  Mr.  Speaker,  I  want  my  friend 
from  Ohio,  or  any  one  on  that  side  of  the  House,  to  tell  me, 
if  after  having  fought  to  save  the  nation  under  the  promise 
of  freedom  and  the  protection  of  his  life  and  property,  what 
would  be  his  feelings  toward  those  who  committed  the  great 
crime  of  turning  him  over  to  the  control  of  his  enemies  and 
ours?  What  would  you  say  of  such  a  government?  What 
would  you  say  of  the  honor  of  its  rulers?  Sir,  I  know  not 
what  other  men  would  say,  but  if  I  were  a  black  man  I  would 
not  submit.  I  would  rather  be  the  slave  of  one  man  who  had 
a  pecuniary  interest  in  my  health  and  life  than  to  be  the 
SLAVE  OF  A  State  whose  government  was  controlled  by 
MY  LATE  MASTERS.  It  is  a  terrible  thing  to  be  the  slave  of  a 
State  whose  government  is  administered  in  the  spirit  of  caste. 
Sir,  if  the  members  of  this  House  could  witness  what  I  have 
often  seen,  free  men  made  the  slave  of  the  State,  they  would 
know  how  intolerable  is  such  a  condition,  and  would  not 
sleep  soundly  if   by  their  vote  they  permitted  four  million 


—  411  — 

people,  who  were  our  allies  and  friends  in  this  late  war,  to 
become  the  slaves  of  a  State  whose  g-overnment  was  in  the 
hands  of  rebels. 

Mr.  Higby.     They  have  re-enacted  the  same  laws. 

Mr.  Ashlky,  of  Ohio.  These  laws  have  been  re-enacted 
in  some  of  the  so-called  reconstructed  States,  as  my  friend 
from  California  remarks.  Sir,  I  repeat,  if  this  g-reat  injus- 
tice was  done  me  I  would  not  submit;  and  I  tell  you  that  these 
four  million  people,  soon  to  increase  to  many  millions,  will 
not  submit  to  such  monstrous  leg-islation.  If  I  were  a  black 
man  I  would  rather  go  into  rebellion  and  revolution  than  sub- 
mit to  such  an  intolerable  wrong-.  I  would  take  my  children 
and  g-o  daily  with  them  to  the  altar  and  swear  eternal  hos- 
tility to  those  who  thus  betrayed  me.  I  would  consecrate 
all  the  powers  of  mind  and  strength  which  I  possessed  to 
brand  those  with  infamy  who  had  been  so  false  to  my  people, 
and  to  put  them  into  history  along*  with  those  who,  in  every 
g-eneration,  have  disgraced  the  world  as  the  betrayers  of 
mankind  and  enemies  of  the  human  race. 

Sir,  nothing-  can  give  such  security  to  the  poor  man  as 
the  ballot.  The  prejudice  of  caste  is  strong-,  but  the  ballot 
will  soon  banish  its  baneful  spirit.  If  in  the  days  of  Know- 
Nothingism  the  Irishman  had  not  had  the  protection  which 
the  ballot  alone  could  give  him  his  condition  would  have 
been  intolerable.  How  much  more  intolerable  the  condition 
of  the  black  man  without  the  ballot  when  completely  under 
the  dominion  of  his  late  slave-master! 

Mr.  E1.DRIDGE.     Let  me  ask  a  question. 

Mr.  Ashlky,  of  Ohio.  Not  now.  When  Richmond 
fell,  when  Lee  surrendered,  when  the  last  rebel  army  sur- 
rendered, and  the  bells  all  over  the  North  were  ringing-  out 
their  peals  of  joy,  who  were  the  men  that  stood  up  first  in 
this  Union  and  asked  for  mercy  to  a  fallen  foe?  The  men 
who  had  a  right  to  speak,  Garrison,  Phillips,  Beecher, 
Greeley,  Bryant,  and  Gerrit  Smith  —  the  men  of  heart,  of 
intellect,  and  of  soul.  While  they  demanded  justice  for 
black  men  and  the  loyal  men  of  the  South,  they  plead  also 
for  mercy  to  a  fallen  foe. 

When  I  came  here  last  spring-  to  see  President  Johnson, 
he  was  talking-  about  *' making  treason  odious,  and  declaring- 


—  412  — 

that  traitors  should  take  a  back  seat."  I  was  more  anxious 
to  secure  justice  to  our  friends  and  allies  than  to  execute  ven- 
geance  on  our  late  enemies.  All  we  asked  then  and  all  we 
ask  now  is  justice — justice  to  our  friends  and  mercy  to  a 
fallen  foe.  All  we  ask  now  for  white  men  and  black  men  in 
the  South  and  in  the  North  is  justice;  and  I  tell  you,  that  by 
the  blessing-  of  God,  we  intend  to  have  it.  Be  not  deceived. 
You  cannot  always  postpone  the  demands  of  justice.  As  a 
nation  we  have  learned  by  sad  experience  that  we  cannot 
trample  upon  it  with  imputiity.  Neither  laws  nor  customs- 
nor  despotism  can  silence  its  claim,  because  it  is  a  principle 
implanted  by  the  Creator  in  every  human  heart,  and  can 
never  be  wholly  eradicated  by  the  selfishness  or  tyranny  of 
man.  He  who  understands  the  simple  teaching's  of  the 
golden  rule  comprehends  the  application  of  justice  alike  by 
governments  and  men. 

It  needs  no  learning  or  superior  wisdom  to  interpret  it. 
The  ignorant  black,  so  recently  a  slave,  and  the  most 
scholarly  white,  alike  understand  it.  Justice  demands  liberty 
and  equality  before  the  law  for  all.  It  speaks  in  the  heart 
of  every  man,  wherever  born,  with  an  inspiration  like  unto 
that  which  spoke  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  with  tongues  of 
fire.  Woe  to  the  statesman  or  party  or  nation  which  tram- 
ples on  this  principle  I  Its  complete  recognition  by  our  govern- 
ment will  bring  us  national  grandeur  and  national  glory,  and 
secure  unity,  peace,  prosperity,  power.  Its  rejection  will 
tarnish  the  fair  fame  of  our  country,  and  bring  discord,  dis- 
sension, adversity,  war. 

Let  the  corner-stone  of  each  reconstructed  State  be  jus- 
tice'and  the  cap-stone  will  be  liberty.  With  liberty  and  jus- 
tice as  the  fundamental  law  of  our  national  and  State  gov- 
ernments there  can  be  no  war  of  races,  no  secession,  no  rebel- 
lion. It  is  injustice  and  oppression  which  bring  dissension 
and  war.  The  opposite  will  bring  harmony  and  peace.  He 
who  votes  injustice  to-day  will  be  held  accountable  by  the 
people  now,  and  in  the  great  tribunal  of  human  history  will 
be  justly  chargeable  with  all  the  oppression,  wrongs,  and 
wars  which  must  follow  the  enactment  of  injustice  into  law. 
The  law-maker  who  demands  nothing  for  himself  which  he 
will  not  concede  to   the  humblest  citizen  is  the  only  true 


—  413  — 

statesman.  Make  the  community  of  interest  one  by  guaran- 
tying- the  equal  rights  of  all  men  before  the  law,  and  the 
fidelity  of  every  inhabitant  of  such  a  commonwealth  becomes 
a  necessity  not  only  from  interest  but  from  a  love  of  justice. 

Sir,  this  Congress  is  writing  a  new  chapter  in  American 
history.  Let  every  man  whose  great  privilege  it  is  to  record 
h.is  name  where  it  will  stand  forever,  so  record  it  as  to  secure 
the  triumph  of  justice,  and  his  name  and  memory  shall  have  a 
life  coequal  with  the  Republic. 

Sir,  he  who  has  comprehended  the  logic  of  the  terrible 
conflict  through  which  we  have  passed  and  studied  with 
profit  the  lessons  which  it  has  taught,  will  have  learned  the 
point  at  which  in  our  great  march  as  a  nation  we  have 
reached,  and  know  something  of  the  course  which  in  the 
future  it  will  travel. 

Animated  for  many  years  by  conflicting,  sectional,  hostile 
forces,  I  have  lived  to  see  since  my  entrance  into  Congress 
these  antagonistic  views  so  modified  and  melted  into  one  that 
to-day  the  condition  is  accepted  by  all  patriotic,  right-think- 
ing men,  and  the  historian  without  confusion  can  make  up 
the  record.  If  this  war  has  taught  us  any  one  lesson  more 
clearly  than  another,  it  is  that  we  are  inseparably  one  people, 
that  this  continent  can  never  again  become  the  abode  of 
human  slavery,  and  that  in  all  our  future  deliberations  in 
these  Halls  old  antagonisms  will  cease  to  divide  us,  and  our 
hopes  and  aspirations  become  one,  because  our  interests  are 
one. 

Let  this  measure,  or  those  which  the  Senate  may  perfect, 
pass  and  go  into  the  Constitution  of  the  country;  let  the 
propositions  before  us  become  the  law  of  the  land,  and  you 
will  have  done  something  toward  securing  the  triumph  of 
justice.  Pass  these  acts,  and  justice  as  a  flaming  sword  will 
stand  at  the  doors  of  the  nation's  council  halls  to  guard  its 
sanctuary  from  the  presence  of  traitors.  Pass  them,  and  he 
who  approaches  this  temple  of  liberty  shall  pause  at  the 
threshold  before  entering  and  swear  eternal  fidelity  to  the 
republic. 

Let  these  propositions  pass  and  the  proposed  amendment 
of  the  Constitution  become  part  of  our  fundamental  law,  and 
a  generation  shall  not  pass  away  before  witnessing  the  com- 


—  414  — 

plete  enfranchisement  of  every  freeman  and  the  entire  aboli- 
tion of  all  class  leg-islation. 

In  this  faith  and  with  this  hope,  believing*  that  Provi- 
dence in  the  future  as  in  the  past  will  overrule  all  for  our 
good  and  supply  where  we  have  failed,  I  am  prepared  to  give 
my  voice  and  my  vote  for  whatever  measure  a  majority  of  the 
loyal  members  of  the  American  Congress  may  adopt  for  the 
restoration  of  the  States  lately  in  rebellion. 


SPEECH 

OF  HON.  JAMES  M.  ASHLEY,  OF  OHIO, 
In  thb  Houss  of  Representatives,  January  26,  1867. 


RECONSTRUCTION. 


The  House  having*  under  consideration  House  bill  No.  543, 

to  restore  to  the  States  lately  in  insurrection  their  full 

political  rights  — 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio,  said: 

Mr.  Speaker:  I  am  opposed  to  the  motion  of  my  col- 
league to  refer  the  bill  now  under  consideration,  with  the 
pending  amendments,  to  the  joint  Committee  on  Reconstruc- 
tion. I  am  also  opposed  to  the  motion  which  the  g-entleman 
from  Pennsylvania  gave  notice  of  the  other  day,  to  lay  these 
bills  on  the  table.  I  hope  the  motion  to  refer  them,  or  lay 
them  on  the  table,  will  not  be  adopted.  If  either  of  these 
motions  should  prevail  it  would  operate  practically  as  a 
declaration  on  the  part  of  the  House  that  no  action  may  be 
expected  during  the  remainder  of  this  Congress  upon  the 
great  question  of  reconstruction.  I  accept  the  suggestion  of 
the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania,  and  now  withdraw  my 
amendment  to  his  substitute;  and,  so  far  as  I  can,  I  will  sus- 
tain the  motion  which  he  proposes  to  make  on  Monday,  that 
the  House  consider  these  bills  as  in  Committee  of  the  Whole 
under  the  five-minute  rule,  and  try  to  perfect  a  bill  so  as  to 
be  able  to  send  it  to  the  Senate  within  the  next  two  or  three 
days. 

Gentlemen  at  all  familiar  with  the  legislation  of  the 
House,  and  the  manner  in  which  its  business  is  now  blocked 
out,  will  comprehend  at  once  that  unless  some  speedy  action 
is  had  by  the  House,  and  the  bill  sent  to  the  Senate,  so  that 

(415) 


—  4-16  — 

they  may  have  time  to  examine  it,  and  to  review  the  veto 
message  in  case  it  shall  come  in,  during-  the  life  of  this 
Thirty-ninth  Congress,  there  can  be  no  act  passed  which  will 
bring  relief  to  the  loyal  men  of  the  South  or  carry  out  the 
pledges  which  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  made  to  the  coun- 
try and  to  the  loyal  men  of  the  South,  that  loyal  and  consti- 
tutional State  governments  should  be  established  there  on  the 
reassembling  of  Congress. 

As  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  has  just  remarked, 
there  are  but  twenty  working-days  practically  left  of  this 
session.  The  Thirty-ninth  Congress  went  to  the  country  in 
opposition  to  the  policy  of  the  President,  and  to  what  we 
were  pleased  to  denominate  his  usurpations.  The  people  in 
generous  confidence  have  sustained  Congress  and  returned 
to  the  Fortieth  Congress  by  majorities  unprecedented  men 
pledged  to  the  abolition  of  the  governments  established  by 
the  acting  President  of  the  United  States,  in  violation  of  al' 
law,  and,  as  I  claim,  in  clear  violation  of  the  Constitution. 
A  large  majority  on  this  side  of  the  House  were  returned  to 
the  next  Congress  under  the  express  pledge  that  they  would 
not  permit  these  rebel  State  governments  to  exist  a  single 
hour  after  this  Congress  had  been  in  session  long  enough  to 
declare  them  abolished.  If  this  Congress  fails  to  redeem 
that  pledge  it  will  commit  a  blunder  which,  in  such  an  hour 
as  this,  is  worse  than  a  crime. 

Mr.  Conkling.  I  ask  the  gentleman  to  state  his  objec- 
tion to  having  a  subject  like  this,  with  regard  to  which  a 
number  of  bills  have  been  brought  forward,  committed  to  a 
committee  which  has  now  no  work  upon  its  hands  and  which 
has  a  right  to  report  at  any  time. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  My  answer  to  the  gentleman 
from  New  York  is,  that  the  Committee  on  Reconstruction 
have  held  no  meetings  during  this  entire  session  up  to  this 
hour.  Several  bills  proposed  by  gentlemen  have  been  re- 
ferred to  that  committee  during  this  session  upon  which  they 
have  taken  no  action.  If  the  committee  ever  gets  together 
again,  which  I  doubt,  as  it  is  a  large  committee  composed  of 
both  branches  of  Congress,  I  have  but  little  hope  of  their 
heing  able  to  agree.  The  chairman  of  the  committee  on  the 
part  of  the  Senate,  as  is  well  known,  is  absorbed  in  his  efforts 


—  417— 

to  perfect  the  financial  measures  of  the  country,  and  I  fear 
that  if  this  bill  goes  to  that  committee  it  will  go  to  its  grave, 
and  that  it  will  not  during-  the  life  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Con- 
gress see  the  light.  If  I  were  opposed  to  these  bills  I  would 
vote  to  send  them  to  that  committee  as  sending  them  to  their 
tomb.     That  is  my  answer  to  the  gentleman  from  New  York. 

Mr.  Conkling.  I  do  not  know  whether  the  gentleman 
from  Ohio  would  like  my  opinion  as  to  whether  that  is  a  good 
answer  or  not. 

Mr.  Asrfi^EjY,  of  Ohio.  I  have  no  objection  to  the  gen- 
tleman giving  his  opinion. 

Mr.  Conkling.  I  think  it  is  not  very  good  considering 
that  it  comes  from  such  a  distinguished  source.  There  is  no 
difilculty  in  having  prompt  consideration  of  anything  which 
may  be  sent  to  the  committee.  It  was  created  originally 
solely  to  deal  with  this  subject.  It  was  at  first  broken  into 
four  sub-committees  that  the  work  of  gathering  evidence 
might  be  more  advantageously  and  speedily  carried  on.  It- 
became  one  committee,  usually  working  together,  only  during 
a  few  weeks  immediately  preceding  the  bringing  forward  of 
its  ultimate  propositions.  It  would  not  be  decorous  for  me 
to  praise  the  committee  or  the  work  it  did;  but  I  may  say 
with  propriety  that  if  it  ever  was  a  good  committee,  if  it 
ever  should  have  been  created  and  composed  as  it  was,  it  is  a 
^ood  committee  now — better  than  it  ever  was  before;  better, 
because  more  familiar  with  this  subject,  because  its  members 
having  now  become  acquainted  with  each  other's  views,  and 
having  become  accustomed  to  act  with  each  other,  and  hav- 
ing studied  the  whole  subject  committed  to  them,  can  proceed 
with  much  more  hope  of  good  results  than  ever  before. 
Having  a  right  to  report  at  any  time,  and  being  led  on  the 
part  of  this  House,  by  the  distinguished  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania  [Mr.  Stevens] ,  I  see  no  reason  why  it  cannot 
consider  and  digest  wisely  and  promptly  whatever  may  be 
referred  to  it  and  make  report. 

I  did  not  intend  to  say  one  word  about  this,  and  do  not 
intend  to  rise  again  in  regard  to  it.     I  beg  now  to  say,  how- 
ever, .that  I  hope  the  gentleman  from  Ohio   [Mr.  Bingham] 
will  not  withdraw  his  motion  to  refer  this  whole  subject  to 
27 


—  418-. 

th'e  joint  Committee  on  Reconstruction;  on  the  contrary,  I 
trust  the  majority  of  this  House  will  promptly  refer  all  these 
bills  with  all  cognate  propositions  to  that  committee,  and 
give  them  at  least  one  opportunity  at  this  session  to  show 
whether  they  can  produce  something  for  action  or  some 
reason  for  not  acting. 

Mr.  Ashi^ky,  of  Ohio.  I  have  as  much  confidence  in  the 
joint  Committee  on  Reconstruction  as  any  gentleman  on  this 
floor;  but  the  gentleman  from  New  York  [Mr.  Conkling]  will 
remember  that  the  propositions  which  they  brought  forward 
near  the  close  of  the  last  session,  simultaneously  in  both 
branches,  were  propositions  which  demanded  a  two-thirds 
vote  of  each  branch  of  Congress,  and  did  not  require  the  signa- 
ture of  the  Kxecutive.  Had  they  required  the  signature  of 
the  Executive,  and  been  returned  by  him  without  his  signa- 
ture, as  any  reconstruction  bill  undoubtedly  will  be,  the  time 
to  which  Congress  had  limited  its  session  would  have  expired 
before  we  could  have  reconsidered  and  passed  them  over  his 
veto. 

Upon  this  subject  of  reconstruction  the  great  body  of 
this  House  have  given  much  thought,  and  I  believe  we  can 
arrive  quite  as  surely  at  a  result  here  in  the  House,  under  the 
five-minute  rule  of  amendment  and  debate,  as  we  can  by  re- 
ferring this  subject  to  any  committee. 

Mr.  Stkvens.  I  will  reply,  in  answer  to  what  my  col- 
league upon  the  joint  Committee  on  Reconstruction  [Mr. 
Conkling]  has  said,  that  he  seems  not  to  be  aware  that  we 
are  now  considering  a  report  from  that  very  committee. 
That  committee  made  a  report,  and  I  have  offered  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  bill  which  they  reported.  If  the  gentleman 
thinks  the  report  of  that  committee  best  then  let  him  vote 
against  my  substitute.  But  why  send  this  subject  back 
again  to  the  committee  ?  The  gentleman  knows  as  well  as  I 
do  how  many  different  opinions  there  are  in  that  committee  ; 
some  of  us  believe  in  one  thing,  and  some  of  us  in  another; 
some  of  us  are  very  critical  and  some  of  us  are  not.  The  idea 
that  we  can  consider  anything  in  that  committee,  constituted 
as  it  is,  in  less  than  a  fortnight,  it  seems  to  me  is  wholly  out 
of  the  question;  and  as  we  have  only  about  some  twenty  work- 
ing-days in  which  to  mature  this  bill  in  both  branches  of  Con- 


—  419  — 

gress,  if  we  send  this  subject  to  that  committee  and  let  it  take 
its  time  to  consider  it,  and  then  have  it  reported  here  and 
considered  again,  I  certainly  need  not  say  to  gentlemen  that 
that  would  be  an  end  of  the  matter,  at  least  for  this  session. 
I  do  not  believe  the  gentleman  from  New  York  [Mr.  Conkling] 
desires  to  accomplish  that  result ;  though  I  believe  some  gen- 
tlemen do.  I  believe  that  will  be  its  fate  as  inevitably  as  it 
goes  there. 

Mr.  Conkling.    The  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Ashley], 
I  trust,  will  allow  me  a  remark  in  reply. 

Mr.  Ashi,ey,  of  Ohio.  Certainly. 

Mr.  Conkling.  The  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  [Mr. 
Stevens]  inquires  why  this  report,  emanating  originally  from 
the  Committee  on  Reconstruction,  should  now  be  sent  back. 
Let  me  answer  :  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  concurred 
in  that  report ;  he  had  his  full  share  in  molding  it  and  making 
it  precisely  what  it  was.  He  supported  it  then  ;  now  he 
offers  a  substitute  for  it,  Why  ?  Because  the  time  which 
has  elapsed  since  then  and  the  events  which  have  transpired 
have  modified,  he  thinks,  the  exigencies  of  the  case.  Is  not 
that  as  applicable  to  the  judgment  of  the  committee  as  to  his 
own  ?  And  if  it  be  necessary  for  him  now  to  offer,  as  he  has 
offered,  a  different  series  of  provisions  in  order  to  express  his 
views,  matured  as  they  are  by  the  intermediate  experience,  is 
it  not  necessary,  or  if  not  necessary  is  it  not  proper,  that  it 
should  have  the  opportunity  of  acting  for  once  in  the  light  of 
all  the  facts  and  circumstances  as  they  are  to-day  ?  By  as 
much  as  those  circumstances  involve  the  necessity  of  the 
substitute  emanating  from  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania, 
by  so  much  in  my  judgment  they  invoke  the  renewed  action 
of  this  committee. 

Mr.  Stevens,  The  gentleman  is  aware,  I  suppose,  that 
two  or  perhaps  three  bills  on  this  subject  have  been  referred 
during  this  session  to  that  committee.  Why  has  not  the 
committee  acted  on  them  ? 

Mr.  Conkling.  Mr.  Speaker,  if  I  were  the  chairman  of 
the  committee  on  the  part  of  this  House  I  should  be  able  to 
answer  that  question,  because  then  I  could  tell  why  I  had  not 
called  the  committee  together.  But  as  I  am  only  a  subordi- 
nate member  of  the  committee,  whose  business  it  is  to  come 


—  420  — 

when  I  am  called,  and  never  to  call  others,  I  am  entirely  un- 
able to  give  the  information  for  which  the  g-entleman  inquires. 

Mk.  Ashi^ey,  of  Ohio.  Mr.  Speaker,  if  I  could  have  any 
assurance  that  this  committee  would  be  able  to  report 
promptly  a  bill  upon  which  this  House  could  probably  ag-ree, 
I  would  not  hesitate  a  single  moment  to  vote  for  the  reference 
of  this  measure  to  that  committee,  including  the  several  bills 
before  my  own  committee,  because,  as  I  said  in  the  outset,  I 
have  entire  confidence  in  the  gentlemen  who  constitute  that 
committee.  But,  believing  that  they  will  be  unable  to  agree, 
I  shall  vote  against  a  recommitment. 

One  word  more  with  regard  to  this  matter.  This  House 
has  on  two  different  occasions  by  resolutions  instructed  the 
committee  of  which  I  am  chairman  —  the  Committee  on 
Territories  —  to  report  to  the  House  bills  on  this  subject. 
Some  half  dozen  bills  have  been  prepared  and  sent  to  that 
committee.  And  when  the  committee  is  called,  unless  the 
House  shall  already  have  acted  on  some  proposition  looking 
to  the  reorganization  of  loyal  governments  in  the  late  rebel 
States,  we  intend  to  report  a  bill  and  to  insist  upon  a  vote. 
So  far  as  I  am  concerned  I  do  not  intend  that  the  Thirty- 
ninth  Congress  shall  adjourn  without  some  effort  to  provide 
governments  which  shall  secure  justice  and  equality  to  all 
loyal  men  in  the  southern  States. 

Mr.  B1.AINE.  With  the  gentleman's  permission  I  desire 
to  ask  him,  in  regard  to  those  bills  now  before  his  committee, 
whether,  when  they  were  introduced  here  for  reference,  the 
point  of  order  was  made  upon  them  that  they  had  no  business 
befcre  tha+  committee,  but  belonged,  under  the  rules  of  the 
House,  to  tne  Reconstruction  Committee. 

Mr.  Ashi^ey,  of  Ohio.  No,  sir;  one  of  those  resolutions 
was  introduced  before  this  House  again  galvanized  into 
life  the  Reconstruction  Committee  for  the  remainder  of  the 
session. 

Mr.  Bi^aine.  And  all  the  bills  that  have  been  referred 
to  the  gentleman's  committee  since  then  were  referred  in 
direct* violation  of  a  rule  of  this  House;  and  if  the  point  of 
order  had  been  made  upon  them  they  would  not  have  been 
referred  to  that  committee.     I  do  not  think  that  the  gentle- 


—  421  — 

man's  committee  oug-ht  to  take  advantag-e  of  the  neg-lect  of 
members  to  make  the  point  of  order. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  If  this  House  has,  by  unanimous 
consent,  since  the  adoption  of  the  resolution  reviving*  the 
Reconstruction  Committee,  sent  bills  to  the  Committee  on 
Territories,  it  is  no  fault  of  the  latter  committee. 

Mr.  BivAine.  Unanimous  consent,  in  nine  cases  out  of 
ten,  is  only  another  name  for  neglig-ence  on  the  part  of  the 
House.     It  was  g-ross  neglig-ence  in  this  case. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  Very  well,  sir,  that  may  be  the 
opinion  of  the  g-entleman;  but  so  far  as  the  House  is  concerned, 
its  action,  before  the  Reconstruction  Committee  was  recon- 
stituted for  this  sesssion,  authorized  the  committee  of  which 
I  am  chairman  to  report  a  bill,  and  we  intend  to  do  it. 

Now,  sir,  I  wish  to  examine  briefly  one  or  two  of  the 
provisions  of  the  amendment  which  I  have  offered  to  the  bill 
of  the  g-entleman  from  Pennsylvania.  Substantially  this  bill 
will  be  reported  by  the  Committee  on  Territories  if  no  bill  is 
previously  acted  on  by  the  House. 

Mr.  Finck.  I  desire  to  ask  my  colleag-ue  whether  he 
can  tell  the  House  and  the  country  what  the  plan  of  con- 
gressional reconstruction  is? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  I  hope  to  be  able  to  do  so  before 
I  take  my  seat. 

Mr.  Finck.     We  shall  be  very  glad,  indeed,  to  learn  it. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  At  any  rate,  I  shall  show  that  a 
majority  of  the  Republican  Union  party  by  their  votes  in  the 
Thirty-seventh  and  Thirty-eighth  Congresses  are  committed 
to  the  plan  of  reconstruction  now  proposed. 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  gentleman  from  New  York  [Mr.  Ray- 
mond], in  his  speech  on  the  day  before  yesterday,  made  an 
objection  to  the  amendment  which  I  have  offered  because  it 
abolishes  unqualifiedly  the  DE  facto  State  governments 
established  by  the  acting  President  in  the  late  rebel  States, 
and  claimed  that  in  the  interim  between  the  organization  of 
the  provisional  committees  provided  for  in  the  bill  and  the  pas- 
sage of  the  act  abolishing  these  governments  anarchy  would 
reign  supreme  in  those  States,  and  he  claimed  that  any 
government  is  better  than  no  government.  Now,  Sir,  the 
gentleman  from  New  York  was   mistaken.     It  is  true  that 


422  — 

there  would  be  no  local  civil  government  left  in  those  States 
if  the  bill  should  pass  abolishing-  the  present  g-overnments; 
but  there  is  a  provision  directing-  the  President  of  the  United 
States  to  see  that  the  laws  of  the  United  States  are  executed 
in  those  States  and  the  lives  and  property  of  our  citizens 
protected. 

Mr.  Bingham.  What  laws  of  the  United  States  to 
protect  life  and  property? 

•  Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  No  law  of  the  United  States  now 
on  the  statute-books ;  but  the  President  is  required  by  the 
provisions  of  my  bill  to  use  thenentire  military  and  naval 
force  of  the  nation  to  protect  the  lives  and  property  of  the 
citizen  in  those  States  during-  the  interim.  So  far  as  that 
subject  is  concerned  the  lives  and  property  of  the  people  will 
be  just  as  safe  as  they  were  during-  the  interim  between  the 
surrender  of  Lee  and  Johnston  and  the  org-anization  of  the 
present  g-overnments. 

With  the  whole  force  of  the  United  States  at  the  Presi- 
dent's disposal,  he  can  if  he  will  protect  the  lives  and  prop- 
erty of  the  people  quite  as  well  as  he  did  after  the  surrender 
and  until  the  establishment  of  the  governments  now  existing 
there. 

Mr.  Bingham.  What  provision  is  there  in  this  act  for 
the  protection  of  life  and  property? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  The  bill  provides  that  the  force 
of  the  United  States  shall  be  at  the  disposal  of  our  military 
commanders  in  those  States  just  as  it  was  at  the  suppression 
of  the  rebellion. 

Mr.  Bingham.  What  provision  is  there  to  punish  any 
acts  of  petit  larceny? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  There  is  none.  If  any  act  of 
petit  larceny  is  committed  in  those  States  during-  the  short 
interim  contemplated  it  will  not  materially  damage  the  loyal 
men  who  have  been  exiled  or  despoiled  of  all  they  possess. 
If  such  acts  are  committed  upon  Union  men  under  the  present 
governments  there  is  no  chance  for  redress  under  these 
DE  FACTO  rebel  governments.  So  far  as  I  am  concerned,  if 
I  were  a  southern  loyalist,  I  would  rather  have  no  govern- 
ment at  all  than  the  infernal  despotism  which  to-day  crushes 
the  loyal  men  of  the  South. 


—  423  — 

Mr.  Eldridge.  Will  the  g-entleman  tell  me  what  laws 
of  the  United  States  he  considers  applicable  to  this  country? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  I  have  provided  in  this  bill  for 
that. 

Mr.  Eldridge.  I  understand  the  g-entleman  to  say  he 
expected  the  people  of  these  Territories  to  be  protected  by  and 
under  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  enforced  by  the  Presi- 
dent. Will  the  g-entleman  tell  me  what  laws  he  purposes 
shall  be  enforced? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  My  colleag-ue  has  just  propounded 
the  same  question,  and  I  have  just  answered  it. 

Mr.  Eldridge.  I  was  not  able  to  hear  what  occurred 
between  the  g-entlemen  and  his  colleague. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  The  whole  machinery  of  the  bill 
is  to  compel  the  President  of  the  United  States,  with  the 
army  and  navy  and  the  whole  force  at  his  disposal,  to  see  to 
it  that  this  ac^  and  all  acts  of  the  provisional  governments 
org-anized  under  it  shall  be  enforced  in  those  States. 

The  g-entleman  from  New  York  [Mr.  Raymond]  made  the 
objection  that  there  would  be  an  interval  of  time  when  there 
would  be  no  g-overnment  in  these  States.  I  reply  ag-ain  that 
the  interim  would  be  no  long-er  than  that  which  occurred 
after  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  and  the  setting*  up  of 
the  provisional  governments  now  existing-  there,  and  the 
time  would  not  ordinarily  be  long-or  than  sixty  days. 

As  I  intend  to  withdraw  this  bill,  as  requested  by  the 
g-entleman  from  Pennsylvania,  I  will  not  take  up  the  time  of 
the  House  in  discussing-  its  provisions. 

Mr.  Bingham.  Can  that  be  done  while  my  motion  is 
pending-  to  refer? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  Yes,  sir,  it  can;  but  I  yield  to 
the  gentleman  to  make  his  point  of  order  if  he  desires. 

Mr.  Bingham.     But  the  gentleman  has  not  withdrawn  it. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.     If  I  have  not,  I  withdraw  it  now. 

Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  in  reply  to  some  of  the  arguments 
addressed  to  this  House  by  gentlemen  on  the  other  side,  I 
want  to  say  that  the  great  body  of  Union  men  deny  that  dur* 
ing  the  entire  war  there  has  been  any  constitutional  State 
government  in  any  one  of  the  States  in  rebellion.  Tennessee 
lias  been  readmitted,  or  its  reorganized  State  government 


—  424  — 

lias  been  recog-nized  by  Congress  since  the  war.  The  g-entle- 
men  who  have  served  with  me  here  during-  the  entire  war 
recog-nize  the  fact  that  the  great  body  of  men  constituting- 
the  Republican-Union  party  have  held  that  opinion  since  the 
outbreak  of  the  rebellion. 

At  the  first  regular  session  of  the  Thirty-seventh  Con- 
gress I  introduced  a  bill  to  establish  temporary  provisional 
governments  in  the  then  eleven  rebellious  States.  The  Com- 
mittee on  Territories  authorized  me  to  report  such  a  bill^ 
and  on  the  12th  of  March,  1862,  I  did  report  such  a  bill  to 
this  House,  which  was  laid  on  the  table  by  a  small  majority; 
the  great  body  of  the  Union  members  present  and  voting 
voted  against  laying  the  bill  on  the  table.  At  the  commence- 
ment of  the  first  session  of  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress  a 
special  committee  was  organized  on  the  subject  of  reconstruc- 
tion, of  which  the  late  Henry  Winter  Davis,  of  Maryland, 
was  chairman,  and  of  which  I  also  was  a  member.  They 
proposed  to  this  House,  and  the  House  and  Senate  passed,  a 
bill  again  recognizing  the  principle  on  which  the  Union- 
Republican  party  have  acted  during  the  entire  war,  declaring 
there  were  no  constitutional  State  governments  in  those 
States.  These  bills  recognized  the  fact  that  the  sovereignty 
of  the  nation  was  in  the  people  residing  in  States  w^hich 
maintained  constitutional  State  governments,  acting  in  practi- 
cal relations  with  the  Government  of  the  United  States, 
They  held  that  Congress  as  the  representative  of  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  nation  had  the  right  to  legislate  on  all  sub- 
jects in  States  where  constitutional  State  governments  had 
been  overthrown  or  destroyed.  That  bill  passed  both  Houses, 
but  failed  to  become  a  law  because  Mr.  Lincoln  declined  to 
sign  it,  although  he  said  he  was  acting  and  intended  to  fol- 
low practically  the  principles  contained  in  the  bill. 

Mr.  Lk  B1.0ND.  Will  my  colleague  yield  for  a  question? 
I  understand  him  to  say  that  from  the  outbreak  of  the  diffi- 
culties to  the  present  time  this  Congress  entertained  the 
views  he  has  just  advanced.  If  that  be  so,  I  would  like  to  know 
how  it  came  that  the  Congress  passed  in  1862  the  Crittenden 
resolution,  which  is  in  direct  conflict  with  the  theory  the 
gentleman  has  announced,  I  believe  my  colleague  voted  for 
that  resolution. 


—  425  — 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  The  Crittenden  resolution  was 
passed  at  the  extra  session  of  Congress  in  July,  1861,  im- 
mediately after  the  battle  of  Bull  Run.  I  voted  for  the  first 
proposition  in  the  resolution,  which  declared  that  this  war 
had  been  inaug'urated  by  the  southern  people  who  were  then 
in  arms  around  the  national  capital.  I  did  not  vote  for  the 
second  proposition;  I  declined  to  do  so,  althoug-h  the  great 
body  of  the  party  to  which  I  belonged  did  vote  for  it. 

Mr.  Eldridgk.     You  did  not  vote  against  it. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  I  did  not  vote  at  all.  There  were 
only  two  votes  in  the  negative  on  our  side,  if  I  remember 
rightly,  my  then  colleague,  Mr.  Riddle,  of  Ohio,  and  Mr. 
Potter,  of  Wisconsin. 

Mr.  Bawes.     And  two  on  the  other  side. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  And  two  on  the  other  side.  But 
that  resolution  did  not  commit  this  House  nor  the  Republican 
party  to  any  settled  policy  in  regard  to  the  state  of  things 
now  existing.  If  the  rebellion  had  been  suppressed  at  once, 
if  the  people  in  rebellion  had  laid  down  their  arms,  then 
every  gentleman  here  and  all  who  served  with  me  in  the 
Thirty-seventh  Congress  know  very  well  that  they  would 
have  been  welcomed  back  to  their  former  positions  at  once. 
But  the  rebellion  having  been  continued  during  the  entire 
four  years,  the  local  governments  in  those  States  having  been 
destroyed  or  their  constitutional  relations  with  the  National 
Government  suspended,  when  the  people  residing  in  the 
States  which  maintained  constitutional  State  governments, 
and  who  during  these  four  years  constituted  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  and  represented  its  sovereignty,  crushed 
the  rebellion,  they  had  a  right  under  every  law,  human  and 
divine,  to  prescribe  terms  of  restoration  to  the  States  lately 
in  rebellion  ;  and  I  tell  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  that  the 
men  who  crushed  the  rebellion  intend  to  prescribe  terms  of 
restoration  to  those  States.  I  know  gentlemen  of  the  oppo- 
sition insist  with  great  pertinacity  on  the  abstract  proposition 
that  there  is  no  power  in  the  people  of  a  State  to  sever  their 
constitutional  relations  with  this  government ;  but,  sir,  there 
stands  the  fact  against  this  theory.  I  admit,  and  every  gen- 
tleman on  this  side  of  the  House  admits,  that  the  people  in  a 
State  have  no  constitutional  power  to   destroy   their  State 


—  426  — 

g-overnments  or  dissolve  their  constitutional  relations  with 
the  National  Government ;  but  that  they  have  nevertheless 
done  so  the  history  of  the  country  for  the  past  four  years  is 
the  best  evidence. 

Mr.  E1.DRIDGK.  Will  the  g-entleman  allow  me  to  ask  him 
this  question  ?  If  what  the  rebels  did  previous  to  the  passag-e 
of  the  Crittenden  resolution  did  not  break  their  relations 
with  the  United  States,  how  could  they  have  done  it  after- 
ward? 

Mr.  Ashi^ky,  of  Ohio.  If  the  g-entleman  knows  anything- 
.  of  the  history  of  the  country  he  comprehends  very  well  that  a 
majority  of  the  people  in  the  North,  even  as  late  as  late  as  July, 
1861,  were  unwilling  to  believe  that  such  a  formidable  insurrec- 
tion and  rebellion  was  before  them,  and  that  we  were  to 
have  a  bloody  war  of  four  years  after  the  disaster  at  Bull  Run. 

Mr.  Eldridge.  Then  will  the  gentleman  allow  me  to 
ask  whether  the  United  States  have  any  power  or  authority 
by  which  they  can  allow  a  State  to  break  its  relationship 
with  the  Union  ? 

Mr.  ASHI.EY,  of  Ohio.  I  suppose  there  is  no  one  in  this 
House  who  would  claim  or  admit  that  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  has  any  constitutional  power  to  authorize  or 
recognize  the  right  of  a  majority  of  the  people  of  a  State  to 
dissolve  their  constitutional  relations  with  the  General  Govern- 
ment. So  far  as  I  am  concerned,  and  the  great  body  of  the  men 
with  whom  I  act,  we  utterly  deny  it.  But,  sir,  if  the  people 
of  a  State  do  the  act,  what  then?  Who  is  there  to  prescribe 
the  terms  and  conditions  upon  which  these  States  shall  be  re^ 
stored  when  these  acts  are  consummated  ? 

Sir,  I  hold,  as  my  distinguished  colleague  [Mr.  Bing- 
ham] holds,  and  as  the  great  body  of  the  Republican-Union 
party  hold,  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  under 
its  present  Constitution  can  only  exist  where  constitutional 
State  governments  are  maintained,  and  that  the  sovereignty 
of  the  people  of  this  country  reposes  in  the  people  who  reside 
in  States  which  maintain  constitutional  State  governmerts 
in  practical  relations  with  the  National  Government,  and 
exists  nowhere  else.  I  hold  that  the  people  of  a  State  may, 
and  all  know  that  eleven  States  did,  in  violation  of  the  Con- 
stitution, dissolve  their  practical  relations  with  the  National 


—  427  — 

Government.  As  an  individual  citizen  may,  in  violation  of 
law,  commit  crime,  so  may  a  political  community,  in  viola- 
tion of  law,  refuse  or  neg-lect  to  discharg-e  their  constitution- 
al obligations.  If  they  do  this  thing-,  I  hold  that  the  States 
which  remain  loyal  must  always  represent  the  national  sov- 
ereignty and  have  the  rig-ht  to  dictate  such  terms  as  they 
may  see  fit  to  revolting-  States,  and  to  compel  the  people 
of  the  States  so  violating-  the  Constitution  to  accept  those 
terms,  or  to  remain  during-  the  pleasure  of  the  conqueror  in 
the  condition  in  which  we  now  find  the  late  rebel  States. 
No,  not  in  such  condition,  but  in  such  condition  as  the  Con- 
gress which  represents  the  nation  may  dictate. 

I  have  reg-retted  to  find,  since  this  Cong-ress  came  tog^ether, 
so  many  g-entlemen  here  doing-  all  they  could  to  inflame  the 
passions  and  prejudices  of  the  g-reat  body  of  the  people  who 
were  recently  in  rebellion  in  the  United  States.  I  have  re- 
g-retted to  find  them  forming  alliances  with  rebels  and  justi- 
fying the  President  of  the  United  States,  who  has  become 
the  leader  of  a  negative  rebellion  as  hostile  and  as  dangerous 
to  the  United  States,  and  I  fear  far  more  so  than  an  open 
armed  rebellion  would  be  if  he  were  at  the  head  of  it.  I  am 
anxious,  and  the  great  body  of  those  with  whom  I  act  are  to- 
day most  anxious,  that  the  people  who  went  into  the  rebel- 
lion (many  of  them  honestly  and  thousands  of  them  reluc- 
tantly) should  be  restored  to  their  practical  relations  with  this 
government  upon  the  mildest  and  most  merciful  and  forgiv- 
ing terms  which  it  is  possible  for  us,  a  conquering  people,  to 
impose  upon  them,  looking  to  our  own  safety,  the  stability 
of  the  National  Government,  and  the  rights  of  loyal  citizens 
in  those  States. 

Mr.  Finck.  Will  my  colleague  yield  to  me  for  a  moment? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.     For  a  question. 

Mr.  Finck.  This  is  the  very  place  for  my  question.  What 
are  the  terms  you  propose  ?  What  is  the  congressional  plan 
for  restoration  ? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  The  gentleman  will  find  an  an- 
swer if  he  will  read  these  bills ;  he  will  have  his  answer 
when  this  House  has  agreed  upon  some  practical  measure  of 
restoration,  which  I  trust  we  shall  do  within  ten  days — 


—  428— 

Mr.  Finck.  I  ask  the  g-entleman  which  of  these  bills- 
presents  a  fair  congressional  plan  of  restoration  ? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  I  hope  the  g-entleman  will  learn 
that  fact  when  the  majority  of  this  House  comes  to  vote  upon 
these  measures  next  Monday. 

Mr.  Finck.     I  suppose  so. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.     And  he  cannot  learn  before. 

Mr.  Finck.  One  more  question,  and  I  am  done.  I  want 
to  know  of  my  colleag-ue,  whom  I  recognize  as  the  leader  of 
that  side  of  the  House  on  this  question,  whether  he  admits 
that  his  party  have  not  yet  come  to  an  ag-reement  upon  their 
plan  of  restoration  ? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  So  far  as  I  know  they  have  not* 
The  Union  party  practically  committed  themselves  to  a  policy 
of  restoration,  and  they  went  so  far  as  to  admit  the  State  of 
Tennessee  upon  the  proposed  terms  of  that  restoration  policy. 
I  voted  for  the  admission  of  Tennessee,  and  do  not  reg-ret 
having-  voted  for  the  admission  of  that  truly  loyal  State. 

If  any  other  State  recently  in  rebellion  had  come  to  this. 
House  under  the  same  conditions  in  which  Tennessee  came, 
ratifying"  the  amendment  to  the  Constitution,  and  havings 
adopted  a  State  constitution  securing-  the  control  of  the  g-ov- 
ernment  of  the  State  to  loyal  men,  I  should,  although  it 
might  not  have  come  up  to  all  my  requirements,  have  voted 
for  the  admission  of  its  members  ;  so  anxious  was  I  then,  and 
so  anxious  am  I  now,  to  see  the  States  recently  in  rebellion 
restored  to  their  former  position  in  the  Union.  But  the  great 
body  of  the  men  recently  in  rebellion,  under  the  lead  of  the 
Executive,  have  rejected  these  mild  terms,  and  it  now  rests- 
with  Congress  to  say  upon  what  terms  they  shall  be  admitted. 

Mr.  Hise.  I  desire  to  ask  the  gentleman  one  question, 
inasmuch  as  he  asked  me  some  questions  while  I  was  speak- 
ing the  other  day 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  I  believe  I  did  not  ask  the  gen- 
tleman from  Kentucky  [Mr.  Hise]  any  questions  at  all.  I 
merely  declared  in  my  seat  in  a  word  or  two  that  I  dissented 
from  his  views. 

Mr.  Hise.     I  desire  to  ask  a  question. 
Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.     Very  well ;  I  will  allow  the  gen- 
tleman to  ask  me  a  question. 


—  429-- 

Mr.  Hise.  The  g-entleman  has  said  that  there  has  not 
been  a  definite  plan  adopted  by  a  majority  of  this  House.  I 
wish  to  ask  the  gentleman  if  he  will  g-o  so  far  as  to  state  that 
the  majority  of  this  House  concur  with  him  in  refusing"  ad- 
mission into  the  Cong-ress  of  the  United  States  of  representa- 
tives from  these  ten  States  now  unless  they  agree  to  the  con- 
dition of  branding"  all  who  have  held  either  civil  or  military 
office  under  the  confederacy  as  traitors,  and  as  such  are  to  be 
excluded  from  the  rig"ht  to  hold  office  under  the  United  States, 
and  regarding"  the  whole  body  of  the  people  of  those  States 
who  sympathized  with  or  co-operated  with  those  who  en- 
deavored to  establish  the  confederacy  as  disloyal,  and  thai 
none  are  to  be  regarded  as  loyal  except  the  negroes  and  inter- 
lopers there  ? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  In  all  of  the  measures  proposed  by 
this  Congress  the  great  body  of  the  men  who  were  in  the  con- 
federate army  and  supported  the  rebellion  have  been  granted 
entire  forgiveness.  In  the  propositions  which  were  submitted 
by  Congress  to  the  people  only  certain  parties  were  excluded 
from  holding  office.  Now,  I  would  like  to  ask  the  gentleman 
fMr.  Hise]  whether  he  is  willing  that  men,  who  while  mem- 
bers of  this  House,  and  of  the  Senate,  and  of  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  and  of  the  several  States,  plotted  treason 
against  this  Government,  and  went  into  a  war  and  maintained 
it  for  four  years  to  destroy  this  G&vernment,  should  now  be 
received  here  without  conditions  with  his  vote  ? 

Mr.  Hise.  I  will  answer  that  question.  I  am  of  the 
opinion  that  all  of  the  distinguished  men,  both  civilians  and 
those  who  held  commissions  and  authority  in  either  army, 
in  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  in  putting  down  this  se- 
cession, or  opposition  to  the  government,  were  citizens  of 
States  in  the  Union.  I  deny  the  authority  of  the  Government 
to  demand  as  a  condition-precedent  to  admission  to  represen- 
tation upon  this  floor  a  right  to  inquire  into  the  conduct  of, 
to  convict,  and  to  condemn  these  men  so  as  to  denationalize 
them  or  to  deprive  them  of  the  right  to  hold  office  either  un- 
der the  National  Government  or  under  a  State  government. 
I  should  oppose  that  as  a  usurpation  of  power. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.     The  answer  of  the  gentleman 
amounts  to  this  :  that  so  far  as  he  and  the  party  he  repre- 


—  430  — 

sents  are  concerned  they  would  not  object  to  Jeff.  Davis  or 
any  of  the  men  whose  hands  are  red  with  the  blood  of  my 
loyal  countrymen,  coming-  into  this  Hall  and  taking-  seats, 
along-side  cf  them  as  Representatives.  But  the  gentleman 
goes  further,  and  says  this  is  a  proposition  to  clothe  the  black 
population  with  the  franchise,  and  interlopers  with  the  right 
of  the  franchise  in  States.  All  I  demand,  all  the  loyal 
men  of  the  nation  demand,  in  the  reorganization  of  State 
governments  in  the  late  rebel  States,  is  that  we  protect  the 
rights  of  those  who  during  the  war  were  our  friends  and 
allies,  and  I  claim  we  can  only  do  that  by  securing  every  loyal 
man  the  right  of  the  ballot. 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  my  time  is  passing,  and  I  must  return, 
to  the  point  which  I  was  about  to  notice  when  interrupted. 
The  gentleman  from  Illinois  [Mr.  Ross] ,  like  many  other 
gentlemen  upon  that  side  of  the  House  who  have  spoken  be- 
fore him,  asked  why  we  permitted  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives from  these  States  to  remain  in  these  Halls  after  the  re- 
bellion, if  we  recognized  the  principle  upon  which  we  now 
profess  to  act?  Why,  sir,  the  answer  is  obvious,  and  I  am 
surprised  that  any  intelligent  gentleman  should  ask  such  a 
question.  When  those  men  were  elected  they  came  here  from 
States  recognized  as  constitutional  States,  in  practical  rela- 
tions with  the  National  Government.  A  Senator  of  the 
United  States  is  elected  for  six  years,  and  a  member  of  the 
House  for  two  years.  They  came  here  and  took  their  seats 
because  they  had  been  constitutionally  elected  before  their 
States  went  into  rebellion.  Every  gentleman  knows  that 
there  is  no  authority  under  the  Constitution  which  would 
authorize  the  House  or  the  Senate  to  exclude  a  member  duly 
elected  and  qualified,  unless  they  committed  some  overt  act 
of  treason  or  violated  the  rules  prescribed  for  the  government 
of  the  House  or  Senate,  and  the  gentleman  ought  to  under- 
stand this  matter  quite  as  well  as  I  do. 

Mr.  Chanlkr.  I  want  to  ask  the  gentleman  one  ques- 
tion. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.     Very  well;  I  will  hear  it. 

Mr.  Chanler.  It  is  this:  if  the  loyal  population  of  any 
State  should  be  found  to  consist  of  negroes  alone,  does  the 
gentleman  mean  to  say  that  he  would  recognize  that  as  a 


—  431  — 

State,  its  org-anization  being"  based  upon  negro  population 
alone,  excluding  the  white  race? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  The  gentleman  has  asked  me  a 
question  which  he  knows  very  well 

Mr.  Chanler.     You  cannot  answer  it.     [Laug-hter.] 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  It  has  no  practical  application  so 
far  as  it  relates  to  any  of  the  States  recently  in  rebellion. 

Mr.  Chanler.  You  dare  not  answer  it.  Answer  "yes  " 
or  *'  no,"  and  do  not  falter  about  it. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  When  the  g-entleman  talks  about 
my  faltering-  and  not  daring-  to  answer  he  assumes  what  he 
has  no  right  to  assume. 

Mr.  Chanler.     Well,  give  us  an  answer. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  If  the  gentleman  will  take  his 
seat  and  remain  quiet  for  a  moment  I  will  give  him  an  an- 
swer. If  there  were  a  single  State  in  the  American  Union  in 
which  there  was  not  a  single  white  man  and  all  were  black 
men,  I  would  clothe  its  population  with  the  right  of  the 
franchise,  and  with  every  other  right  of  an  American  citizen 
under  this  Government.  [Applause  in  the  galleries.]  Does 
the  gentleman  regard  this  as  an  answer? 

Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  the  gentleman  from  Illinois  [Mr.  Ross] 
and  those  who  sustain  him  have  asked  the  question  repeated- 
ly with  an  air  of  assumed  innocence  why  we  do  not  admit 
loyal  Representatives  from  the  recent  rebel  States  upon  this 
floor  and  upon  the  floor  of  the  Senate.  Why,  sir,  I  would  not 
vote  to-day  to  admit  Horace  Greeley  as  a  Representative  in  this 
House  from  South  Carolina,  nor  would  I  vote  to  admit  any 
other  man,  however  loyal,  as  a  Representative  from  that  com- 
munity. Why?  The  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  comprehend 
this  matter  quite  as  well  as  I  do.  They  know  that  no  political 
community  under  our  form  of  government  has  the  right  to 
representation  on  this  floor  or  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,  unless  it  has  a  constitutional  State  government 
organized  and  recognized  by  Congress  as  in  practical  relation 
with  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  The  admission 
of  Representatives  and  Senators  in  Congress  is  a  practical 
recognition  of  the  State  government  from  which  they  come. 

Mr.  Hise.  With  the  permission  of  the  gentleman  from 
Ohio,  I  will  say  that  I  do  not  think  he  has  met  the  interroga- 


—  432  — 

tion  submitted  by  the  g-entleman  from  New  York  [Mr.  Chatt- 
ier]. The  g-entleman  from  Ohio  has  said  that  if  the  popula- 
tion of  a  State  were  composed  entirely  of  black  men,  no 
white  men  residing-  in  the  State,  he  would  recog-nize  those 
black  men  as  entitled  to  the  rig-ht  of  suffrag-e  and  every  other 
rig-ht.  But  the  question  of  the  g-entleman  from  New  York, 
as  I  understood  it,  was,  whether  the  g-entleman  from  Ohio 
would  recog-nize  as  entitled  to  representation  a  State  where 
suffrag-e  was  confined  to  the  neg-roes,  the  white  population 
being-  excluded  from  the  exercise  of  that  rig-ht. 

Me.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  Well,  Mr.  Speaker,  if  the  g-entle- 
man is  anxious  for  my  views  on  this  point,  I  will  explain.  I 
am  willing  to  forg-ive,  thoug-h  I  can  never  forg-et  the  crimes 
committed  by  those  who  attempted  to  destroy  this  Govern- 
ment. I  am  willing-  to  walk  backward  and  with  the  broad 
mantle  of  charity  cover  the  political  nakedness  of  the  men  re- 
cently in  rebellion.  My  anxiety  for  the  restoration  of  the 
Southern  States  is  such  that  I  am  willing-  that  all  men,  even 
those  who  held  subordinate  civil  positions  and  positions  in 
the  army  of  the  rebellion  shall  have  the  ballot,  excluding- 
only  the  more  important  and  leading-  men  from  holding- 
office — those,  for  instance,  who  were  above  the  grade  of 
colonel,  and  those  who  held  positions  under  this  Government 
before  the  rebellion.  Every  bill  ever  introduced  by  me  for 
reorganizing  these  States  has  proposed  to  extend  the  right 
of  the  ballot  to  the  great  body  of  the  white  as  well  as  the 
black  people.  My  friend  from  Kentucky  says  —  and  if  I  held 
his  opinions  I  would  say — "that  the  rule  I  have  suggested 
would  exclude  the  very  best  men  in  the  South."'  Undoubted- 
ly it  would  exclude  those  whom  he  and  his  friends  regard  as 
the  best  men  in  the  South.  If  my  friend  from  Kentucky  had 
resided  in  South  Carolina  during  the  war  I  suppose  he  would 
never  have  been  upon  this  floor.  I  respect  him  for  standing 
up  here  and  maintaining  his  opinions,  erroneous  as  I  deem 
them.  I  prefer  an  open,  manly  opponent  to  a  pretended 
friend.  A  large  majority  of  those  with  whom  I  act  are  anx- 
ious for  the  restoration  of  loyal  State  governments  in  the 
South.  They  are  willing  to  go  so  far  as  to  extend  forgive- 
ness to  the  great  body  of  the  people  guilty  of  the  great  crime 
of  treason,  and  admit  them  to  the  ballot-box;  but  at  the  same 


—  433— 

time  they  demand  that  every  loyal  man,  every  **  interloper," 
as  my  friend  from  Kentucky  terms  the  white  Unionist,  every 
man,  however  dusky  his  skin,  whose  heart  beat  true  to  the 
old  flag-  and  the  Union  during*  the  entire  war,  shall  be  the 
equal  of  any  traitor,  however  white. 

Mr.  Hill.  I  desire  to  ask  my  friend  from  Ohio  whether 
his  last  expression  is  to  be  taken  as  indicating-  his  conversion 
to  the  doctrine  of  * 'universal  amnesty  and  universal  suffrag-e?" 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  No,  sir;  I  do  not  know  that  I  have 
ever  been  in  favor  of  that  doctorine.  As  a  practical  man, 
however,  I  want  to  see  the  Union  restored;  and  if  the  members 
of  the  opposition  would  come  to  this  question  with  the 
earnestness  of  the  men  of  New  Eng-land  and  the  men  of  the 
"West,  the  work  of  restoration  would  have  been  accomplished 
before  now.  Why,  sir,  the  assumption,  the  brazen-faced  as- 
sumption, of  men  who  during-  the  entire  war  were  in  open  or 
secret  alliance  with  the  rebels,  coming-  here  now  and  joining- 
hands  with  the  apostate  at  the  other  end  of  the  avenue,  who 
is  the  leader,  the  recog-nized  leader,  of  a  counter-revolu- 
tion—  a  neg-ative  rebellion,  as  I  said  awhile  ag-o  —  passes  com- 
prehension. 

Why,  sir,  suppose  that  in  1860  John  C.  Breckinridge  had 
been  elected  President  of  the  United  States;  suppose  the  anti- 
slavery  men  of  the  country  had  rebelled  ag-ainst  his  election, 
and  their  cause  for  rebellion  would  have  been  far  greater  than 
the  cause  which  impelled  the  southern  men  into  their  rebellion; 
and  suppose  that  after  four  years  of  bloody  war  this  anti- 
slavery  rebellion  had  been  crushed  and  Mr.  Breckinridge  had 
been  again  elected  President  and  in  an  hour  of  weakness  you 
had  taken  an  apostate  abolitionist  from  the  North  for  Vice- 
President,  to  show  your  love  of  the  North  you  had  conquered, 
to  show  them  that  you  had  no  feeling  of  hatred  toward  them, 
and  that  in  one'  short  month  after  the  inauguration,  by  a 
conspiracy  of  anti-slavery  men  in  the  North,  Mr.  Breckin- 
ridge had  been  assassinated  as  Mr.  Lincoln  was  assassinated, 
and  the  apostate  abolitionist  had  come  into  the  presidency  as 
Mr.  Johnson  came  into  it,  and  he  had  pardoned  and  appointed 
throughout  the  North  and  the  entire  country  the  men  who 
had  been  chiefs  of  the  rebellion,  turned  out  the  men  who  had 
28 


—  434  — 

elected  him,  and  appointed  their  unrelenting-  enemies,  what 
would  have  been  your  denunciations?  Sir,  I  know  the  de- 
nunciations on  this  side  of  the  House  are  mildness  in  com- 
parison with  the  terrible  denunciations  which  would  have 
been  hurled  at  this  apostate  and  usurper  by  the  men  on  that 
side  of  the  House.  And  they  would  not  have  stopped  with 
denunciations;,  he  would  have  been  impeached  and  deposed 
before  to-day. 

Sir,  all  I  ask,  and  all  the  loyal  men  of  this  country  ask 
who  have  sacrified  so  much  in  blood  and  treasure  in  putting- 
down  the  rebellion,  is  that  in  the  restoration  of  these  States 
care  shall  be  taken  that  the  National  Government  shall  not 
ag-ain  be  imperiled  by  a  counter-revoluion,  in  which  the  apos- 
tate President  shall  be  the  leader,  aided  by  the  late  rebels 
and  their  northern  allies.  Hence  I  am  in  favor  of  prompt 
and  vig-orous  action  by  this  Cong-ress.  I  hold  that  these  g"Ov- 
ernments  set  up  by  Mr.  Johnson  are  illegal,  and  I  want  them 
declared  illeg-al  and  void  before  this  Congress  adjourns.  I  do 
not  care  if  for  a  period  of  sixty  days  or  more  or  less,  as  alleged 
by  the  gentleman  from  New  York  [Mr.  Raymond],  there 
should  be  an  interregnum  in  which  there  would  be  no  local 
civil  governments  in  those  States.  If  you  had  been  loyal  men 
in  New  Orleans  and  Memphis  during  the  late  massacre  you 
would  have  welcomed  any  government  instead  of  the  govern- 
ments which  planned  and  executed  the  murders  there  enacted. 
I  would  rather  have  every  man  stand  upon  his  own  responsi- 
bility as  a  man  than  to  have  governments  which  exiled  me 
from  my  home,  confiscated  my  property,  or  murdered  me  or 
mine  with  impunity.  In  this  city  there  are  men  to-day  who 
have  been  exiled  from  their  homes,  not  able  to  return,  because 
of  their  fidelity  to  the  flag  of  the  Union,  the  Government  of 
the  Union  which  they  served  during  the  war  refusing  them 
protection  in  their  homes. 

What  I  want  is  not  oaths;  I  have  not  much  faith  in  oaths. 
I  would  trust  some  men  on  a  simple  declaration,  such  as  I 
quoted  in  a  speech  on  this  subject  at  the  last  session,  much 
sooner  than  I  would  trust  those  who  hesitate  at  no  oath;  such 
a  one,  sir,  as  was  made  by  a  distinguished  gentleman  in  North 
Carolina,  Mr.  Read,  who  presided  over  their  recent  reconstruc- 
tion convention,  and  who  had  been  himself  a  rebel.     His  dec- 


ii 


—  435  — 

laratioti  was  such,  that  when  I  read  it  in  California  I  said  in 
my  heart,  there  is  a  man  I  can  take  by  the  hand  and  welcome 
back  to  the  old  family  mansion.  Bad  men  will  take  any  oath 
tinder  the  advice  and  lead  of  unscrupulous  politicians.  We  have 
witnessed  its  fatal  working's  in  Maryland. 

I  want  peace,  I  want  unity,  I  want  the  Government  re- 
stored, but  I  do  not  want  the  men  who  conquered  the  rebel- 
lion proscribed,  and  the  governments  of  the  rebel  States  car- 
ried on  by  the  men  who  have  been  wag-ing-  bitter  war  ag-ainst 
us  for  the  past  four  years.     I  utterly  repudiate  the  assump- 
tion of  the  President  that  he  can  parole  armies  and  then  au- 
thorize these  paroled  prisoners  of  war  to  form  constitutional 
State  g"overments  for  the  loyal  men  in  the  States  recently  in 
rebellion.     I  know  very  well  if  g-entlemen  on  the  other  side 
had  been  in  power  in  the  case  supposed  by  me  a  while  ago 
what  they  would  have  done.     There  would  have  been  no  let- 
up on  their  part.     There  would  have  been  no  such  mercy  as 
we  have  shown  ;  no  such  mild  terms  of  restoration  submitted 
as  we  have  proposed.     There  would  have  been  no  such  for- 
giveness.    But  they  would  have  proscribed,  and  proscribed 
to  the  bitter  end.     They  would  have  maintained  their  party 
organization  in  every  rebel  State  against  any  and  all  attempts 
to  overthrow  it  by  those  who  had  so  recently  been  their  ene- 
mies and  the  enemy  of  the  nation.     I  say  we  are  ready  to  for- 
give the  great  body  of  the  Southern  people,  we  are  anxious 
to  forgive  them  ;  but  we  are  determined,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
that  these  rebel   State  governments  organized  by  Johnson 
shall  not  be  recognized,  come  what  may ;  that  disloyal  Rep- 
resentatives shall  not  appear  upon  this  floor,  nor  shall  the 
electoral  votes  of  such  States  be  counted  in  any  presidential 
election  until  constitutional  governments  have  been  organized 
and  recognized  by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 


IMPEACHMENT  OF  THE  PRESIDENT. 


Remarks  by  Hon.  Jamks   M.  Ashi^ky,  of  Ohio,   in   thit 
House)  of  Representatives,     March    7,  1867. 


ON  THE  charges,   RESOLUTIONS    AND    REPORTS    IN    FAVOR    OF 

IMPEACHMENT. 


Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  Mr.  Speaker,  I  rise  to  perform  a 
painful,  but,  nevertheless,  to  me  an  imperative  duty ;  a  duty 
which  I  think  oug-ht  not  longer  to  be  postponed,  and  which 
cannot,  without  criminality  on  our  part,  be  neglected.  I  had 
hoped,  sir,  that  this  duty  would  have  devolved  upon  an  older 
and  more  experienced  member  of  this  House  than  myself. 
Prior  to  our  adjournment  I  asked  a  number  of  gentlemen  to 
offer  the  resolution  which  I  introduced,  but  upon  which  I 
failed  to  obtain  a  suspension  of  the  rules. 

Confident,  sir,  that  the  loyal  people  of  this  country  de- 
mand at  our  hands  the  adoption  of  some  such  proposition  as  I 
am  about  to  submit,  I  am  determined  that  no  effort  on  my 
part  shall  be  wanting  to  see  that  their  expectations  are  not 
disappointed. 

Mr.  Finck.  I  rise  to  a  point  of  order.  I  want  to  know 
what  the  question  is. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.     I  will  state  it. 

Mr.  Finck.     I  have  not  heard  it. 

The  Speaker.  If  the  gentleman  insists,  the  question 
must  be  stated. 

Mr.  Finck.    I  do  insist. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  Then,  sir,  on  my  responsibility 
as  a  Representative,  in  the  presence  of  this  House,  and  be- 
fore the  American  people,  I  charge  Andrew  Johnson,  Vice- 
Prosident  and  acting  President  of  the  United  States,  with  the 

(436) 


—  437  — 

commission  of  acts  wliicli,  in  contemplation  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, are  hig-h  crimes  and  misdemeanors,  for  which,  in  my 
judgment,  he  ought  to  be  impeached.  I  therefore  stkbmitthe 
following — 

Mr.  Fincz.  I  propose  another  question  of  order.  Is 
that  a  question  of  privilege  ? 

The  Speaker.  It  is.  In  the  Twenty-seventh  Congress, 
by  the  then  Speaker,  it  was  decided,  on  the  point  raised  by 
Horace  Everett,  of  Vermont,  that  it  was  a  question  of  privi- 
lege. 

Mr.  Eldridge.     Is  there  not  a  special  order  for  to-day  ? 

The  Speaker.  The  unfinished  business,  which  is  the 
regular  order,  cannot  interfere  with  this  proposition. 

The  Clerk  read  the  proposition  of  Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio, 
which  is  as  follows  : 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.     I  demand  the  previous  question. 

Mr.  Spai^ding.  I  move  it  be  laid  on  the  table.  Yeas, 
30;  nays,  105. 

The  question  was  then  taken  on  the  passage  of  the  reso- 
lution, and  decided  in  the  affirmative.  Yeas,  108;  nays,  39. — 
Congressional  Globe,  Jan.  7,  1868. 

I  do  impeach  Andrew  Johnson,  Vice-President  and  act- 
ing President  of  the  United  States,  of  high  crimes  and  mis- 
demeanors. 

I  charge  him  with  a  usurpation  of  power  and  violation  of 
law  : 

In  that  he  has  corruptly  used  the  appointing  power: 
In  that  he  has  corruptly  used  the  pardoning  power: 
In  that  he  has  corruptly  used  the  veto  power: 
In  that  he  has  corruptly  disposed  of  public  property  of 
the  United  States: 

In  that  he  has  corruptly  interfered  in  elections,  and  com- 
mitted acts  which,  in  contemplation  of  the  Constitution,  are 
high  crimes  and  misdemeanors:    Therefore, 

Be  it  Resolved,  That  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary 
be,  and  they  are  hereby  authorized  to  inquire  into  the  official 
conduct  of  Andrew  Johnson,  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States,  discharging  the  duties  of  the  office  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  and  to  report  to  this  House  whether,  in 
their  opinion,  the  said  Andrew  Johnson,  while  in  said  office, 
has  been  guilty  of  acts  which  are  designed  or  calculated  to 
overthrow,  subvert,  or  corrupt  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  or  any  department  or  office  thereof;  and  whether  the 


—  438  — 

said  Andrew  Johnson  has  been  g'uilty  of  an}-  act,  or  has  con- 
spired with  others  to  do  acts,  which,  in  contemplation  of  the 
Constitution,  are  hig^h.  crimes  and  misdemeanors,  requiring" 
the  interposition  of  the  constitutional  power  of  this  House; 
and  that  said  committee  have  power  to  send  for  persons  and 
papers,  and  to  administer  the  customary  oath  to  witnesses. 


IMPEACHMENT   OF  THE    PRESIDENT. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  I  rise  to  a  question  of  privileg-e, 
and  present  the  following-  resolution: 

Whereas,  The  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Thirty- 
ninth  Congress  adopted,  on  the  7th  of  January,  1867,  a  resolu- 
tion authorizing-  an  inquiry  into  certain  charg-es  preferred 
ag-ainst  the  President  of  the  United  States;  and  whereas  the 
Judiciary  Committee,  to  whom  said  resolutions  and  charg-es 
were  referred,  with  authority  to  investig-ate  the  same,  were 
unable  for  want  of  time  to  complete  said  investig-ation  before 
the  expiration  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Cong-ress;  and  whereas  in 
the  report  submitted  by  said  Judiciary  Committee  on  the  2d 
of  March  they  declare  that  the  evidence  taken  is  of  such  a 
character  as  to  justify  and  demand  a  continuation  of  the 
investig-ation  by  this  Cong-ress:     Therefore 

Be  it  Resolved  by  the  House  op  Representatives, 
That  the  Judiciary  Committee,  when  appointed,  be,  and  they 
are  hereby  instructed  to  continue  the  investig-ation  authorized 
in  said  resolution  of  January  7,  1867,  and  that  they  have 
power  to  send  for  persons  and  papers,  and  to  administer  the 
customary  oath  to  witnesses;  and  that  the  committee  have 
authority  to  sit  during-  the  sessions  of  the  House  and  during- 
any  recess  which  Cong-ress  may  take. 

Resolved,  That  the  Speaker  of  the  House  be  requested 
to  appoint  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary  forthwith,  and 
that  the  committee  so  appointed  be  directed  to  take  charge  of 
the  testimony  taken  by  the  committee  of  the  last  Congress; 
and  that  said  committee  have  power  to  appoint  a  clerk  at  a 
compensation  not  to  exceed  six  dollars  per  day,  and  employ 
the  necessary  stenographer. 

Mr.  Wilson,  of  Iowa.     I  desire  to  offer  an  amendment. 
Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.     I  will  hear  it. 
Mr.  Wilson,  of  Iowa.     The  amendment  I  desire  to  offer 
is  t©  add  to  the  resolution  the  following: 

Resolved,  That  the  Clerk  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives be  directed  to  pay  out  of  the  contingent  fund  of  the 


—  439  — 

House,  on  the  order  of  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary,  such 
sum  or  sums  of  money  as  may  be  required  to  enable  the  said 
committee  to  prosecute  the  inyestig-ations  above  directed,  and 
such  other  investigations  as  it  may  be  ordered  to  make. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.     I  accept  that  amendment  as  a 
modification  of  my  resolution. 

Mr.  Speaker,  this  resolution  will  bring*  the  House  to  a 
vote  on  a  question  of  transcendent  importance.  It  brings  us 
face  to  face  with  a  man  whose  usurpations  have  imperiled 
the  republic.  We  cannot  escape  the  consideration  of  this 
question  if  we  would,  and  we  ought  not  if  we  could.  The 
report  of  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  last  House  made  on 
Saturday  is  a  sufi&cient  vindication  of  the  action  of  that  body 
on  the  charges  presented  looking  to  the  impeachment  of  the 
President.  It  is  a  report  which  the  moral  sense  of  the  nation 
will  approve.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  that  committee  were 
not  authorized  at  an  earlier  day  to  proceed  with  this  investi- 
gation, so  that  they  might  have  completed  it  and  presented 
the  case  to  Congress.  All  true  men  who  have  examined  this 
matter  impartially  can  but  regret  our  inability  to  secure 
earlier  action. 

But  I  think  I  may  without  hazard  express  the  opinion 
that  there  is  no  cause  for  discouragement;  that  the  founda- 
tions have  been  so  carefully  laid  that  the  machinations  of  the 
conspirators  and  their  chief,  with  all  the  immense  power  and 
patronage  in  his  hands,  will  be  unable  long  to  stay  the  doom 
which  awaits  him.  It  is,  sir,  to  go  upon  the  record  of  this 
House,  and  it  will  go  into  history,  that  the  people  of  the 
United  States  will  never  permit  the  President  to  usurp  the 
prerogatives  of  the  law-making  power;  nor  will  they  permit 
him  to  defy  the  deliberately  recorded  verdict  of  the  nation. 
They  will  permit  no  man  —  certainly  no  man  who  came  into 
the  Presidency  through  the  door  of  assassination — 

Mr.  Niblack.  Mr.  Speaker,  I  rise  to  a  question  of 
order.     Is  debate  in  order  at  this  stage  of  proceeding? 

The  Speaker.     Debate  is  in  order. 

Mr.  Niblack.     Is  the  resolution  before  the  House? 

The  Speaker.  It  is  before  the  House  as  a  question  of 
privilege.  The  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Ashley]  will 
proceed. 


--440  — 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  was  saying-,  when  interrupted,  that  the 
people  of  this  country  will  never  permit  any  man — certainly 
no  man  who  came  into  the  Presidency  throug-h  the  door  of 
assassination — to  use  the  vast  powers  with  which  the  Execu- 
tive of  this  country  is  clothed  in  defiance  of  Cong-ress  and  the 
people.  That  the  acting-  President  has  done  all  this  and 
more  will  not  be  seriously  denied.  His  usurpations  of  power 
have  been  in  clear  violation  of  the  Constitution,  and  many  of 
his  acts  tend  directly  to  revolution.  In  fact  the  messag-e  to 
which  we  were  all  compelled  to  listen  on  last  Saturday,  re- 
turning- with  his  objections  the  reconstruction  bill,  was  but 
an  invitation  to  revolution  and  civil  war.  If  any  loyal  man 
had  doubted  before,  he  could  doubt  no  long-er,  that  while  this- 
man  remains  in  the  presidential  office  there  can  be  no  tran- 
quility in  this  country,  no  security  for  property,  liberty,  or 
life  to  loyal  citizens  in  the  South,  no  such  restoration  of  this 
Government  as  the  Union  army  and  the  Union  citizens  of 
this  nation  have  decreed,  no  safety  for  a  single  hour  from 
rebellion  or  revolution. 

Sir,  a  man  of  Mr.  Johnson's  antecedents,  of  his  mental  and 
moral  character,  coming-  into  the  Presidency  as  he  came  into 
it — and  I  say  nothing-  now  of  the  dark  suspicions  which  crept 
over  the  minds  of  men  as  to  his  complicity  in  the  assassination 
plot,  nor  of  the  fact  that  I  cannot  banish  from  my  mind  the 
mysterious  connection  between-  death  and  treachery  which 
this  case  presents — I  say,  such  a  man,  in  view  of  all  that  has 
happened,  coming-  into  the  presidential  office  as  he  came  into 
it,  ought  .to  have  walked  with  uncovered  head,  and  very 
humbly,  before  the  loyal  men  of  this  nation  and  their  Repre- 
sentatives in  the  American  Congress. 

Mr.  Speaker,  if  this  nation  does  not  stamp  with  the  broad 
seal  of  its  condemnation  the  usurpations  and  crimes  and  mis- 
demeanors of  this  man  it  will  be  but  an  invitation  in  the 
future  for  a  repetition  of  these  usurpations,  crimes  and  mis- 
demeanors. 

Self-protection  and  a  proper  respect  for  the  honor  of  the 
nation  demand  that  the  Representatives  of  the  people  shall 
declare,  in  a  manner  not  to  be  misunderstood,  that  no  man 
hereafter  elected  President  or  Vice-President  shall  present 
himself  at  his  inauguration  drunk;  that  no  man  discharging 


—  441  — 

the  duties  of  the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States  shall 
be  permitted  to  turn  the  White  House  into  a  den  of  thieves 
and  pardon-brokers,  nor  shall  he  be  permitted  with  impunity 
to  address  in  vulgar,  seditious  lang-uag-e  a  drunken,  howling' 
mob  from  the  steps  of  the  Executive  Mansion. 

Sir,  unless  this  committee  take  charge  of  this  matter  and 
proceed  with  it,  this  Congress  might  as  well  lay  down  its 
powers.  If,  however,  nothing  more  should  be  done,  I  am  sure 
that,  when  the  evidence  which  has  been  already  taken  is  pub- 
lished, it  will  operate  as  a  deliberate  and  solemn  protest 
against  a  repetition  in  the  future  of  another  drunken  elec- 
tioneering tour  such  as  last  year  mantled  the  cheek  of  this 
nation  with  shame;  that  it  will  be  a  protest  against  the  un- 
pardonable attacks  which  the  acting  Executive  made  upon 
the  national  Congress,  a  protest  against  his  usurpations  and 
crimes  and  misdemeanors. 

Sir,  his  crime  is  not,  as  many  suppose,  the  mere  perfidy 
of  which  he  has  been  guilty  to  the  men  who  in  an  evil  hour 
elected  him  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  black  and  in- 
famous as  it  is;  his  crime  is  the  highest  known  in  our  country, 
a  crime  against  the  Republic  itself. 

If  the  investigation  go  no  further,  it  will  establish  be- 
yond question  that  the  people  of  this  country  will  not  per- 
mit any  man  with  impunity  to  be  guilty  of  acts  of  which  he 
has  been  guilty;  and  if  so,  the  investigation  will  not  have 
been  in  vain.  Mr.  Speaker,  the  United  States  is  not  the  only 
nation  which  has  been  disgraced  by  such  an  executive  head. 
Fortunately,  however,  for  mankind,  such  men  are  born  into 
the  world  to  curse  the  human  race  but  once  in  centuries. 
The  nation  cries  out  in  its  agony  and  calls  upon  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  to  deliver  them  from  the  shame  and  dis- 
grace which  the  acting  President  has  brought  upon  them. 
They  demand  that  the  loathing  incubus  which  has  blotted 
our  country's  history  with  its  foulest  blot  shall  be  removed. 
In  the  name  of  loyalty  betrayed,  of  law  violated,  of  the  Con- 
stitution trampled  upon,  the  nation  demands  the  impeach- 
ment and  removal  of  Andrew  Johnson. 

OThe  Speaker  here  intimated  to  Mr.  Ashley  that  he  was 
proc  >ding  beyond  the  license  allowed  in  debate,  and  after 
som'   interruption  he  again  proceeded,  as  follows: 


—  442  — 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  know,  on  this  question,  that  the  timid 
among-  the  loyal  hesitate,  that  the  late  rebels  and  their 
northern  allies  are  defiant,  and  that  the  camp-followers  of  the 
President  alternately  threaten  and  supplicate,  and  that  all 
unite  in  prophesying-  war  and  revolution,  and  in  any  event, 
financial  ruin  to  the  country,  if  Congress  shall  undertake 
to  arraig-n  and  depose  the  President,  as  provided  by  the 
Constitution.  Sir,  I  hope  this  Cong-ress  will  not  hesitate 
to  do  its  duty  because  the  timid  in  our  own  ranks  hesitate, 
or  because  of  the  threats  of  the  President's  satraps  and 
rebel  allies,  but  that  it  will  proceed  with  dig-nity  and  de- 
liberation to  the  discharg-e  of  the  hig-h  and  important  duty 
imposed  upon  it,  uninfluenced  by  passion  and  unawed  by  fear. 
If,  as  has  been  happily  sug-g-ested  by  one  of  our  able  and  true 
men,  the  nation  could  stand  the  shock  occaioned  by  the  mur- 
der of  a  beloved  President  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin,  it  surely 
can  stand  the  shock  caused  by  the  removal  of  one  so  detested 
as  the  acting-  President,  if  done  in  pursuance  of  law. 

And,  sir,  has  he  not  done  enoug-h?  Before  he  had  been 
one  month  in  the  Presidency  he  entered  into  a  combination 
with  the  enemies  of  the  nation  to  usurp  in  their  interest  the 
prerog-atives  of  Cong-ress,  and  soug-ht  to  bind  hand  and  foot 
the  loyal  men  of  the  South,  who  had  aided  us  in  putting-  down 
the  rebellion,  by  putting-  the  g-overnments  of  the  South  in 
the  hands  of  their  mortal  enemies  and  ours.  This  with  me 
is  enoug-h.  When  you  add  to  this  his  other  acts,  which  have 
become  public  history,  the  case  for  me  is  complete. 

The  duty  of  the  President  is  to  execute,  not  to  make  laws. 
His  oath  requires  him  to  see  that  the  laws  are  faithfully  ex- 
ecuted. That  the  President  has  neg-lected  or  refused  to  exe- 
cute many  of  the  laws  of  Cong-ress  no  man  questions.  That 
he  has  failed  to  execute  the  civil  rig-hts  bill,  nay,  that  he  has 
not  even  attempted  to  execute  it,  the  whole  country  knows. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  has  not  only  failed  to  execute  it,  but 
in  most  indecent  and  offensive  lang-uag-e  he  has  assailed  and 
denounced  the  law  as  unconstitutional. 

Sir,  in  his  failure  to  execute  this  just  and  most  necessary 
law  the  crime  of  the  President  becomes  perfectly  colossal. 
Since  the  surrender  of  Lee  and  Johnston  more  than  five  thou- 
sand American  citizens,  g"uilty  of  no  crime  but  love  of  country, 


—  443—     . 

"have  been  murdered  by  men  who  were  latel}-  in  arms  against 
this  countr}'.  Thousands  more  have  been  driven  from  their 
homes  into  exile,  while  no  effort  has  been  made  on  the  part 
of  the  executive  department  of  the  Government  to  g'ive  them 
the  protection  which  the  law  demands  and  which  justice  and 
humanity  demand.  So  far  as  I  know,  in  no  single  instance 
has  one  murderer  or  rioter  been  arrested  and  punished  for  his 
crimes,  while  loyal  men  who  served  in  the  Union  army  are 
arrested  and  tried  before  rebel  tribunals  and  punished  with 
unusual  and  severe  punishments  for  doing-  acts  when  in  the 
performance  of  military  duty  and  obeying-  the  orders  of  their 
superior  officers,  and  no  effort  is  made  by  the  executive  de- 
partment of  the  Government  to  prbtect  them.  Sir,  there 
never  was  a  nation  on  this  earth  g-uilty  of  the  infamy  of  treat- 
ing- its  loyal  citizens  as  the  President  of  the  United  States 
has  treated  the  loyal  men  of  the  South. 

I  know  how  easy  it  is  for  the  President  and  his  co-con- 
spirators to  deny  his  guilty  knowledge.  I  know  also  how 
difficult  it  is  to  prove  by  technical  rules  the  guilt  of  a  man  oc- 
cupying his  position,  although  the  whole  country  may  know 
him  to  be  g-uilty. 

Why,  sir,  when  the  rebellion  broke  out  in  the  winter  and 
spring-  of  1861,  and  for  several  months  afterward,  no  man 
could  have  been  arrested,  tried  and  convicted  before  a  court 
and  jury  in  this  District  who  was  engaged  in  conspiracy 
against  this  government,  although  no  sane  man  ever  doubted 
their  guilt.  It  is  much  more  difficult  in  a  case  of  this  kind, 
where  the  rebellion  is  not  an  open,  armed  rebellion,  but  a 
negative  rebellion.  In  this  rebellion  the  President  is  the  rec- 
ognized leader,  and  it  is  well  known  that  he  has  co-operat- 
ing with  him  nearly  all  the  late  rebels  of  the  South. 

Mr.  Chanler  interrupted,  but  Mr.  Ashley  declined  to 
yield,  and  continued  as  follows: 

I  KNOW,  Mr.  Speaker,  how  difficui^t  it  is  by  technicai, 

RULES  TO  PROVE  THE  GUILTY  KNOWLEDGE  OF  MEN  WHO  RE- 
FUSE   TO    EXECUTE    THE    LAW    WHILE    PROFESSING  TO    DO  SO. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  Avil  rights  bill  has  not  only  not 
been  enforced,  but  the'  vast  military  power  at  the  disposal  of 
the  President,  instead  of  being  used  to  protect  lo3^al  men,  has 


—  444— 

been  used  either  by  his  guilty  knowledge  or  by  his  indiffer- 
ence to  crush  the  loyal  men  of  the  South. 

Mr.  Eldridge;.  I  wish  to  make  an  inquiry  of  the  gen- 
tleman. I  understood  him  to  make  a  remark  censuring  the 
President  because  certain  parties  were  not  brought  to 
trial.  I  wish  to  ask  him  if  he  thinks  the  President  is  ta 
blame  because  Jefferson  Davis  has  not  been  brought  to  trial  ? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  I  am  unable  to  answer  that 
question.  I  know  that  in  those  military  departments  under 
his  command  where  he  does  interfere  he  has  used  the  military 
power  to  crush  the  loyal  men,  instead  of  protecting  them. 

Mr.  Eldridgb.  Will  the  gentleman  give  us  one  single 
instance  where  the  President  has  neglected  his  duty  in  regard 
to  the  trial  of  any  person  ? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  Yes,  sir ;  in  New  Orleans,  in 
Memphis,  and  in  every  rebel  State. 

Mr.  Eldridge.  Could  the  President  institute  courts  and 
try  these  parties  ? 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  I  do  not  claim  that  he  can,  but  he 
could  give  loyal  men  at  least  the  same  protection  he  has- 
given  rebels.  He  never  hesitates  to  interfere  in  favor  of 
rebels.  I  refer  to  the  case  of  Mr.  "Watson,  of  Virginia,  and 
others  ;  but  it  is  not  necessary  that  I  should  go  into  this. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that,  in  view  of  all 
the  facts  before  us,  if  this  investigation  is  not  proceeded 
with,  and  this  man  is  not  put  on  trial,  the  provision  of  the 
Constitution  providing  for  the  impeachment  of  the  President 
is  valueless.  Sir,  if  this  man  is  not  impeached,  if  he  is  not 
tried  and  deposed  from  the  high  place  which  he  has  disgraced, 
then  no  man  who  may  succeed  him  need  ever  fear  trial  and 
conviction,  no  matter  what  his  crime. 

Sir,  if  this  Congress  will  but  do  its  dutyj  and  meet 
the  just  expectations  of  the  loyal  people  of  this  coun- 
try by  empowering  its  judiciary  committee  to  proceed 
with  this  investigation,  and  the  committee  do  so  with 
that  energy  which  attends  the  proceedings  in  an  ordi- 
nary criminal  case,  i  believe  the  impeachment  and  con- 
VICTION OF  THE  President  is  as  inevitable  as  death. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  should  not  have  trespassed  so  long  upon 
the  time  of  the  House  as  I  have  but  for  interruptions.     But  I 


—  445  — 

desire  to  make  one  sug'g'estion  which  has  just  occurred  to 
me.  It  is  this :  that  all  persons,  whether  citizens  or  for- 
eig"ners,  who  have  any  documents  in  their  possession  which 
would  be  evidence  in  this  case,  or  who  are  in  possession  of 
any  facts  tending-  to  show  technically  the  guilt  of  this  man, 
oug"ht  as  a  matter  of  duty  to  bring-  them  to  the  knowledg-e  of 
the  Committee  on  the  Judiciar}-. 

Any  person  in  the  possession  of  such  facts  or  documents 
refusing-  or  neg-lecting-  to  do  so  becomes  an  accessory  in  the 
crime  of  this  man,  and  will  be  held  responsible  before  the 
country  and  in  the  g-reat  tribunal  of  human  history  as  a  co- 
partner in  his  guilt. 

Mr.  Holman,  of  Indiana,  moved  to  lay  the  resolution  on 
the  table  —  and  the  vote  was  yeas  32;  nays  119.  On  the 
adoption  of  the  resolution  there  was  no  division. — Congres- 
siONAi.  Globe,  March  16,  1867. 

On  Saturday,  February  24,  Mr.  Stephens,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, from  the  Committee  on  Reconstruction,  submitted  the 
following-  report  and  resolution: 

The  Committee  on  Reconstruction,  to  whom  was  referred, 
on  the  27th  day  of  January  last,  the  following-  resolution: 

Resolved,  That  the  Committee  on  Reconstruction  be 
authorized  to  inquire  what  combinations  have  been  made  or 
attempted  to  be  made  to  obstruct  the  due  execution  of  the 
laws;  and  to  that  end  the  committee  have  power  to  send  for 
persons  and  papers  and  to  examine  witnesses  on  oath,  and 
report  to  this  House  what  action,  if  any,  they  may  deem 
necessary;  and  that  said  committee  have  leave  to  report  at 
any  time.    . 

And  to  whom  was  also  referred,  on  the  21st  of  February, 
instant,  a  communication  from  Honorable  Edwin  M.  Stanton, 
Secretary  of  War,  dated  on  said  21st  day  of  February, 
tog-ether  with  a  copy  of  a  letter  from  Andrew  Johnson,  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  to  the  said  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  as 
follows: 

Executive  Mansion,  ) 
Washington,  D.  C,  February  21,  1868.  f 
Sir:  By  virtue  of  the  power  and  authority  vested  in  me, 
as  President,  by  the  Constitution  and  laws  "of  the  United 
States,  you  are  hereby  removed  from  office  as  Secretary  for 
the  Department  of  War,  and  your  functions  as  such  will 
terminate  upon  the  receipt  of  this  commnnication. 


—  446  — 

You  will  transfer  to  Brevet  Major  General  Lorenzo 
Thomas,  Adjutant  General  of  the  Army,  who  has  this  day 
been  authorized  and  empowered  to  act  as  Secretary  of  War 
AD  INTERIM,  all  records,  books,  papers,  and  other  public 
property  now  in  your  custody  and  charge. 

Respectfully  yours, 

Andrew  Johnson. 
Hon.  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Washing-ton,  D.  C. 

And  to  whom  was  also  referred  by  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives the  following"  resolution,  namely: 

**  Resolved,  That  Andrew  Johnson,  President  of  the 
United  States,  be  impeached  for  high  crimes  and  misde- 
meanors;" 

Have  considered  the  several  subjects  referred  to  them, 
and  submit  the  following  report: 

That  in  addition  to  the  papers  referred  to  the  Commit- 
tee, the  committee  find  that  the  President,  on  the  21st  day  of 
February,  1868,  signed  and  issued  a  commission  or  letter  of 
authority  to  one  Lorenzo  Thomas,  directing  and  authorizing 
said  Thomas  to  act  as  Secretary  of  War  ad  interim,  and  to 
take  possession  of  the  books,  records,  and  papers,  and  other 
public  property  in  the  War  Department,  of  which  the  follow- 
ing is  a  copy: 

Executive  Mansion,  ) 
Washington,  February  21,  1868.  f 
Sir:  Hon.  Edwin  M.  Stanton  haying  been  this  day 
removed  from  the  office  of  Secretary  for  the  Department  of 
War,  you  are  hereby  authorized  and  empowered  to  act  as 
Secretary  of  War  ad  interim,  and  will  immediately  enter 
upon  the  discharge  of  the  duties  pertaining  to  that  office. 
Mr.  Stanton  has  been  instructed  to  transfer  to  you  all  the 
records,  books,  papers,  and  other  public  property  now  in  his 
custody  and  charge. 

Respectfully  yours, 

Andrew  Johnson. 
To  Brevet    Major    General    Lorenzo    Thomas,   Adjutant 
Generai,  op  the  United  States  Army,  Washington, 
District  op  Columbia. 

Official  copy  respectfully  furnished  to  Hon.  Edwin  M. 
Stanton.  '  L.  Thomas, 

Secretary  of  War  ad  interim. 

Upon  the  evidence  collected  by  the  committee,  which  is 
herewith  presented,  and  in  virtue  of  the  powers  with  which 
they  have  been  invested  by  the  House,  they  are  of  the  opinion 
that  Andrew  Johnson,  President  of  the  United  States,  be 
impeached  of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors.     They  there- 


—  447  — 

fore  recommend  to  the  House  the  adoption  of  the  accompany- 
ing" resolution. 

Thaddeus  Stevens, 
George  S.  Boutweli., 
John  A.  Bingham, 
c.  t.  hulburd, 
John  F.  Farnsworth, 
F.  C.  Beaman, 
^  H.  E.  Paine. 
Resolution     providing*    for    the     impeachment    of    Andrew 
Johnson,  President  of  the  United  States. 
Resolved,    That  Andrew   Johnson,    President    of    the 
United  States,    be   impeached   for  high  crimes  and   misde- 
m.eanors  in  ofi5.ce. 


Remarks  op  Hon.  J.  M.  Ashi^ey,  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives February  22,  1868,  on  this  Resoi^ution. 

The  Speaker.  The  House  will  now  resume  the  con- 
sideration of  the  resolution  reported  from  the  Committee  on 
Reconstruction,  in  reference  to  the  impeachment  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  on  which  the  gentleman 
from  Ohio  [Mr.  Ashley]  is  entitled  to  the  floor. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  Mr.  Speaker,  in  approaching* 
this  subject  I  hope  I  do  so  in  any  other  spirit  than  the 
spirit  of  a  partisan.  In  the  few  minutes  I  shall  occupy  the 
time  of  the  House,  I  desire  to  call  attention  first  to  the 
statute  which  the  President,  in  his  removal  of  the  Secretary 
of  War,  has  set  at  defiance,  and  second,  to  the  provision  of 
the  Constitution  which  he  has  also  violated. 

This  act,  sir,  was  passed  and  took  effect  on  the  2d  of 
March,  1867. 

The  section  reads  thus: 

**  Sec.  6.  And  be  it  further  enacted.  That  every 
removal,  appointment,  or  employment,  made,  had,  or  exer- 
cised contrary  to  the  provisions  of  this  act,  and  the  making, 
signing,  sealing,  countersigning,  or  issuing  of  any  commis- 
sion or  letter  of  authority  for  or  in  respect  to  any  such 
appointment  or  employment,  shall  be  deemed,  and  are  hereby 
declared  to  be,  high  misdemeanors,  and,  upon  trial  and  con- 
viction thereof,  every  person  guilty  thereof  shall  be  punished 
by  a  fine  not  exceeding  $10,000,  or  by  imprisonment  not  ex- 


—  448  — 

ceeding"  five  years,  or  both  said  punishments,  in  the  discre- 
tion of  the  court:  Provided,  That  the  President  shall  have 
power  to  make  out  and  deliver,  after  the  adjournment  of  the 
Senate,  commissions  for  all  officers  whose  appointment  shall 
have  been  advised  and  consented  to  by  the  Senate." 

This  provision  of  law,  passed  by  the  Cong-ress  of  the 
United  States  over  the  veto  of  the  President,  he  has  deliberate- 
ly violated.  On  last  Friday,  in  utter  defiance  of  it,  and  as  if  to 
challeng-e  this  House  to  resort  to  its  constitutional  powers,  he 
notified  the  Senate  that  he  had,  on  the  authority  vested  in  him 
by  the  Constitution,  removed  the  Secretary  of  War.  Now,  sir, 
while  I  regard  this  as  one  of  the  smallest  of  the  many  of- 
fenses of  which  this  man  has  been  guilty,  yet  it  is  clearly  an 
offense  brought  within  a  narrow  compass — one  which  is 
easily  comprehended,  and  will  satisfy  that  class  of  gentlemen 
in  the  House,  who  hold  that  the  President  cannot  be  im- 
peached except  for  a  violation  of  some  statute  law.  His  dis- 
missal of  the  Secretary  of  "War  and  the  appointment  of  Mr. 
Thomas,  on  Friday,  without  the  consent  of  the  Senate, 
brings  him  within  that  technical  rule.  Sir,  I  regret  that  this 
House  should  not  before  to-day  have  put  itself  upon  the 
record  in  condemnation  of  this  most  indefensible  assumption 
that  public  officers,  especially  the  Chief  Magistrate,  cannot 
be  impeached  except  for  the  violation  of  some  statute  law  or 
some  clearly-defined  provision  of  the  Constitution.  Sir,  the 
impeaching  power  in  the  Constitution,  as  defined  by  the  hon- 
orable gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  [Mr.  Woodward],  I 
accept  as  the  only  rational  definition.  It  is,  he  told  us  a  few 
weeks  ago — 

**  A  popular  power ;  a  power  destined  for  the  protection 
of  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  people  against  their  rulers, 
and  one  that  ought  to  be  liberally  construed,  and  in  proper 
cases  freely  used." 

To  assume  that  the  President  can  be  impeached  only  for 
**  treason"  or  '*  bribery"  is  practically  to  assume  that  he 
cannot  be  impeached.  In  Curtis'  History  of  the  Constitution 
he  thus  refers  to  the  impeaching  power  of  Congress  : 

**  Among  the  separate  functions  assigned  by  the  Consti- 
tution to  the  two  Houses  of  Congress  are  those  of  presenting 
and  trying  impeachment.     An  impeachment,  in  the  report  of 


—  449  — 

the  Committee  of  Detail,  was  treated  as  an  ordinary  judicial 
proceeding-,  and  was  placed  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  That  this  was  not  in  all  respects  a  suitable 
provision  will  appear  from  the  following-  considerations  :  al- 
thoug-h  an  impeachment  may  involve  an  inquiry  whether  a 
crime  ag-ainst  any  positive  law  has  been  committed,  yet  it  is 
not  necessarily  a  trial  for  crime;  nor  is  there  any  necessity  in 
the  case  of  crimes  committed  by  public  officers  for  the  institu- 
tion of  any  special  proceeding-  for  the  infliction  of  the  punish- 
ment prescribed  by  the  laws,  since  they,  like  all  other  persons 
are  amenable  to  the  ordinary  jurisdiction  of  the  courts  of 
justice  in  respect  of  offenses  ag-ainst  positive  law.  The  pur- 
poses of  an  impeachment  lie  wholly  beyond  the  penalties  of  a 
statute  or  the  customary  law.  The  object  of  the  proceeding- 
is  to  ascertain  whether  cause  exists  lor  removing-  a  public 
officer  from  office.  Such  a  cause  may  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  either  in  the  discharge  of  his  office  or  aside  from  its 
functions  he  has  violated  a  law  or  committed  what  is  techni- 
cally denominated  a  crime.     But  a  causi5  for  removai.  from 

OFFICE  MAY  EXIST  WHERE  NO  OFFENSE  AGAINST  POSITIVE  LAW 
HAS  BEEN  COMMITTED,  AS  WHERE  AN  INDIVIDUAI,  HAS  FROM 
IMMORAI.ITY  OR    IMBECII.ITY    OR     MALADMINISTRATION   BECOME 


But  I  cannot  now  pursue  this  point  further. 

Sir,  if  there  were  no  law  on  the  statute  book,  if  there 
were  only  the  simple  provisions  of  the  Constitution,  to  which 
I  shall  in  a  moment  refer,  I  would  hold  that  this  House 
might,  under  the  authority  vested  in  it,  impeach  the  Presi- 
dent for  the  removal,  without  the  consent  of  the  Senate,  of 
an  officer,  when  the  Senate  is  in  session.  I  refer  now  to  the 
clause  vesting  the  power  of  appointment  in  the  President, 
with  the  consent  of  the  Senate  : 

**  He  shall  have  power,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent 
of  the  Senate,  to  make  treaties,  provided  two-thirds  of  the 
Senators  present  concur ;  and  he  shall  nominate,  and  by  and 
with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  shall  appoint  em- 
bassadors, other  public  ministers  and  consuls,  judges  of  the  Su- 
preme Court,  and  all  other  officers  of  the  United  States,  whose 
appointments  are  not  herein  otherwise  provided,  and  which 
shall  be  established  by  law;  but  the  Congress  may  bylaw 
vest  Ihe  appointment  of  such  inferior  officers  as  they  may 
think  proper  in  the  President  alone,  in  the  courts  of  law,  or 
la  the  heads  of  departments. 

2> 


—  450  — 

**  The  President  shall  have  power  to  fill  up  all  vacan- 
cies that  may  happen  during-  the  recess  of  the  Senate  by 
g-ranting-  commissions  which  shall  expire  at  the  end  of  their 
next  session." 

Mr.  Pruyn.  With  the  consent  of  the  g-entleman  I  wish 
to  ask  him  whether  I  correctly  understood  his  position  on  the 
question  to  which  he  has  just  referred  (removal  from  office), 
and  state  briefly  my  view  of  it.  It  was  alluded  to  in  the  dis- 
cussion on  Saturday  evening-.  When  the  g-entleman  from 
Illinois  [Mr.  Ing-ersoll]  was  on  the  floor,  I  made  a  remark, 
which  was  immediately  controverted  by  several  members  on 
the  other  side,  and  particularly  by  the  g-entleman  from  Ohio 
[Mr.  Schenck],  with  whom  I-  understood  the  member  from 
Ohio  now  on  the  floor  to  concur.  My  statement  was  to  this 
effect :  that  from  the  time  this  question  as  to  'the  removal 
was  discussed  and  decided  by  Cong-ress  at  its  first  session  in 
1789  to  the  present  day,  the  practice  has  been  uniform  that 
the  President,  and  the  President  only,  had  made  removals 
from  office,  and  that  without  the  concurrence  of  the  Senate, 
although  that  body  mig-ht  be  in  session.  This  necessarily 
results  from  the  nature  of  the  power  which  under  the  Consti- 
tution, is  inadvisable.  I  make  this  point  now  most  dis- 
tinctly, as  it  is  fundamental  in  this  discussion,  and  has  been 
so  treated  from  the  outset. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  Mr.  Speaker,  I  reg-ret  exceeding-- 
ly  that  my  thirty  minutes  will  not  allow  me  to  enter  into  a 
colloquy  with  the  g-entleman  ;  but  I  do  not  now  call  to  mind 
a  single  instance  in  which  any  President  of  the  United  States 
has  ever  removed  an  officer  confirmed  by  the  Senate,  without 
the  consent  of  the  Senate  if  it  was  in  session.  And  I  go 
further,  and  deny  the  power  of  the  President,  under  the  Con- 
stitution, to  remove  any  officer,  even  during-  the  recess  of  the 
Senate,  without  cause. 

Sir,  the  power  of  appointment  is  vested  in  the  President 
by  special  g-rant,'  and  not  by  implication.  The  President,  I 
know,  claimed  in  a  messag-e  to  the  Senate  on  Friday  last, 
that  by  virtue  of  the  power  vested  in  him  by  the  Constitu- 
tion, he  had  authority  to  dismiss  from  and  appoint  to  office 
without  the  consent  of  the  Senate.  If  the  power  to  dismiss 
and  appoint  without  the  consent  of  the  feenale  is  possessed 


—  451  — 

"by  ihe  President,  it  must  be  an  implied  and  not  an  express 
grant  of  power.  Gentlemen  may  examine  the  Constitution 
and  nowhere  will  they  find  such  an  express  grant  of  power, 
I  deny,  therefore,  that  it  exists,  that  any  authority  to  ap- 
point can  be  delegated  to  the  Executive  by  implication.  The 
clause  providing"  that  the  President  shall  *'take  care  that 
the  laws  be  faithfully  executed,  and  shall  commission  all 
officers  of  the  United  States,"  does  not  confer  the  power  to 
appoint  or  dismiss  ;  nor  does  the  fact  that  all  executive  power 
is  vested  in  the  President  clothe  him  with  any  implied  power, 
or  power  which  may  be  necessary  or  proper  to  carry  into 
effect  any  power  which  is  expressly  granted  to  the  Executive. 
Sir,  I  can  find  in  the  Constitution  no  authority  authorizing- 
the  President  to  dismiss  a  faithful  public  officer  without 
cause. 

"All  power  necessary  and  proper  to  carry  into  effect  any 
power  vested  in  the  President  or  in  any  department  or  officer 
of  the  g-overnment  is  vested  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States." 

I  desire  to  call  the  attention  of  the  g-entleman  from  New 
York  to  that  parag-raph  in  the  Constitution  which  clothes 
Congress  with  the  power — 

**To  make  all  laws  which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper 
for  carrying  into  execution  the  foregoing"  powers" — 

meaning"  those  vested  in  Congress — 

**and  all  other  powers  vested  by  this  Constitution  in  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  or  in  any  department  or 
officer  thereof." 

Whatever  power  may  be  vested  in  the  President  by  ex- 
press grant,  he  cannot  assume  to  exercise  a  power  merely 
because  it  is  appurtenant  to  another  power,  and  necessary,  in 
his  opinion,  to  carry  out  some  provision  of  the  Constitution. 
The  right  to  clothe  any  officer  of  this  g-overnment  with 
power  not  specially  delegated,  is  reserved  to  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States  as  the  law-making-  power  of  this  nation. 
Cong-ress  alone  is  clothed  by  the  Constitution  with  authority 
to  confer  by  law  whatever  power  they  may  deem  proper 
which  is  not  spec* ally  delegated,  either  to  the  President,  the 
judiciary,  or  any  department  or  officer  of  the  government. 


—452— 

Sir,  this  power  does  not  exist  In  the  President,  nor  in  any 
department  or  officer  of  the  g-overnment.  It  exists  only  in 
Congress  by  express  provision  of  the  Constitution. 

The  Constitution  has  lodg-ed  the  law-making*  power  in 
the  Congress,  in  conjunction  with  the  President,  but  some- 
times the  law-making  power  without  the  concurrence  of  the 
President.  Then,  sir,  if  there  were  no  statute  such  as  I  have 
read,  I  would  hold  that  the  President  was  amenable  to  the 
high  court  of  this  nation  for  a  deliberate  and  willful  infrac- 
tion of  the  Constitution  in  the  removal  of  Mr.  Stanton. 

Now,  sir,  I  hold,  as  I  said  a  moment  ago,  that  this  is  one 
of  the  smallest  of  the  crimes  of  the  President.  That  he  has 
clearly  set  at  defiance  the  statute  I  have  quoted  will  not  be 
denied.  His  act  of  Friday  last  reduces  his  offense  to  a  nar- 
row compass.  It  is  all  official  and  upon  paper.  In  the  trial 
of  this  case  we  need  not  wade  through  a  thousand  pages  of 
evidence  which  must  be  sifted  in  all  cases  to  get  a  few  grains 
of  wheat.  Nor  need  we  consume  much  time  in  the  trial. 
Here  the  offense  is  presented  within  a  small  compass  and  is 
within  the  comprehension  of  all.  But  few,  if  any,  witnesses 
are  needed.  Sir,  I  am  sure  that  when  this  trial  shall  take 
place  before  the  high  court  of  the  nation,  if  the  evidence 
taken  before  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  this  House  shall  be 
reproduced  there,  it  would  establish  one  or  more  of  the  crimes 
of  which  this  man  has  been  charged,  and  the  verdict  of  the 
people  of  this  country  will  be,  that  this  charge  is  one  of  the 
most  excusable  of  the  crimes  of  which  he  has  been  guilty.  If 
Mr.  Johnson  had  been  g'uilty  of  no  impeachable  offense  until 
his  removal  of  Mr.  Stanton,  no  one  believes  that  a  majority  of 
this  House  could  be  induced  to  vote  for  his  impeachment  now. 

Sir,  what  has  been  the  logic  of  the  conflict  between  this 
man  and  Congress  ?  From  the  outset  it  has  been  his  delib- 
erate purpose,  so  far  as  his  acts  can  indicate  a  purpose,  to 
usurp  to  himself  the  law-making,  the  judicial,  and  the  execu- 
tive powers  of  this  Government.  Starticg"  out  with  loud  pro- 
fessions of  loyalty,  he  assumed  first  the  entire  authority  of 
providing"  for  the  reorganization  of  the  States  lately  in  rebel- 
lion, and  in  doing  so  he  conferred  the  entire  power  upon  that 
class  of  citizens  who  were  but  a  paroled  army  of  Confederates, 
to  the  exclusion  of  the  great  body  of  loyal  citizens.     To  this 


—  453  — 

paroled  army  he  confided  the  power  of  reorganiicing  State  g-ov- 
ernments,  and  returning*  those  States  to  their  constitutional  re- 
lations in  the  Union.  Then,  sir,  he  made  an  alliance  with 
the  late  rebel  leaders,  and  they  became  his  champions. 

He  pardoned  thousands  of  public  enemies  guilty  ot  the 
blackest  of  crimes,  and  to  many  of  them,  in  violation  of  law, 
he  gave  official  positions.  He  repeatedly  authorized  the 
payment  of  money  from  the  public  treasury  in  violation  of 
law.  He  gave  the  property  of  the  United  States  to  the 
amount  of  millions  to  unrepentant  rebels.  He  connived  at, 
if  he  did  not  consent  to,  the  massacres  of  Memphis  and  New 
Orleans,  and  he  is  justly  held  responsible  in  history  and  be- 
fore God  for  the  murder  of  thousands  of  Southern  Union 
men. 

Now,  sir,  the  logic  of  this  contest,  so  far  as  his  acts  de- 
velop it,  is  simply  that  the  Congress  of  the  nation  and  all  the 
departments  shall  submit  to  his  domination  in  the  govern- 
ment, and  no  man  can  have  watched  the  vain  efforts  of  this 
Congress  to  tie  his  hands  by  statutory  enactments  without 
feeling  a  sense  of  shame.  Every  effort  of  Congress  to  secure 
a  restoration  of  the  Union  by  the  passage  of  reconstruction 
acts,  and  supplementary  reconstruction  acts,  has  failed  thus 
far  because  of  this  man,  who,*  with  the  immense  patronage 
which  he  has  in  his  hands,  and  with  an  entire  disregard  of 
Constitution,  laws,  and  oaths,  has  been  able  to  evade  them 
all,  and  eventually,  if  not  removed,  he  will  bring  on  a  con- 
flict which  can  end  only  in  civil  war  unless  Congress  surren- 
ders. Sir,  his  purpose  has  been,  and  it  will  continue  to  be, 
unless  he  is  arrested  and  brought  to  the  bar  of  the  Senate  for 
trial,  to  usurp  the  whole  power  of  the  government,  and  to 
clothe  the  late  rebel  States  with  authority  to  cast  their  elec- 
toral votes  in  the  pending  Presidential  election  either  for 
himself  or  some  candidate  of  his  choice,  and  if,  when  the 
electoral  votes  come  to  be  counted,  there  were  enough  loyal 
states  voting  for  the  candidate  of  his  choice,  whether  it  be 
himself  or  some  one  else,  to  make  up  a  majority  with  the  ille- 
gal vote  of  the  rebel  States,  he  and  his  friends  would  insist 
on  their  being  counted,  and  if  Congress  refused  he  would 
inaugurate  a  civil  war,  and  at  the  same  time  the  man  whom 
they  would  claim  to  have  elected.     Thus  we   should   have 


—  454  — 

inaug-urated  in  tlie  capital  of  the  republic  two  Presidents, 
and  probably  two  Congresses. 

This,  in  my  opinion,  lias  been  from  the  start  the  delib- 
erate purpose  of  this  man,  and  I  am  amazed  that  g-entlemen 
on  the  other  side  should  have  felt  it  to  be  their  duty  to  give 
this  man  even  a  quasi  support,  and  to  apologize  for  his  acts 
for  the  sake  of  the  feeble  aid  which  he  g-ives  them  politically 
and  the  spoils  of  office  which  they  have  been  able  to  secure 
for  their  friends.  Sir,  I  want  g-entlemen  to  remember  that 
by  their  defense  of  this  man,  whose  violations  of  the  Consti- 
tution and  laws  of  the  country  is  unquestioned,  they  g-o  into 
history  as  a  party  to  his  crimes. 

We  attempted  to  tie  this  man's  hands  by  putting"  a  clause 
in  the  Army  bill,  to  which  I  wish  for  a  moment  to  call  your 
attention.  I  refer  to  the  second  section  of  the  Army  Appro- 
priation bill,  passed  March  2,  1867,  which  the  President 
signed,  but  returned  it  with  a  protest.  The  section  reada 
thus : 

"  Skc.  2.  And  b:S  it  furthkr  Knact^d,  That  the  head- 
quarters of  the  General  of  the  Army  of  the  United  States 
shall  be  at  the  City  of  Washington,  and  all  orders  and  in- 
structions relating  to  military  operations  issued  by  the  Presi- 
dent or  Secretary  of  War  shall  be  issued  through  the  General 
of  the  Army,  and  in  case  of  his  inability,  through  the  next 
in  rank.  The  General  of  the  Army  shall  not  be  removed, 
suspended,  or  relieved  from  command  or  assigned  to  duty 
elsewhere  than  at  said  headquarters,  except  at  his  own  re- 
quest, without  the  previous  approval  of  the  Senate;  and  any 
orders  or  instructions  relating  to  military  operations  issued 
contrary  to  the  requirements  of  this  section  shall  be  null  and 
void  ;  and  any  officer  who  shall  issue  orders  or  instructions 
contrary  to  the  provisions  of  this  section  shall  be  deemed 
guilty  of  a  misdemeanor  in  office  ;  and  any  officer  of  the  army 
who  shall  transmit,  convey,  or  obey  any  orders  or  instructions 
so  issued  contrary  to  the  provisions  of  this  section,  knowing 
that  such  orders  were  so  issued,  shall  be  liable  to  imprison- 
ment for  not  less  than  two  nor  more  than  twenty  years,  upon 
conviction  thereof  in  any  court  of  competent  jurisdiction." 

This  was  designed  to  keep  Grant,  the  General  of  the 
Army,  at  his  headquarters  here,  as  a  measure  of  precaution 
against  any  attempt  of  the  President  to  disperse  Congress  by 
force,  and  to  provide  that  every  military  order  of  the  Presi- 


—  455 — • 

dent  should  g-o  tliroug-h  the  General-in-Chief,  and  meet  his 
approval  before  subordinates  should  obey  it.  We  all  know 
how  this  act  has  been  violated  both  in  letter  and  spirit. 
Sickles,  Pope,  Ord,  Sheridan,  and  almost  every  officer  within 
the  President's  reach  have  been  removed  from  their  com- 
mands, and  he  has  attempted  to  humiliate  them  because  of 
their  obedience  to  the  law  of  the  land,  and  their  faithful  exe- 
cution of  the  duties  assigned  them.  Experience  has  demon- 
strated the  fact  that  there  has  not  been  wisdom  or  sharpness 
enough  in  this  Congress  to  tie  the  hands  of  this  man.  And 
at  last  there  appears  to  be  nothing  left  but  to  bring  him  to 
trial  either  for  the  acts  of  Friday  last,  or  to  include  with 
them  every  oth^r  act  of  which  he  has  been  guilty  since  his 
accession  to  power. 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  House  of  Representatives  is  again  to 
be  brought  to  a  direct  vote  upon  a  question,  the  importance 
of  which  cannot  well  be  overestimated;  a  vote  which  shall 
test  the  fidelity  of  every  Representative  to  his  constitutional 
obligation.  Again  we  are  to  be  brought  face  to  face  with 
the  man  who  is  recognized  by  every  loyal  citizen,  and  by 
every  rebel,  as  a  public  enemy;  a  man,  who,  if  not  before, 
certainly  since,  his  accession  to  power  has  been  recognized  as 
the  friend  and  the  ally  of  the  late  conspirators  against  the 
nation's  life  and  against  the  nation's  chosen  chief;  a  man 
who  has  proven  himself  a  more  faithful  representative  and  a 
more  formidable  ally  of  **the  lost  cause"  than  could  any 
general  of  the  late  rebel  armies,  had  he  been  in  his  place. 
Duplicity,  usurpations  of  power,  and  violations  of  law  have 
marked  the  public  and  private  career  of  this  extraordinary 
man  from  the  time  of  his  unfortunate  accession  to  the  presi- 
dential chair. 

I  may  be  pardoned  if  I  repeat  what  I  said  on  the  7th  of 
March  last,  when  introducing  into  this  House,  by  direction  of 
the  caucus  of  the  Republican  members,  a  resolution  to  con- 
tinue this  impeachment  investigation: 

**If  any  loyal  man  had  doubted  before,  he  could  doubt 
no  longer,  that  while  this  man  remains  in  the  presidential 
office  there  can  be  no  tranquility  in  this  countrjr,  no  security 
for  property,  liberty,  and  life  to  loyal  citizens  m  the  South, 
no  such  restoration  of  this  government  as  the  Union  army 


—  456  — 

and  the  Union  citizens  of  this  nation  have  decreed,  no  safety: 
for  a  sing-le  hour  from  rebellion  or  revolution." 

Sir,  if  this  be  true  —  and  I  challenge  any  g-entleman  to 
controvert  it  —  if  this  be  true,  dare  we  long^er  postpone,  dare 
we  long-er  shrink  from  the  exercise  of  that  power  with  which 
the  Constitution  has  clothed  us,  to  rescue  the  government 
from  the  hands  of  the  usurper,  and  thus  proclaim  to  the 
world  that  this  is  a  government  of  law,  and  not  an  irrespon- 
sible despotism,  beyond  the  control  of  law,  and  in  the  hands 
of  an  ignorant,  cunning,  and  unscrupulous  man,  who  was. 
thrown  to  the  surface  by  the  waves  of  the  late  rebellion,  and 
elevated  to  the  chief  executive  office  of  the  nation,  not  by 
the  voluntary  suffrages  of  a  free  people,  but  by  the  hands  of 
an  assassin. 

Mr.  Speaker,  time  and  truth  evermore  vindicate  the 
right.  When  this  House,  but  two  short  months  ago,  voted 
down  this  proposition,  I  said  let  the  loyal  men  of  the  nation 
keep  heart  and  await  the  logic  of  events.  I  know  that  by 
the  vote  which  this  House  is  to  give  to-day  I  shall  be  vindi- 
cated, as  will  be  every  man  who  has  been  from  the  first  for 
impeachment.  But  though  I  shall  be  thus  vindicated,  this  is 
not  to  me  an  hour  of  exultation  and  triumph,  but  of  sadness, 
rather.  Far  rather  would  I  that  every  charge  which  I  have 
made  against  the  acting  President  of  the  United  States 
should  fall  to  the  ground  if  untrue,  than  that  I  should  be 
sustained  if  wrong.  ,  Far"  rather  would  I  that  the  dark  sus- 
picions which  have  taken  possession  of  the  public  mind 
should  be  dispelled  by  unquestioned  evidence  than  that  they 
should  be  true* 

For  my  country's  honor,  and  for  the  sake  of  human 
nature  itself,  I  could  hope  that  it  were  otherwise  than  as  I 
believe.  Rather  would  I  that  this  man,  after  his  accession  to 
the  Presidency,  had  so  conducted  himself  as  to  have  com- 
manded the  confidence  and  respect  of  the  country;  that  he 
had  so  administered  the  government  as  to  bring  the  country^ 
torn  and  bleeding  as  it  has  been,  back  to  the  paths  of  peace> 
and  thus  secured  its  unity  and  prosperity. 

But  he  has  failed  in  all  this,  and  not  only  failed,  but  has 
so  conducted  himself  that  from  the  evidence  before  me  I  am 
compelled,  upon  my  conscience  and   upon  my  judgment,  to 


—  457  — 

declare  that  I  believe  him  gfuilty  of  usurping-  powers  not  dele- 
g-ated  to  him  and  of  violating*  deliberately  the  Constitution 
and  the  laws  of  the  land. 

In  that  he  has  conspired  with  the  late  public  enemy  and 
attempted,  by  the  usurpation  of  the  leg-islative  authority,  to 
org-anize  State  g-overnments  in  the  late  insurg-ent  States,  and 
to  restore  the  late  rebel  leaders  to  all  the  rig-hts  and  privi- 
leg-es  which  they  forfeited  by  the  rebellion. 

In  that  he  has  corruptly,  and  in  violation  of  law,  used 
the  appointing-  power. 

In  that  he  has  corruptly  used  the  veto  power. 

In  that  he  has  corruptly  used  the  pardoning-  power. 

In  that  he  has  corruptly  disposed  of  public  property  of 
the  United  States. 

In  that  he  has  corruptly  interfered  in  elections,  and  com- 
mitted acts  and  conspired  with  others  to  commit  acts  which, 
in  contemplation  of  the  Constitution,  are  high  crimes  and 
misdemeanors. 

Believing-  that  Andrew  Johnson  is  g-uilty  of  all  this  and 
more,  I  feel  that  it  is  our  duty,  I  think  it  to  be  a  necessity  of 
our  condition,  for  the  safety  of  the  nation  and  of  our  insti- 
tutions, that  he  should  be  impeached.  I  holdthat  it  is  neces- 
sary, if  not  for  our  safety  to-day,  at  least  to  teach  those  who 
shall  come  after  him  a  lesson;  a  lesson  which  shall  vindicate 
the  majesty  of  the  law  and  test  the  practical  working-  of  our 
matchless  Constitution. 

For  these  reasons,  sir,  and  others  which  I  might  give  if  I 
had  time,  I  give  my  voice  and  my  vote  to  arraign  and  put  on 
trial  before  the  high  court  of  the  nation,  Andrew  Johnson, 
acting  President  of  the  United  States. 

The  resolution  was  adopted;  yeas,  126;  nays,  47,  as  fol- 
lows: 

Yeas — Messrs.  Allison,  Ames,  Anderson,  Arneli,  Delos 
R.  Ashley,  James  M.  Ashley,  Bailey,  Baker,  Baldwin,  Banks, 
Beaman,  Beaty,  Benton,  Bingham,  Blaine,  Blair,  Boutwell, 
Broomall,  Buckland,  Butler,  Cake,  Churchill,  Reader  W. 
Clarke,  Sidney  Clarke,  Cobb,  Coburn,  Cook,  Cornell,  Covode, 
Cullum,  Dawes,  Dodge,  Driggs,  Eckley,  Eggleston,  Eliot, 
Farnsworth,  Ferriss,  Ferry,  Fields,  Gravely,  Griswold, 
Halsey,  Harding,  Higby,  Hill,  Hooper,  Hopkins,  Asahel  W. 


—  458  — 

Hubbard,  Chester  D.  Hubbard,  Hulburd,  Hunter,  Ingersoll, 
Jenckes,  Judd,  Julian,  Kelley,  Kelsey,,  Ketghom,  Kitchen, 
Laflin,  Georg-e  Vo  Lawrence,  William  Lawrences  Lincoln, 
Loan,  Log-an,  Loughridg-e,  Lydch,  Malloiry,  Mcrvin,  Mc- 
Carthy, McClurg-,  Mercur,  Miller,  Moore,  MoorhGodg  Morrell 
Mullins,  Myers,  Newcomb,  Nunn,  O'Neil,  Orth^  Princ,  Plants 
Poland,  Polsley,  Price,  Raum,  Robertson,  Savr^or,  Schonck, 
Scoficld,  Selye,  Shanks,  Smith,  Spalding,  Starkweather, 
Aaron  Fc  Stevens,  Thaddeus  Stevens,  Btoke^v:,,  'x^affe,  "i\':ylor, 
Trowbridg-e,  Twichell,  Upson,  Van  Aerman,  Burt  Van  Horn, 
Van  Wyck,  Ward,  Cadwallader  C.  Washburnj  Elihu  B. 
Washburn,  William  B.  Washburn,  Welker,  Thomr.s  Williams, 
James  F.  Wilson,  John  T.  Wilson,  Stephen  F.  A?ilson, 
Windom,  Woodbridge,  and  the  Speaker — 126. 

Nays — Messrs.  Adams,  Archer,  Axtell,  Barnes,  Barnum, 
Beck,  Boyer,  Brooks,  Burr,  Cary,  Chanler,  Eldridge,  Fox, 
Getz,  Glossbrenner,  Golladay,  Grover,  Haight,  Holman, 
Hotchkiss,  Richard  D.  Hubbard,  Humphrey,  Johnson,  Jones, 
Kerr,  Knott,  Marshall,  McCormick,  McCullough,  Morgan, 
Morrissey,  Mungen,  Niblack,  Nicholson,  Phelps,  Pruyn, 
Randall,  Ross,  Sitg-reaves,  Stewart,  Stone,  Taber,  Lawrence 
S.  Trimbel,  Van  Auken,  Van  Trump,  Wood  and  Woodward 
—47. 

Not  Voting — Messrs.  Benjamin,  Dixon,  Donnelly,  Ela, 
Finney,  Garfield,  Hawkins,  Koontz,  Maynard,  Pomeroy, 
Robinson,  Shellabarg-er,  Thomas,  John  Trimble,  Robert  T. 
Van  Horn,  Henry  D.  Washburn  and  William  Williams — 17, 


SPBECH 

OP  HON.  JAMES  M.  ASHLEY,  OP  OHIO. 


Dewvered  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
May  29,  1868. 


AMEND  THE  CONSTITUTION — ABOLISHMENT  OF  THE  OFFICE  OP 
VICE-PRESIDENT  — NEITHER  CAUCUSES,  CONVENTIONS,  ELEC- 
TORAL COLLEGES,  NOR  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES 
TO  INTERVENE  BETWEEN  THE  PEOPLE  AND  THEIR  CHOICE 
OP  A  PRESIDENT. 


The  House  being*  In  Committee  of  tiie  Whole  on  the 
State  of  the  Union  — 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio,  said: 

Mr.  Chairman:  It  is  now  ten  years  since  I  became  a 
member  of  this  House.  During-  that  time  I  have  submitted 
more  than  once  propositions  looking-  to  an  amendment  of  the 
national  Constitution,  substantially  such  as  I  now  ask  leave 
to  present.  Heretofore,  when  introducing  these  propositions, 
I  have  done  so  without  argument,  and  they  have  slept  the 
sleep  which  knows  no  waking-  in  the  committees  to  which, 
under  our  rules,  they  must  be  referred. 

I  now  ask  the  indulgence  of  the  House  while  I  submit  to 
gentlemen  present  and  to  the  country  some  of  the  considera- 
tions which  have  induced  me  again  to  bring-  this  subject  to 
public  notice. 

The  proposition  which  I  now  send  to  the  Clerk's  desk  to 
be  read,  provides  that  the  President  of  the  United  States 
shall  be  elected  for  but  a  single  term  of  four  years,  and  pro- 
poses   the    abolition    of    the    office    of    Vice-President.     If 

(459) 


—  460  — 

adopted,  it  also  secures  the  abolition  of  the  present  system  of 
appointing"  presidential  electors,  as  the  leg-islatures  of  the 
several  States  may  provide,  and  makes  it  impossible  for  the 
election  of  a  President  to  devolve,  as  now,  on  the  House  of 
Representatives,  but  provides  that  in  case  of  death,  resig-na- 
tion,  or  removal  of  the  President  from  ofiB.ce,  that  the  two 
Houses  in  joint  convention  shall  elect  to  fill  the  vacancy,  each 
Senator  and  Representative  having-  one  vote.  Its  adoption 
will  relieve  the  people  of  the  despotism  of  party  caucuses, 
and  party  conventions,  and  thereafter  commit  the  election  of 
President  to  a  direct  vote  of  the  people  by  ballot.  The  Clerk 
will  please  read. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows: 

Joint  resolution  proposing-  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution 

of  the  United  States.* 

Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representa- 
tives OE  THE  United  States  op  America  in  Congress 
ASSEMBLED  (two  thirds  of  both  Houses  concurring-),  That 
the  following-  be  proposed  as  an  amendment  to  said  Constitu- 
tion, which,  when  ratified  by  the  leg-islatures  of  three-fourths, 
of  the  several  States,  shall  be  valid,  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses, as  part  of  said  Constitution,  to  wit: 

Amend  section  three  of  article  one,  by  striking"  out 
clauses  four  and  five,  which  read: 

"  The  Vice-President  of  the  United  States  shall  be  Presi- 
dent of  the  Senate,  but  shall  have  no  vote,  unless  they  be 
equally  divided. 

*'The  Senate  shall  choose  their  other  officers  and  also  a 
President  pro  tempore,  in  the  absence  of  the  Vice-President, 
or  when  he  shall  exercise  the  office  of  President  of  the 
United  States." 

And  insert  the  following-: 

"  The  Senate  shall  choose  their  own  presiding-  and  other 
officers." 

In  article  two,  section  four,  strike  out  the  words  "Vice- 
President." 

Amend  section  one,  article  two,  by  striking"  out  the 
words  "  together  with  the  Vice-President  chosen  for  the  same 
term;"  so  that  it  will  read: 

The  executive  power  shall  be  vested  in  the  President  of 
the  United  States  of  America;  he  shall  hold  his  office  during" 
the  term  of  four  years,  and  be  elected  as  follows. 


♦Senator  Sumner,  of  Massachusetts,  presented  this  proposed  amendment  to  the 
Senate,  on  the  6th  of  May,  1872,  with  two  or  three  verbal  changes. 


—  461  — 

In  lieu  of  clauses  two,  three,  four  and  six  of  article  two 
and  of  article  twelve  of  the  amendments  insert  the  following*: 

The  qualified  electors  shall  meet  at  the  usual  places  of 
holding-  elections  in  their  respective  States  on  the  first  Mon- 
day in  April,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  seventy-two,  and  on  the  first  Monday  in  April 
every  four  years  thereafter,  under  such  rules  and  regulations 
as  the  Congress  may  by  law  prescribe,  and  vote  by  ballot  for 
a  citizen  qualified  under  this  Constitution  to  be  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  result  of  such  election  in  each 
State  shall  be  certified,  sealed,  and  forwarded  to  the  seat  of 
g-overnment  of -the  United  States  in  such  manner  as  the  Con- 
gress may  by  law  direct. 

The  Cong-ress  shall  be  in  session  on  the  third  Monday  in 
May  after  such  election,  and  on  the  Tuesday  next  succeeding- 
the  third  Monday  in  May,  if  a  quorum  of  each  House  shall 
be  present,  and  if  not,  immediately  on  the  assemblag-e  of  such 
quorum,  the  Senators  and  members  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives shall  meet  in  the  Representative  Chamber  in  joint 
convention,  and  the  President  of  the  Senate,  in  presence  of 
the  Senators  and  Representatives  thus  assembled,  shall  open 
all  the  returns  of  said  election  and  declare  the  result.  The 
person  having-  the  greatest  number  of  votes  for  President 
shall  be  the  President,  if  such  number  be  a  majority  of  the 
whole  number  of  votes  cast;  if  no  person  have  such  majority, 
or  if  the  person  having-  such  majority  decline  the  of&ce  or  die 
before  the  counting-  of  the  vote,  then  the  President  of  the 
Senate  shall  so  proclaim;  whereupon  the  joint  convention 
shall  order  the  proceeding's  to  be  officially  published,  stating- 
particularly  the  number  of  votes  g-iven  for  each  person  for 
President. 

Another  election  shall  thereupon  take  place  on  the  second 
Tuesday  of  October  next  succeeding-,  at  which  election  the 
duly  qualified  electors  shall  ag-ain  meet  at  the  usual  places  of 
holding"  elections  in  their  respective  States  and  vote  for  one 
of  the  persons  then  living-  having-  the  highest  number  of 
votes,  not  exceeding-  five  on  the  list  voted  for  as  President  at 
the  preceding-  election  in  April,  and  the  result  of  such  elec- 
tion in  each  State  shall  be  certified,  sealed,  and  forwarded  to 
the  seat  of  the  government  of  the  United  States  as  provided 
by  law. 

On  the  third  Tuesday  in  December  after  such  second 
election,  or  as  soon  thereafter  as  a  quorum  of  each  House 
shall  be  present,  the  Senators  and  members  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  shall  again  meet  in  joint  convention,  and 
the  President  of  the  Senate,  in  presence  of  the  Senators 
and  Representatives  thus  assembled,  shall  open  all  the 
returns  of  said  election  and  declare  the  person  having  the 


—  462  — 

liig-hest  number  of  votes  duly  elected  President  for  the  ensu- 
ing- term. 

No  person  thus  elected  to  the  office  of  President  shall 
thereafter  be  elig-ible  to  be  re-elected. 

In  case  of  the  removal  of  the  President  from  office  by 
impeachment,  or  of  his  death,  resig-nation,  or  inability  to 
discharge  the  powers  and  duties  of  the  said  office,  the  same 
shall  devolve  temporarily  on  the  President  of  the  Senate,  if 
there  be  one;  if  not,  then  on  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  if  there  be  one;  and  if  not,  then  the  member 
of  the  executive  department  senior  in  years  shall  act  as  Presi- 
dent. If  there  be  no  officer  of  an  executive  department,  then 
the  Senator  senior  in  years  shall  act  until  a  successor  is. 
chosen  and  qualified. 

If  Congress  be  in  session  at  the  time  of  the  death,  disa- 
bility, or  removal  of  the  President,  the  Senators  and  Repre- 
sentatives shall  meet  in  joint  convention  under  such  rules 
and  regulations  as  the  Congress  may  by  law  prescribe,  and 
proceed  to  elect  by  viva  voce  vote  a  President  to  fill  such 
vacancy.  Each  Senator  and  Representative  having  one  vote, 
a  quorum  for  this  purpose  shall  consist  of  a  majority  in  each 
House  of  the  Senators  and  Representatives  duly  elected  and 
qualified,  and  a  majority  of  all  the  votes  given  shall  be  neces- 
sary to  the  choice  of  a  President.  The  person  thus  elected' 
as  President  shall  discharge  all  the  powers  and  duties  of 
said  office  until  the  inaug-uration  of  the  President  elected  at' 
the  next  regular  election. 

If  the  Congress  be  not  in  session  then  the  acting  Presi- 
dent shall  forthwith  issue  a  proclamation  convening-  Congress 
within  sixty  days  after  the  death  or  disability  of  the  Presi- 
dent. 

On  the  assembling  of  a  quorum  in  each  House  the  Sena- 
tors and  Representatives  shall  meet  in  joint  convention  and 
elect  a  President  as  hereinbefore  provided. 

Amend  article  fourteen  proposed  by  the  Thirty-ninth 
Congress  by  striking-  out  section  two  and  inserting-  the  fol- 
lowing: 

Skc.  2.  Every  citizen  of  the  United  States  twenty-one 
years  of  age  and  upward  (except  Indians  not  taxed  and  per- 
sons NON  compos)  shall  be  an  elector  in  any  State  or  Territory 
in  which  he  may  have  resided  one  year  next  preceding  the 
election  at  which  he  shall  offer  a  vote.  Each  State  shall  pre- 
scribe uniform  rules  for  the  registration  of  all  qualified  elec- 
tors residing-  therein  and  complete  the  said  enrollment  at 
least  twenty  days  before  each  presidential  election;  they  shall 
provide  by  law  against  fraud  at  elections,  and  may  disfran- 
chise any  person  for  participation  in  rebellion  against  the 


—  463  — 

United   States,    or  for  the  commission   of   an   act  which  is 
felony  at  common  law. 

Sec.  3.  Representatives  in  Congress  shall  be  appor- 
.tioned  among-  the  several  States  according-  to  the  number  of 
inhabitants  in  each. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  On  these  several  propositions  I 
intend  to  ask  the  judg-ment  of  the  country  and  eventually  a 
vote  upon  them  in  this  House. 


SHALL  THE   OFFICE  OF  VICE-PRESIDENT  BE   ABOLISHED? 

The  proposition  to  abolish  the  office  of  Vice-President 
will,  I  trust,  commend  itself  to  the  considerate  men  of  all 
parties.  The  creation  of  the  office  was  objected  to  by  some 
of  the  ablest  men  of  the  Revolution  as  *' unnecessary  and 
dang-erous."  Experience  has  confirmed  the  wisdom  of  their 
opposition.  The  Vice-President  is,  as  all  know,  a  superfluous 
officer,  having-  few  duties  to  perform,  and  those  might  more 
properly  devolve  upon  a  member  of  the  Senate,  selected 
because  of  his  fitness,  as  the  duty  of  presiding-  in  the  House 
devolves  upon  a  member  of  the  House  who  is  elected  Speaker. 

The  objection  to  the  selection  of  a  member  of  the  Senate 
as  presiding-  officer  would  hold  equally  g-ood  ag-ainst  selecting- 
a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  for  its  presiding* 
officer.  Indeed,  the  power  conferred  on  the  Speaker  of  the 
House  is  far  g-reater  than  is  conferred  on  the  Vice-President 
or  President  pro  tempore  of  the  Senate. 

In  the  House  the  Speaker  appoints  all  the  committees 
and  can  participate  in  debate  on  the  floor  of  the  House.  He 
may  also  vote  at  any  time  he  so  elects.  In  the  Senate  the 
regular  standing  committees  are  selected  by  a  party  caucus, 
and  appointed  or  confirmed  afterward  in  open  Senate  by  a 
vote  of  that  body.  The  Vice-President  is  not  permitted  to 
debate  any  proposition  before  the  Senate,  and  can  only  vote 
when  there  is  an  equal  division,  while  the  Speaker  can  vote 
at  any  time  if  he  desires  to  do  so,  but  is  not  compelled  to 
vote  except  in  case  of  a  tie. 

The  country  has  been  distracted  and  its  peace  imperiled 
more  than  once  because  of  the  existence  of  the  office  of 'Vice- 
President.     The  nation  would  have  been  spared  the  terrible 


—  464  — 

ordeal  through  which  it  passed  in  the  ■contest  between  Jeffer- 
son and  Burr  in  1801  had  there  been  no  vice-presidential 
office.  Had  there  been  no  such  office  we  would  have  been 
spared  the  perfidy  of  a  Tyler,  the  betrayal  of  a  Fillmore,  and 
the  baseness  and  infamy  of  a  Johnson. 

Party  interest  and  party  necessity,  under  our  present 
convention  system,  usually  seeks  to  compensate  the  friends  of 
a  defeated  presidential  candidate  in  any  national  convention 
by  conceding-  to  them  the  privilege  of  naming*  the  candidate 
for  the  Vice-Presidency. 

This  is  done  in  order  to  soften  the  sting-  of  defeat  and  to 
bind  the  defeated  party  in  the  convention  to  the.  more  certain 
support  of  a  ticket  which  a  large  minority,  and  sometimes 
even  a  majority,  of  the  party  would  refuse  to  support  at  the 
election  but  for  such  compromises,  aided  by  the  despotism  of 
party  caucuses  and  party  conventions.  Often  the  mere  ques- 
tion of  locality  has  more  to  do  with,  the  nomination  of  a 
Vice-President  than  the  question  of  his  fitness. 

The  country  rejoices  with  me  in  the  fact  that  no  such 
narrow  consideration  controlled  the  action  of  the  Republi- 
can convention  at  Chicago  in  selecting  our  honored  Speaker 
as  the  candidate  of  the  party  for  Vice-President.  Not  to 
locality  is  he  indebted  for  that  position,  for  locality  was 
against  him,  but  rather  to  his  long  and  faithful  public  ser- 
vices, his  fidelity  to  Republican  principles,  and  to  his  personal 
worth  is  he  indebted  for  the  distinguished  honor  of  being 
associated  on  the  same  presidential  ticket  with,  the  most 
extraordinary  man  of  this  or  any  age. 

While  each  of  the  candidates  for  President  and  Vice- 
President  professes  to  subscribe  to  the  so-called  platform  of 
principles  adopted  by  the  conventions  which  nominate  them, 
they  nevertheless  represent,  as  a  rule,  opposing  factions  in 
the  party,  and  often  at  heart  antagonistic  ideas,  which  are 
only  subordinated  for  the  sake  of  party  success.  This  was 
the  case  with  Harrison  and  Tyler,  Taylor  and  Fillmore,  Lin- 
coln and  Johnson.  When  each  of  these  Vice-Presidents  on 
the  death  of  the  President-elect  came  into  the  presidential 
office  he  attempted  to  build  up  a  party  which  should  secure 
his  re-election.  For  this  purpose  they  did  not  scruple  to 
betray  the  great  body  of  men  who  elected  them  to  the  office 


—  465  — 

of  Vice-President,  nor  did  they  hesitate  at  the  open  and 
shameless  use  of  public  patronage  for  that  purpose.  The 
weakest  and  most  dangerous  part  of  our  executive  system  for 
the  personal  safety  of  the  President  is  a  defect  in  the  Con- 
stitution itself.  I  find  it  in  that  clause  of  the  Constitution 
which  provides  that  the  Vice-President  shall,  on  the  death  or 
inability  of  the  President,  succeed  to  his  office.  The  presi- 
dential office  is  thus  undefended  and  invites  temptation.  The 
life  of  but  one  man  must  often  stand  between  the  success  of 
unscrupulous  ambition,  the  designs  of  mercenary  cliques,  or 
the  fear  and  hatred  of  conspirators. 

Whether  pro-slavery  conspirators,  representing  party 
cliques,  caused  the  death  of  Harrison  and  Taylor  I  know  not. 
I  am  confident,  however,  that  a  widespread  conspiracy, 
representing  the  pro-slavery  rebel  faction  in  the  nation,  was 
organized  for  the  purpose  of  assassinating  Mr.  Lincoln,  and 
all  know  of  its  success.  That  the  conspirators  who  plotted 
the  murder  of  Mr.  Lincoln  had  a  purpose  to  subserve,  which 
they  supposed  could  not  be  accomplished  while  he  remained 
in  the  presidential  office,  will  hardly  be  questioned. 

Mr.  Chairman,  history  will  record  the  fact  that  the  con- 
spiracy which  resulted  in  the  assassination  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  the  offspring  of  the  rebellion,  and  may  yet  give  political 
success  to  a  cause,  which  millions  of  rebels  failed  to  secure  af- 
ter a  deadly  war  of  four  years.    Had  assassination  don^  more 

THAN  IT  DID  IT  WOULD  HAVE  OVERREACHED  ITSEI.1*.  By  Spar- 
ing and  using  Andrew  Johnson  it  gained  a  temporary  tri- 
umph for  those  whom  it  represented. 

Whatever  may  have  been,  and  whatever  may  now  be,  my 
suspicions  as  to  the  complicity  of  Andrew  Johnson  in  the 
assassination  plot,  the  schemes  and  hopes  op  the  conspira- 
tors CAN  EASILY  BE  EXPLAINED  UPON  THE  HYPOTHESIS  OF  HIS 
INNOCENCE,  AND  HIS  ENTIRE  IGNORANCE  OF  THEIR  BLOODY  PUR- 
POSES.    Let  me  present  it  from  that  standpoint. 

The  failure  of  the  rebellion  found  a  large  number  of 
disappointed  and  desperate  men  in  the  late  rebel  States  under 
disability  for  treason  and  rebellion.  If  justice  was  meted  out 
to  them  they  knew  that  the  leaders  ought  to  be  arrested,  tried, 
and  punished,  and  that  if  the  law  was  administered  their  prop- 
30 


—  466  — 

erty  was  subject  to  confiscation.  The  leaders  expected,  in  any 
event,  to  be  politically  disfranchised,  if  they  escaped  imprison- 
ment, banishment,  or  the  confiscation  of  their  property.  Hav- 
ing- staked  all  on  the  hazard  of  a  die  and  lost,  their  condition 
was  desperate,  and  to  escape  punishments,  confiscations,  or 
political  disfranchisement  thousands  of  them  would  not  hesi- 
tate at  any  desperate  expedient  which  promised  success. 
The  men  who  without  cause  had  inaug-urated  fratricidal  war, 
who  had  murdered  unarmed  Union  soldiers  after  their  sur- 
render, who  had  deliberately  starved  to  death  thousands  of 
our  heroic  men  at  Andersonville,  Salisbury,  Belle  Isle,  and 
Libby  prison,  and  committed  enormities  upon  the  living-  and 
the  dead  which  no  human  tong-ue  can  describe,  would  not 
hesitate  at  taking-  the  life  of  any  one  man  by  assassination, 
however  exalted  his  position,  if  thereby  it  secured  them 
exemption  from  the  punishment  due  their  crimes. 

On  surveying-  the  situation  they  found  that  the  Republi- 
can party  had,  by  a  blunder,  which  in  such  an  hour  was 
worse  than  a  crime,  elected  Andrew  Johnson  Vice-President  of 
the  United  States.  I  can  imag-ine  how  carefully  they  examined 
his  antecedents,  his  personal  and  political  history  ;  how  they 
"  weig-hed  well  his  words,  and  made  themselves  familiar  with 
his  public  and  private  acts,  his  weaknesses  and  his  ambition. 
During-  this  examination  they  undoubtedly  learned  his  view 
of  the  ''situation  "  before  he  left  Tennessee  to  be  inaug-urated 
Vice-President.  They  heard  of  his  declaration  to  Stanley 
Mathews  at  Cincinnati  while  on  his  way  to  the  capital,  before 
his  inaug-uration,  and  to  others  afterward,  as  to  thk  neces- 
sity OF  REORGANIZING  THE  DEMOCRATIC  PARTY.  They  were 
informed  of  what  he  had  repeatedly  said  he  would  do  about 
reconstruction,  "if  he  were  President."  They  knew  of  his 
CONDITION  when  inaug-urated  Vice-President,  and  that  to 
THEM  WAS  AN  AUGURY  OF  SUCCESS.  Of  his  vanity,  his  unscru- 
pulousness,  his  love  of  power,  and  his  capacities  as  a  dema- 
g-og-ue  they  were  fully  advised.  They  satisfied  themselves 
that,  with  proper  management,  he  could  be  used  to  shield 
them  from  punishment,  and,  perchance,  restore  them  to  polit- 
ical power.  From  that  moment  the  doom  of  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
sealed.     The  pretense  that  Mr.  Johnson  was  to  navE  been 

ASSASSINATED,    WAS  NEVER    BELIEVED     BY    ANY    BUT    WILLING 


—  467  — 

X)UPES.  The  assassination  of  Mr.  Johnson  would  have  defeated 
the  hopes  and  purposes  of  the  conspirators,  and  no  one  knew 
this  better  than  they. 

After  Mr.  Johnson  came  into  the  presidential  office,  the 
conspirators  and  their  friends  at  once  openly  and  un blush- 
ingly  surrounded  him,  flattered  him,  took  possession  of  him, 
and  promised  him  a  re-election  and  a  brilliant  future.     They 

REMINDED  HIM  OP  HIS  OLD  POLITICAL  RECORD,  OP  HIS  DENUN- 
ciation of  abolitionists,  op  his  utterances  to  stanley 
Mathews  and  others  **  as  to  the  necessity  op  reorganiz- 
ing the  Democratic  party,"  by  a  union  with  conservative 
Republicans,  leaving  the  **  anti-slavery  element  in  the 
Republican  party  to  slufp  opp,"  as  he  repeatedly  ex- 
pressed IT.  All  this,  I  submit,  could  have  happened  and 
Mr.  Johnson  be  free  from  any  criminally  g"uilty  knowledg-e  of 
the  assassination,  either  before  or  after  the  act. 

I  only  present  this  panoramic  view,  of  what  has  trans- 
pired and  is  now  history,  to  illustrate  how  weak  and  indefen- 
sible in  this  particular  is  the  presidential  office  ;  so  that  I  may 
appeal  to  the  nation  to  fortify  it  ag-ainst  this  dang-er,  by  re- 
moving" the  temptation  now  presented  to  conspirators  and 
•assassins,  and  thus  make  the  presidential  office  a  citadel 
ag-ainst  which  they  may  hurl  themselves  in  vain. 

Adopt  this  plan,  and  the  occupant  of  the  presidential 
office  is  effectually  g-uarded  from  all  political  conspiracies 
which  thrive  by  assassination.  It  also  precludes  the  possi- 
bility of  an  interreg-num  in  that  office.  In  addition  to  the 
President  of  the  Senate  and  Speaker  of  the  House,  each  of 
the  eight  members  of  the  Cabinet  in  turn,  and  after  them  the 
entire  Senate,  stand  ready  to  assume,  temporarily,  the  duties- 
of  the  presidential  office  until  Congress  can  elect  a  successor. 
It  would  not  be  possible  for  any  conspiracy  to  succeed  which 
contemplated  the  wholesale  assassination  of  entire  Cabinets 
and  Senates. 

If,  as  I  propose  in  this  amendment,  there  had  been  no 
Vice-President,  and  the  Constitution  had  provided,  as  I  sug- 
gest, that  on  the  death,  resignation,  or  removal  of  the  Pres- 
ident the  vacancy  should  be  filled  forthwith  by  the  election 
of  any  citizen  of  the  United  States  eligible  under  the  Consti- 
tution, each  Senator  and  Representative  having  one  vote,  the 


—  468— 

nation  would  never  have  been  cursed  with  the  Tyler,  Fill- 
more or  Johnson  administrations,  nor  is  it  to  be  supposed 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  would  have  been  assassinated,  because  it 
would  not  have  been  possible  to  foretell  who  would  have  been 
elected  his  successor.  If  this  amendment  had  been  part  of 
the  Constitution  the  country  would  have  been  spared  much 
anxiety  during-  the  late  impeachment  trial,  and  Senators  who 
constituted  the  court  of  impeachment  would  have  been  spared 
much  of  the  suspicion  and  criticism  to  which  they  were  sub- 
ject. No  man  could  then  have  known  in  advance  who  would 
have  been  the  choice  of  the  tv/o  Plouses  of  Cong-ress,  in  joint 
convention,  for  acting-  President  to  fill  the  vacancy.  The 
question  of  Mr.  Johnson's  successor  would,  therefore,  never 
have  disturbed  or  embarrassed  the  proceeding's  of  the  Senate 
during"  the  recent  impeachment  trial. 

THS     ABOLITION    OS*    PRESIDKNTIAI,    ELKCTORS    AND    NATIONAI. 

CONVENTIONS. 

Instead  of  the  intervention  of  presidential  electors,  I 
propose  the  election  of  President  by  a  direct  vote  of  the  peo-^ 
pie  by  ballot,  on  the  democratic  principle,  so  fully  recognized 
in  6ur  theory  of  g-overnment,  **  that  all  political  power  is  in- 
herent in  the  people  and  of  right  belongs  to  the  people."  I 
hold  that  it  is  safer  and  better  for  the  people  to  exercise  this 
power  directly,  without  the  intervention  of  nominating  con- 
ventions or  presidential  electors  or  any  intermediate  agency. 
To  withhold  from  the  qualified  electors  of  the  nation  the  right 
to  vote  directly  for  the  choice  of  a  President  is  a  violation  of 
the  democratic  idea,  an  act  at  war  with  the  fundamental 
principles  of  our  Government,  and  utterly  indefensible. 

The  adoption  of  the  proposition  which  I  have  made  will 
secure  at  once  the  abolition  of  the  plan  of  electing  a  Presi- 
dent by  indirection,  in  the  selection  of  electors  chosen  as 
now,  by  a  plurality  of  the  votfes  in  each  State,  thus  enabling 
the  minority,  when  there  are  three  or  more  candidates,  by 
concentrating  their  votes  on  one  electoral  ticket,  to  secure 
the  election  of  their  candidate.  This  plan  will  also  bccure 
the  early  abolition  of  all  national  nominating  conventions. 


—  469  — 

and  eventually  of  all  State  and  county  conventions,  thus 
relieving-  every  voter  from  the  despotism  of  party  cliques  and 
party  caucuses. 

This  provision  is  itself  enough  to  commend  the  proposed 
amendment  to  the  favorable  consideration  of  the  great  body 
of  the  American  people  who  have  so  long-  been  controlled  by 
the  despotism  of  party  conventions. 

As  a  rule,  not  one  voter  in  ten  is  consulted  under  our 
oresent  caucus  system  as  to  his  first  choice  of  a  candidate  for 
any  office,  and  yet  when  nominations  are  made,  no  matter 
whether  fairly  or  by  fraud,  each  voter  is  compelled  to  sup- 
port the  nominee  of  his  party  or  aid  in  the  election  of  the 
candidate  of  the  opposite  party. 

For  years  I  have  been  opposed  to  the  present  system  of 
nominating-  all  candidates  for  elective  offices,  including-  that 
of  President  of  the  United  States.  I  have  long-  held  that  all 
nominations  should  be  made  directly  by  the  people  under  the 
authority  and  protection  of  law.  In  other  words,  that  there 
ought  to  be  two  elections  for  all  officers,  to  be  elected  by  the 
people,  unless  at  the  first  election  one  of  the  candidates 
should  receive  a  majority  of  all  the  votes  cast,  an  event  not 
probable  at  any  election,  and  certainly  not  for  President  nor 
for  Governor  of  a  State  or  a  Representative  in  Congress.  If 
any  one  should  receive  a  majority  of  all  the  votes  cast  at  the 
first  election  he  would  be  declared  duly  elected,  and  there 
would  be  no  second  election  to  fill  that  office.  If  there  were 
no  choice  at  the  first  election  for  President,  I  provide  in  the 
proposed  amendment  that  all  candidates  but  the  ^ve,  or  pos- 
sibly it  may  be  advisable  to  say  all  but  the  four  hig-hest 
voted  for  at  the  first  election,  shall  be  dropped. 

If  I  were  making-  a  State  constitution  or  a.  law  for  the 
election  of  any  elective  officer,  I  would  provide  that  at  the 
second  election  all  but  the  four,  or  possibly  all  but  the  three, 
highest  voted  for  at  the  first  election  for  any  office  should  be 
dropped,  and  that  at  the  second  election,  only  the  candidates 
thus  nominated  should  be  voted  for;  that  no  other  votes 
should  be  counted;  and  if  there  were  three  candidates  at  the 
final  election,  that  a  plurality  of  the  votes  cast,  should  elect  as 
now. 


—  470  — 

This  plan,  as  all  can  see,  would  supersede  the  present 
corrupt  and  unsatisfactory  convention  system,  and  enable 
every  elector  to  vote  without  caucus  dictation  at  the  first  elec- 
tion for  his  firs>t  choice,  and  without  fear  of  electing-  the  can- 
didate of  the  opposition  because  of  scattering-  votes. 

After  the  most  careful  and  deliberate  examination  of  the 
question  I  am  compelled  to  confess  that  the  convention  system 
now  in  use  by  both  the  great  political  parties  of  the  nation  is 
demoralizing-  in  its  practical  working-s,  unfair  in  its  represen- 
tation of  the  great  body  of  voters,  and  repugnant  to  the 
principles  of  true  democracy  and  republicanism. 

I  look  upon  the  present  convention  system  for  the  nomi- 
nation of  a  President  as  far  more  objectionable  than  the  old 
congressional  caucus  system  which  it  superseded,  and  which  I 
would  not  restore  if  I  could. 

The  theory  is  that  the  national  conventions  of  both  par- 
ties are  composed  of  delegates  fresh  from  the  people,  elected 
by  the  people,  and  that  they  represent  the  people.  All  know 
that,  practically,  nothing  can  be  further  from  the  truth. 
History  will  confirm  what  I  say,  when  I  declare  that  a 
majority  of  the  national  conventions  of  both  parties  which 
have  been  held  in  the  past,  not  only  have  not  reflected  the 
wishes  of  the  party  for  which  they  assumed  to  act  in  making 
nominations,  but  that  they  have  repeatedly  and  deliberately 
disregarded  their  known  wishes. 

Instead  of  our  national.  State,  or  district  conventions 
being  made  up  of  delegates  elected  directly  by  the  people, 
they  are  made  up  of  delegates  selected  by  packed  committees 
in  State  conventions  composed  of  delegates  appointed  on  the 
recommendation  of  like  committees  appointed  by  other  dele- 
gates in  county  conventions,  who,  in  the  first  instance,  are 
often  nominated  in  township  and  ward  caucuses,  which  are 
packed  by  the  leaders  of  cliques  and  controlled  by  political 
machinery  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  without  regard  to  the 
wishes  or  interests  of  the  voters  for  whom  they  assume  to  act. 
Thus  the  delegates  in  our  national  conventions  are  always 
removed  three,  and  usually  four,  degrees  from  the  people. 
Indeed,  the  people  seldom  have  a  voice  in  the  election  of  the 
first  delegates  from  townships  and  v/ards,  owing  to  the  polit- 
ical machinery  employed  by  the  few  who  work  it.     If  the 


—  471  — 

voice  of  the  people  is  partially  heard  in  the  ward  and  town- 
ship caucuses,  which  is  well  nigh  impossible  under  our  pres- 
ent practice,  at  each  successive  remove  from  the  people  their 
will  is  less  regarded,  until  at  last  when  it  reaches  our  nation- 
al conventions  no  voice  is  heard  but  the  clamor  of  the  ofi&ce- 
seeker  and  the  violent  contentions  of  warring-  factions.  Es- 
pecially is  this  the  case  in  the  Democratic  party  when  they 
adopt  the  two-thirds  rule.  As  to  consultation  and  deliberation 
at  such  conventions,  that  is  impossible,  nor  is  it  now  ex- 
pected. 

Of  tener  than  otherwise  the  delegates  who  attend  these  con- 
ventions vote  for  men  of  whom  they  know  but  little  and  of  whose 
political  record  they  know  absolutely  nothing.  Witness  the 
action  of  the  Republican  convention  at  Baltimore  which  nom- 
inated Andrew  Johnson.  The  indecent  scramble  of  the  bul- 
let-headed politicians  and  demagogues  for  the  honor  of  first 
ani»ouncing  the  name  of  Andrew  Johnson  as  a  candidate  be- 
fore that  convention  was  one  of  the  most  disgusting  exhibi- 
tions I  ever  witnessed. 

A  majority  who  attend  such  conventions  are  always 
clamorous  for  prompt  action  and  adjournment,  never  for 
consultation.  They  are  usually  more  anxious  about  the  size 
of  their  hotel  bills  than  about  the  record  of  the  candidate  to 
be  nominated.  Their  object  is  gained  when  their  names  are 
recorded  as  delegates  to  the  convention  and  that  they  have 
voted  for  the  nomination  of  the  successful  man. 

Benton,  in  his  **  Thirty  Years'  View,"  in  speaking  of 
national  conventions  and  comparing  them  with  the  congres- 
sional caucus  system,  uses  the  following  language  : 

**But  it  [the  convention  system]  quickly  degenerated 
and  became  obnoxious  to  all  the  objections  to  Congress 
caucus  nominations  and  many  others  besides.  Members  of 
Congress  still  attended  them,  either  as  delegates  or  as  lobby 
managers.  Persons  attended  as  delegates  who  had  no  con- 
stituency [as  delegates,  professing  to  be  from  Texas  and 
other  States,  appeared  at  the  Chicago  Republican  convention 
in  I860].  Delegates  attended  upon  equivocal  appointment. 
Double  sets  of  delegates  sometimes  came  from  the  State,  and 
either  were  admitted  or  repulsed,  as  suited  the  views  of  the 
majority.  Proxies  were  invented.  Many  delegates  attended 
with  the  sole  view  of  establishing  a  claim  for  office,  and  voted 
accordingly.     The  two-thirds  rule  was  invented  to  enable  the 


—  472  — 

minority  to  control  the  majority,  and  the  whole  proceeding 
became  anomalous  and  irresponsible  and  subversive  of  the 
will  of  the  people,  leaving"  them  no  more  control  over  the 
nomination  than  the  subjects  of  king's  have  over  the  birth  of 
the  child  which  is  born  to  rule  over  them.  King-  caucus  is  as 
potent  as  any  other  king*  in  this  respect ;  for  whoever  g-ets^ 
the  nomination,  no  matter  how  effected,  becomes  the  candi- 
date of  the  party,  from  the  necessity  of  union  ag-ainst  the 
opposite  party,  and  from  the  indisposition  of  the  g-reat  States 
to  g-o  into  the  House  of  Representatives  to  be  balanced  by 
the  small  ones.  This  is  the  mode  of  making-  Presidents, 
practiced  by  both  parties  now.  It  is  the  virtual  election  I 
And  thus  the  election  of  the  President  and  Vice-President  of 
the  United  States  has  passed,  not  only  from  the  colleg-e  of 
electors,  to  which  the  Constitution  confided  it,  and  from  the 
people  to  whom  the  practice  under  the  Constitution  g-ave  it, 
and  from  the  House  of  Representatives,  which  the  Constitu- 
tion provided  as  ultimate  arbiter,  but  has  g"one  to  an  anom- 
alous, irresponsible  body,  unknown  to  law  or  Constitution^ 
unknown  to  the  early  ag-es  of  our  Government,  and  of  which 
a  larg-e  proportion  of  the  members  composing-  it,  and  a  much 
larg-er  proportion  of  interlopers  attending-  it,  have  no  other 
view,  either  in  attending-  or  in  promoting-  the  nomination  of 
any  particular  man,  than  to  g-et  one  elected  who  will  enable 
them  to  eat  out  of  the  public  crib — who  will  give  them  a 
key  to  the  public  crib." 

I  do  not  overdraw  the  picture,  nor  did  the  great  Missouri 
Senator. 

The  demoralization  inseparable  from  such  disg-raceful 
proceeding-s  cannot  be  overstated.  As  Mr.  Benton  says,  a  ma- 
jority of  the  deleg-ates  who  attend  national  conventions  do  so 
for  the  purpose  of  establishing-  claims  for  office,  and  we  all 
know  that  they  are  usually  candidates  for  an  appointment  at 
the  hands  of  the  President  whom  their  votes  help  to  nominate. 
When  there  are  three  or  more  rival  candidates  for  President 
before  a  national  convention,  and  a  balance  of  power  party 
can  be  formed,  they  do  not  hesitate  to  demand  as  a  condition 
to  the  vote  of  their  clique  or  State  the  promise  of  a  Cabinet 
appointment.  This  unblushing-  demand  has  been  made  as  a 
condition  to  the  support  of  cliques  and  factions  at  more  than 
one  convention  and  acceded  to.  In  pursuance  of  such  arrang-e- 
ments  Cabinet  ministers  have  been  appointed,  and  were  thus 
enabled  by  their  official  position  to  provide  offices  for  their 
friends,  who,  as  deleg-ates,  voted  as  required  in  convention. 


—  473  — 

Entire  deleg-ations  from  States  sometimes  permit  themselves 
to  be  bartered  and  pledg-ed  for  a  candidate  on  condition  that 
one  or  more  of  their  own  number  shall  have  a  designated 
official  appointment,  and  sometimes  even  for  the  empty  honor 
of  having-  one  of  their  number  act  as  the  presiding-  officer  of 
the  convention ;  and  this  is  called  representing-  the  people. 
Thus,  in  our  national  conventions,  where  oftener  than  other- 
wise there  are  more  than  two  candidates,  the  most  unscrupu- 
lous are  the  most  likely  to  succeed.  A  few  leading-  men  com- 
bining" for  Cabinet  positions  or  foreig-n  appointments  can,  by 
concentrating-  their  votes,  secure  a  majority  in  the  conven- 
tion, and  thus  nominate  any  candidate  upon  whom  they 
unite.  If  this  has  been  and  may  be  by  combinations  such  as 
I  have  described,  it  is  certain  to  be  repeated  again  under  like 
temptations. 

The  desire  for  place  and  power  can,  as  it  has  done,  bring 
the  most  hostile  political  leaders  together.  **  If  we  combine,'^ 
they  whisper  to  each  other,  *'  we  shall  conquer.  If  we  divide, 
we  shall  be  conquered."  With  the  cohesive  power  of  self- 
interest  to  urge  them  on  they  combine,  and  by  the  aid  of  par- 
ty conventions  make  nominations  in  the  name  of  the  people 
to  which  the  people  are  opposed,  and  thus  live  upon  the  Gov- 
ernment at  their  expense. 

The  Republican  national  convention  for  1864,  which  re- 
nominated Mr.  Lincoln,  and  the  Republican  convention  which 
meets  at  Chicago  on  the  20th  of  this  month,  formally  to  rat- 
ify the  wishes  of  the  people  in  placing  General  Grant  in 
nomination,  are  exceptions  to  this  rule.  The  man  of  destiny 
is  made  a  candidate  in  spite  of  cliques  and  cabals.  As  no 
combinations  could  have  been  made  by-^arty  cliques  formi- 
dable enough  in  1864  to  have  defeated  the  nomination  and 
election  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  so  none  could  be  made  this  year  of 
sufficient  magnitude  to  defeat  the  nomination  and  election  of 
General  Grant.  Such  was  the  condition  of  the  country  in 
1864,  and  such  is  its  condition  to-day,  that  the  people  with  a 
unanimity  unprecedented  commanded,  and  the  political 
schemers,  making  a  virtue  of  necessity,  yielded,  and  were  as 
clamorous  for  Lincoln  in  1864  as  they  are  to-day  for  General 
Grant. 


—  474- 

As  a  rule,  however,  national  conventions  do  not,  as  1 
have  shown,  'nominate  the  first  choice  of  either  party. 
Especially  is  this  the  case  with  the  Democratic  party.  The 
two-thirds  rule  makes  their  cliques  more  formidable,  and  the 
schemers  usually  so  manag^e  as  to  g-et  their  favorite  or  secure 
a  compromise  on  some  new  man  whom  they  know  they  can 
use. 

If  the  new  President  and  all  elective  officers  were  nom- 
inated by  law  as  I  propose,  no  compromise  on  a  new  and  un- 
known man  could  possibly  be  made  by  political  managers. 

It  may,  and  probably  will  be,  claimed  by  the  friends  of 
the  convention  system,  that  the  proposition  securing-  a  nomi- 
nating- election  under  the  protection  and  security  of  law 
would  not  prevent  the  caucus  nomination  of  candidate  to  be 
voted  for  at  the  first  election.  There  is  unquestionably  some 
force  in  this  sug-g-estion.  I  am  confident,  however,  that  its 
adoption  would  practically  abolish  the  convention  system. 

The  people  may  safely  be  entrusted  with  the  manag-ement 
of  this  whole  matter.  All  they  ask  is  the  protection  of  law, 
and  they  will  soon  dispose  of  party  tricksters  and  convention 
cliques.  A  nominating-  election,  under  the  safeg-uards  of 
law,  is  their  security.  If  cliques  and  conventions  attempt  to 
dictate  and  control  at  the  first  or  nominating-  election,  their 
defeat  will  be  inevitable  at  the  second  or  reg-ular  election. 
It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  system  has,  in  itself,  the  inherent 
power  of  protection  ag-ainst  caucuses,  conventions,  and 
frauds. 

Mr.  Lawrence,  of  Ohio.  I  would  like  to  ask  my  col- 
leag-ue  if  he  has  not  attended  conventions  and  been  nomi- 
nated by  conventions,  and  if  he  does  not  support  all  nomina- 
tions made  by  the  Republican  party. 

Mr.  Ashi<ey,  of  Ohio.  I  answer  the  question  of  my  col- 
league in  the  affirmative.  I  have  attended  conventions  and 
expect  to  attend  them  as  long-  as  my  party  adheres  to  that 
system.  I  have  been  nominated  by  conventions,  and  have 
accepted  those  nominations,  because  I  believed  they  were 
honestly  made,  and  because  I  believed  they  fairly  represented 
the  wishes  of  the  parly.  I  would  not  accept  a  nomination 
secured  by  bargain  and  sale,  or  by  fraud  and  corruption.  I 
would  not  accept  a  nomination  for  any  office  if  made  by  a 


—  475  — 

**  balance  of  power"  clique,  with  the  understanding-,  ex- 
pressed or  implied,  that  in  case  of  my  election  I  should  ap- 
point the  leaders  of  such  clique  to  ofB.ce.  I  have  been 
nominated  and  elected  five  consecutive  times  by  the  Republi- 
can party  of  my  district,  and  I  never  made,  nor  permitted  to 
be  made,  such  a  promise  to  a  sing-le  man.  I  have  always  sup- 
ported the  reg-ular  nominations  made  by  my  party,  and  expect 
to  do  so  until  the  system  of  nominating-  conventions  is  abol- 
ished, and  some  new  and  better  system  adopted. 

THE  INDEFENSIBI.E  MODE  OF  BISECTING  OUR  PRESIDENTS  MAIN- 
TAINED IN  THE  INTERESTS  OP   SLAVERY. 

But  for  the  existence  of  slavery  the  present  indefensible 
anti-democratic  system  of  electing-  the  President  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  electors  in  such  manner  as  the  State  leg-isla- 
tures  may  by  law  provide  would  long-  since  have  been  chang-ed, 
and  a  system  more  in  accord  with  the  democratic  spirit  of  the 
ag-e  adopted. 

That  the  present  system  of  nominating-  and  electing-  a 
President  is  in  antag-onism  with  the  principles  of  democratic 
g-overnment  will  not  be  seriously  questioned.  It  has  more 
than  once  defeated  the  popular  choice  for  the  nomination 
and  election  of  President.  Since  I  became  a  voter  a  ma- 
jority of  our  Presidents  have  been  elected  by  a  minority  of 
the  populrar  vote.  Under  the  present  system  the  incentive  to 
fraud  in  ballot-box  stuffing-,  illegal  votingf,  and^the  importa- 
tion of  voters  into  the  larg-e  and  closely-contested  States  can- 
not be  over-estimated.  If  an  electoral  ticket  obtains  by  any 
means,  fair  or  foul,  a  plurality  of  one  or  more  votes,  it  con- 
trols the  entire  electoral  vote  of  the  State,  which  may  decide 
the  result  of  a  presidential  election,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
vote  of  New  York  in  1844.  This  electoral  machinery  has, 
and  may  ag-ain,  dfefeat  the  popular  will. 

In  1824  Maryland  g-ave  Adams  a  larg-er  popular  vote  than 
either  Jackson,  Crawford,  or  Clay.  But  of  the  eleven  elec- 
toral votes  to  which  the  State  was  then  entitled,  Jackson 
received  seven,  Adams  three,  and  Crawford  one. 

The  electors  in  Maryland  were  elected  at  that  time  by 
districts,  whereas  they  are  now  elected  on  a  general  ticket 


—  476  — 

for  the  State  at  larg-e,  as  in  all  tlie  States.  Two  Districts  m 
Maryland  (the  third  and  fourth),  elected  at  that  election 
TWO  electors  each,  to  act  as  senatorial  electors. 

In  1824  the  electors  of  President  and  Vice-President  were 
appointed  in  the  several  States  as  follows: 

In  Maine,  Massachusetts,  Maryland,  Kentucky,  Ten- 
nessee, Illinois,  and  Missouri,  by  the  people  in  districts. 
Seven  States. 

In  New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New 
Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Mississippi, 
Alabama,  and  Ohio,  by  the  people  on  general  ticket.  Ten 
States. 

In  Vermont,  New  York,  Delaware,  Georgia,  Indiana, 
Louisiana,  and  South  Carolina,  by  the  legislatures.  Seven 
States. 

In  a  few  years  all  the  States  except  South  Carolina 
adopted  the  general  ticket  _.  system,  so  that  the  vote  of  the 
States  should  not  be  divided,  thus  securing  to  the  large  States 
the  power  to  elect  the  President,  and  often  by  a  mere  plu- 
rality of  the  vote  of  the  State. 

At  the  election  of  which  I  am  speaking  Jackson  had 
ninety-nine  electoral  votes,  Adams  eighty-four,  Crawford 
forty-one,  and  Clay  thirty-seven. 

The  Constitution  requiring  a  majority  of  all  the  electoral 
votes  cast  to  elect  a  President,  and  there  being  no  choice  of 
President  by  the  electors,  the  election  devolved  on  the  House 
of  Representatives. 

THE  states  which  REPRESENT  A  MINORITY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  IN 

THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  MAY  ELECT  THE 

PRESIDENT. 

Here,  again,  the  machinery  provided  by  the  Constitution 
for  the  election  of  a  President  by  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives makes  it  possible  for  a  minority  of  the  people  residing 
in  small  States  to  defeat  the  will  of  a  majority  of  the  voters 
in  the  nation. 

At  the  election  in  1824  for  electors  of  President  Mr, 
Adams  had  a  majority  of  the  electoral  vote  in  but  seven 
States.     When    the  election  took   place   in  the   House    of 


—  477  — 

Representatives,  each  State  having-  one  vote,  which  is  cast  as 
a  majority  of  the  Representatives  in  the  House  from  each 
State  may  determine,  Mr.  Adams  had  a  majority  in  each, 
OF  THE  Representatives  from  thirteen  States.  The  vote 
stood  as  follows: 

For  Adams 13 

For  Jackson 7 

For  Crawford 4 

Mr.  Adams,  having-  a  majority  of  all  the  votes  cast,  was 
declared  duly  elected  President  for  the  ensuing-  term. 

It  will  be  observed  that  Mr.  Adams  had  not  only  fifteen 
electoral  votes  less  than  Jackson  in  the  Electoral  Colleg-e,  but 
that  he  had  a  majority  of  the  electors  chosen  in  only  seven 
States,  whereas  he  obtained  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
when  elected  President  the  vote  of  thirteen  States,  THREE  OF 

THESE   BEING  STATES  WHICH    GAVE   JaCKSON   A  MAJORITY  OF 

THEIR  ELECTORAL  VOTE,  namely,  Alabama,  Louisiana,  and 
Maryland;  while  three  of  the  States  which  g-ave  a  majority 
for  Clay  at  the  election  voted  for  Adams  in  the  House,  namely, 
Kentucky,  Missouri,  and  Ohio.  North  Carolina  g-ave  her 
vote  in  the  Electoral  Colleg-e  for  Jackson,  but  in  the  House 
OF  Representatives  her  vote  was  given  to  Crawford  by 
A  vote  of  ten  to  three,  in  utter  disreg-ard  of  the  popular 
vote  of  the  people  of  the  State  as  expressed  at  the  ballot-box. 
'  I  present  these  facts  to  show  how,  under  our  present  sys- 
tem, the  voice  of  the  people  has  been  and  may  ag-ain  be  disre- 
g-arded.  Nothing-  could  demonstrate  more  forcibly  than  this 
simple  statement  the  necessity  for  a  change  in  the  manner  of 
electing-  a  President,  if  the  will  of  the  people  as  expressed  at 
the  ballot-box  is  to  determine  every  four  years  who  shall  dis- 
charg-e  the  powers  and  duties  of  the  office  of  President  of  the 
United  States. 

I  also  desire  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  ma- 
chinery of  electors,  as  provided  by  our  present  Constitution, 
makes  it  possible  for  the  will  of  the  people  to  be  defeated 
after  the  appointment  of  electors.  For  instance,  if  a  candi- 
date for  the  Presidency  should  have  in  the  Electoral  CoUeg-e 
but  two  or  three  majority  of  the  electoral  vote,  and  four  or 
five  electors  chosen  by  the  majority  in  the  different  States 


—  478  — 

should,  either  corruptly,  ig-norantlj,  neg-lig-ently,  or  for  any 
cause,  fail  or  refuse  to  attend  at  the  place  and  on  the  day 
desig-nated  by  law  for  their  meeting  in  each  State,  to  vote  for 
the  person  designated  on  the  ticket  for  President,  or  should 
appear  and  vote  for  the  opposing  candidate,  or  vote  blank, 
the  people  who  voted  for  such  electors  would  be  either  mis- 
represented or  unrepresented  in  the  Electoral  College,  and 
the  candidate  for  whom  a  majority  of  electors  was  chosen  to 
vote  would  be  legally  defeated,  although  fairly  elected. 
This  is  not  unlikely  to  happen  at  any  election,  unless  each 
State  should  provide  by  law  for  the  contingency  of  absentees. 
They  could  not  provide  a  remedy  for  the  betrayal  of  an 

ELECTOR. 

Of  the  presidential  electors  appointed  for  1792,  two  in 
Maryland  and  one  in  South  Carolina  failed  to  appear  at  the 
time  and  place  appointed  for  the  meeting  of  electors,  and  did 
not  vote.  For  1808  there  was  one  in  Kentucky.  For  1812, 
one  in  Ohio.  For  1816,  three  in  Maryland  and  one  in  Dela- 
ware. For  1820,  one  in  Pennsylvania,  one  in  Alabama,  and 
one  in  Tennessee.  For  1824,  one  in  Rhode  Island.  For 
1832,  three  in  Maryland.  For  1864,  one  in  Nevada.  The 
entire  electoral  vote  for  the  State  of  Wisconsin  was  legally 
lost  to  Fremont  in  1856  by  the  accident  of  a  snow-storm,  and 
would  probably  not  have  been  counted  if  thereby  the  result 
of  the  election  could  have  been  changed.  There  may  have 
been  others  which  I  have  overlooked. 

In  1797  Adams  had  seventy-one  votes  and  Jefferson 
sixty-nine,  giving  Adams  but  two  majority.  If  three  of  the 
electors  who  voted  for  Adams  had  failed  to  appear  at  the  time 
and  place  designated  by  law  to  vote  for  President,  or  had 
refused  to  vote,  or  voted  blank,  Mr.  Jefferson  would  have 
been  elected.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  of  the  number  of  electors 
who  have  been  appointed  and  three  or  four  times  failed  to 
vote  for  President,  in  one  instance  in  our  history  such  neglect 
or  refusal  to  act  would  have  changed  the  result  of  an  election 
and  defeated  the  legally  expressed  will  of  the  people  in  the 
selection  of  a  President. 

But  I  need  not  detain  the  House  longer  by  presenting^ 
reasons  against  a  system  so  indefensible. 


—  479  — 

If  the  proposition  which  I  have  introduced  should  be 
adopted  and  become  a  part  of  the  Constitution,  it  will  abolish 
all  the  machinery  of  intermediate  bodies,  which  now  often 
control  or  defeat  the  will  of  the  people,  whether  it  be  national 
conventions,  electoral  colleg-es,  or  the  choice  of  a  President 
bj  the  House  of  Representatives. 

THE   El*KCTION   OF  A  PRESIDENT   BY  THE   HOUSE   OF  REPRESEN- 
TATIVES. 

We  have  had  two  elections  in  our  history  of  a  President 
by  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  I  trust  the  Constitution 
may  soon  be  so  chang-ed  that  we  shall  never  have  another. 

Each  State  in  such  an  election  has  one  vote,  and  a  ma- 
jority, as  I  have  already  said,  of  the  Representatives  in  Con- 
gress from  the  States  whose  members  are  present  and  voting- 
determine  for  which  of  the  three  persons  returned  to  the  House 
the  vote  of  the  State  shall  be  cast.  At  such  an  election  the 
Representatives  in  Congress  elected  by  a  minority  of  a  people 
may,  and  as  a  rule  will,  in  such  a  contest  elect  a  President. 

Counting"  all  the  States,  and  we  now  have  thirty-seven; 
of  these,  under  our  present  system  ten  may  elect  a  President 
if  united.     I  will  name  them: 

Votes. 

Illinois 16 

Indiana 13 

Kentucky 11 

Massachusetts    12 

Missouri , 11 

New  York 33 

Virg-inia 10 

Ohio 21 

Pennsylvania 26 

Tennessee   10 

Ten  States 163 


—  480 


Votes, 

Alabama 8 

Arkansas 5 

California 5 

Connecticut 6 

Delaware 3 

Florida 3 

Oregon 3 

Georgia 9 

Kansas 3 

Louisiana 7 

Maine 7           .^ 

Maryland 7 

Minnesota 4                '    - 

Mississippi 7 

Nevada 3 

Nebraska 3 

New  Hampshire 5 

New  Jersey 7 

Rhode  Island 4 

South  Carolina 6 

Texas 6             ,    • 

Vermont 5 

West  Virg-inia 5 

North  Carolina 9 

Wisconsin   8 

Iowa    8 

Michig-an 8 

Twenty-seven  States 154 

If  at  any  time  an  election  for  President  should  devolve 
on  the  House  of  Representatives,  a  majority  of  the  Represen- 
tatives in  Congress  from  nineteen  of  the  thirty-seven  States, 
representing  not  more  than  one-fourth  of  the  people  and  less 
than  one-third  of  the  electoral  vote,  could  by  uniting  elect 
the  President. 


481  — 


I^et  me  name  the  States 


Votes, 


Delaware 

Florida 

Kansas 

Nebraska 

Nevada  

Oreg-on 

Minnesota 2 

Rhode  Island 3 

Arkansas 3 

California 3 

New  Hampshire 3 

Vermont 3 

West  Virginia 3 

Connecticut 4 

South  Carolina 4 

Texas 4 

Maryland 5 

New  Jersey 5 

Mississippi 5 


Nineteen  States 52 


Thirty-eight  of  the  fifty-two  m  "'.mbers  from  the  States 
just  named  can  control  the  vote  of  said  States  and  elect  the 
President. 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  the  table  from  which  I  have 
just  read,  we  have  six  States,  with  but  one  vote  each,  while 
seven  others  have  but  nineteen  votes,  and  the  six  remaining 
but  twenty-seven.  In  all  fifty-two  votes.  These  nineteen 
States  have  two  Senators  each,  making  in  all  thirty-eight 
Senators,  which,  added  to  the  fifty-two  Representatives  in 
the  House,  makes  ninety  votes,  and  that  number  of  electoral 
votes. 

In  a  few  years,  at  most,  six  new  States  will  be  organized 
out  of  our  present  Territories  and  admitted  into  the  Union. 
When  admitted,  they  will  be  entitled  under  our  present  sys- 
31 


—  482  — 

tern  to  cast  three  electoral  votes  each  for  President,  making 
eighteen  votes,  and  in  case  the  election  of  a  President  de- 
volves on  the  House  of  Representatives,  they  will  each  have 
all  the  political  power  of  New  York  or  Ohio,  with  the  cer- 
tainty that  they  cannot  lose  their  vote  in  the  House  by  an 
equal  division  of  their  Representatives  as  the  larger  States 
may  ;  thus  increasing  the  inequality  of  political  power  which 
now  exists  in  the  House  when  the  election  of  a  President  de- 
volves upon  it,  to  an  extent  which  I  fear  the  statesmen  of  the 
country  do  not  fully  recognize.  Admit  six  of  the  Territories, 
and  the  number  of  States  would  be  increased  to  forty-three, 
and  the  electoral  vote,  if  the  States  already  named  retain 
their  present  number  of  votes,  would  be  three  hundred  and 
thirty-five. 

Now,  take  Georgia,  with  her  nine  electoral  votes,  and 
add  to  the  ten  States  in  the  first  table,  and  eleven  States  can 
give  one  hundred  and  seventy-two  electoral  votes,  while  the 
remaining  thirty-two  States  can  give  but  one  hundred  and 
sixty-three  electoral  votes.  Thus  eleven  States  out  of  forty- 
three,  if  united,  may,  by  a  plurality  of  their  voters,  elect  a 
President ;  yet,  if  they  are  so  divided  that  a  majority  of  all 
the  electors  are  not  chosen  for  one  of  the  candidates,  there  is 
no  election,  and  the  election  devolves  on  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, when  twenty-two  States,  representing  only  eighty- 
nine  electoral  votes  out  of  three  hundred  and  thirty-five,  or  a 
fraction  more  than  one-fourth,  and  not  one-fourth  of  the  pop- 
ular vote,  may  elect  a  President. 

Add  the  six  new  States,  each  with  their  three  electoral 
votes,  to  the  six  States  now  in  the  Union  with  but  three  votes 
each,  and  we  will  have  twelve  States  with  one  vote  each  in 
the  House,  and  but  thirty-six  electoral  votes.  When  that 
time  comes  —  which  will  probably  be  within  ten  years  at 
most  —  we  shall  have,  as  I  have  shown,  forty-three  States,  of 
which  twenty-two  will  be  a  majority,  and  this  majority  of 
States  can  be  controlled  by  thirty-five  members  ;  eight  votes 
less  than  there  are  States  in  the  Union.     Thus  it  will  be  seen 

that  THIRTY-FIVE  MEN  IN  THE  HoUSE,  WHEN  COMPOSED  OP  TWO 
HUNDRED  AND  FORTY-NINE  MEMBERS,  WII.I.  HAVE  THE  POWER 
TO   ELECT    A    PRESIDENT  SHOULD    THE   ELECTION    DEVOLVE   ON 

THE  House  of  Representatives. 


—  483  — 

I  need  not  add  a  word  in  condemnation  of  a  system  so  ut- 
terly repug-nant  to  all  rig-ht-thinking-  men.  The  fact  that  so 
small  a  body  of  men  will  have  it  in  their  power  to  elect  a 
President,  if  the  election  can  be  carried  into  the  House  of 
Representatives,  will  make  it  for  the  interest  of  desperate 
political  adventurers  and  place-hunters  to  combine  and  force 
the  election  into  the  House.  I  would  not  have  you  forg-et 
that  the  Representatives  who  are  to  determine  the  choice  of  a 
President  when  the  election  devolves  on  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives are  members  of  the  Cong-ress  which  expires  on  the 
day  the  new  President  is  to  be  inaug-urated  ;  that  the  term 
of  all  members  not  re-elected  will  cease  on  the  4th  of  March 
after  the  election  of  the  President,  and  that  such  members 
will  then  be  prepared  to  accept  appointments  under  the  new 
Administration. 

With  the  States  all  restored,  as  we  soon  hope  to  see 
them,  there  will  be  thirty-seven,  as  I  have  before  said,  and 
the  number  of  members  in  the  House  will  be  two  hundred 
and  forty -three,  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  of  whom  are  a 
majority.  Yet  thirty-eight  members  representing  nine- 
teen States  by  voting  together  can  constitutionally 
ELECT  THE  President  when  the  election  devolves  on  th^ 
House. 

These  calculations  are  based  upon  the  hypothesis  that 
every  State  will  have  a  vote  in  such  an  election  ;  whereas  it 
will  sometimes  happen  that  the  larg-er  States  will  lose  their 
vote  by  an  equal  division  in  their  delegation.  This,  of  course, 
cannot  happen  where  a  State  has  but  one  Representative. 

When  there  is  but  one  majority  in  a  delegation,  any 
member  from  such  a  State  may  chang-e  the  result,  or  he  may 
refuse  to  vote,  and  thus  deliberately,  and  for  a  purpose,  cause 
the  vote  of  his  State  to  be  equally  divided  and  lost,  thus  in- 
creasing- the  power  of  the  few  in  the  House  who  vote  as  a 
unit. 

The  proposition  which  I  make  bring-s  the  Senate  and 
House  of  Representatives  tog-ether  in  joint  convention  within 
sixty  days  after  the  death,  resig-nation  or  removal  of  the 
President,  and  secures  to  each  Senator  and  Representative 
one  vote. 


—  484  — 

An  election  of  a  President  by  a  joint  vote  of  the  two 
Houses  of  Congress  can  only  happen  under  the  plan  which  1 
have  submitted,  on  the  death,  resignation  or  removal  of  the 
incumbent ;  because  the  people  will  of  necessity  elect  a  Pres- 
ident at  the  second  election  without  the  intervention  of  any 
body  of  men,  thus  taking-  away  from  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives this  dang-erous  oower,  now  lodg-ed  by  the  Constitution 
in  the  hands  of  less  than  one-third  of  its  members,  and  secur- 
ing- it  to  the  people. 

Experience  teaches  that  small  bodies  of  men  may  be  cor- 
rupted, the  g-reat  body  of  the  people  never.  Where  there  are 
more  than  two  presidential  candidates,  those  representing" 
political  parties  known  to  be  in  the  minority  in  any  State, 
while  acting-  separately,  may  unite  and  adopt  a  joint  electoral 
ticket,  composed  of  men  representing-  their  respective  party 
org-anizations,  and  thus  obtain  a  plurality  of  the  popular  vote 
in  enough  doubtful  States  to  defeat  an  election  by  electors. 
The  election  of  the  President  would  then  devolve  on  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  one  of  the  candidates  of  the 
minority  could  there  be  elected,  as  I  have  shown,  by  less  than 
one-third  of  the  Representatives  in  Congress,  with  a  constit- 
uency numbering  less  than  one-fourth  of  the  popular  vote. 

After  an  election,  in  which  there  was  no  choice  by  the 
people,  if  they  were  permitted  to  vote  the  second  time,  they 
would  never  permit  an  election  of  President  to  go  to  the 
House  of  Representatives,  as  provided  under  our  present  Con- 
stitution. This  is  one  of  the  important  privileges  which  I 
propose  to  secure  directly  to  the  people,  so  that  in  a  country 
extensive  as  ours  the  people  may  have  an  opportunity  of  vot- 
ing for  a  second  choice  if  they  fail  to  secure  their  first  choice. 

In  any  light  in  which  I  am  able  to  view  the  present  mode 
of  electing  a  President,  whether  by  the  appointment  of  elec- 
tors or  selecting  him  by  the  House  of  Representatives,  it 
seems  to  me  to  be  violative  of  the  democratic  principle,  and 
dangerous  to  the  peace  and  stability  of  the  Government. 

In  conversing  recently  with  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
men  of  the  nation  on  this  subject  he  said  that  should  an  elec- 
tion such  as  I  have  described  occur,  and  the  choice  devolve 
on  the  House  of  Representatives,  it  would  not  dare  to  select 
for  President  the  candidate  having  the  smallest  vote  ;  that  if 


—  485  — 

they  did  so  it  would  end  in  revolution,  and  that  until  some 
great  agitation  resulting  from  such  an  outrag-e  came  upon 
the  country  the  people  could  not  be  aroused  to  the  necessity  of 
providing  against  its  probability. 

However  that  may  be,  I  feel  it  to  be  my  duty  to  present 
this  subject  to  the  consideration  of  this  House  and  the  coun- 
try, with  the  notice  that  while  I  remain  a  member  of  this 
body  I  do  not  intend  to  rest  until  a  judgment  is  rendered  up- 
on it  by  Congress  and  the  people. 

Believing  in  the  capacity  of  the  people  for  self-govern- 
ment, I  ask  that  all  who  are  duly  qualified  shall  vote  directly 
for  President;  that  they  be  secured  and  protected  in  that 
right,  and  be  freed  from  the  dictation  and  control  of  all  inter- 
mediate and  irresponsible  bodies  of  men.  Any  substitute 
for  a  popular  vote  makes  it  possible  for  intermediate  bodies, 
who  are  commissioned  to  act  for  the  people,  to  betray  them 
or  defeat  their  choice. 

The  system  which  now  prevails  of  nominating  and  elect- 
ing our  Presidents  tends  directly  to  corruption  and  fraud, 
and  to  placing  the  government  in  the  hands  of  a  minority  of 
experienced  and  unscrupulous  political  intriguers. 

Minorities  cannot  long  administer  a  government  such  as 
ours  in  this  country  by  fraud  and  intrigue  without  inaugu- 
rating violence  and  bloodshed.  The  administration  by  the 
slave  oligarchy  of  this  government  for  so  many  years  by 
fraud,  intrigue,  and  force  is  a  case  in  point. 

The  history  of  all  republics  which  have  risen  and  fallen 
teaches  us  that  liberty  will  perish  if  the  people  permit  the 
establishment  of  any  substitute  for  popular  elections. 

It  is  the  province  of  true  statesmanship  to  supply  a 
remedy  for  the  dangerous,  unjust,  and  anti-democratic  pro- 
vision of  the  Constitution  which  provides  for  the  election  of 
our  national  Executive. 

I  have  not  provided  for  special  elections  by  the  people  in 
case  of  the  death,  disability,  or  removal  of  the  President, 
because  I  think'  the  presidential  term  should  commence  and 
end  as  now. 

The  business  interests  of  the  country  cannot  afford  to  go 
through  a  presidential  campaign  oftener  than  once  in  four 
years.     If  an  election  to  fiU^  vacancy  devolves  on  the  Con- 


—  486  — 

gress,  each  Senator  and  Representative  has  one  vote,  which 
is  as  equitable  an  apportionment  according  to  population  as 
can  well  be  made,  and  the  choice  of  an  acting-  President  to 
fill  any  vacancy  which  may  happen  will  probably  g-ive  as 
much  satisfaction  in  the  mode  proposed  as  any  which  could 
be  devised. 


OF  THB  KXECUTIViR  AND   APPOINTING  POWER. 

Mr.  Chairman,  in  defining-  the  executive  power  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  declared  that  it  should  be  in 
a  President,  intending"  thereby  to  say  that  the  executive 
power  of  the  nation  should  be  vested  in  one  person,  to  be 
called  a  President,  and  that  he  should  exercise  the  powers 
and  duties  conferred  in  strict  accordance  with  the  g-rants  and 
limitations  of  the  Constitution.  Gradually  but  steadily  the 
executive  power  has  strengthened  itself  and  encroached  upon 
the  legislative  department,  causing  the  conflict  through 
which  we  have  just  passed. 

The  power  of  appointment  committed  to  the  President 
under  our  Constitution  has  for  years  made  him  little  else  than 
a  king  for  the  time  being,  except  in  name. 

Insidious  usurpations,  long  submitted  to,  but  never  con- 
templated by  the  Constitution,  have  so^ grown  into  custom 
that  to-day,  without  the  tenure-of-ofiB.ce  act,  the  vast  power 
in  the  hands  of  an  ambitious,  aspiring,  popular  President 
is  dangerous  to  the  peace  and  stability  of  the  Union. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  there  are  nearly  forty 
thousand  of&ce-holders,  whose  salaries  amount  to  millions, 
and  whose  appointments,  directly  or  indirectly,  depend  on  the 
word  of  the  President,  we  will  be  able  to  comprehend  some- 
thing of  the  overshadowing  power  of  the  Executive. 

We  have  all  seen  how  dangerous  a  President  may  become 
who  is  without  character  and  without  ability,  even  when 
manacled  with  the  civil  tenure-of-ofi&ce  law. 

Let  the  intelligent  student  read  over  our  political  history 
for  the  past  forty  or  fifty  years,  and  he  will  be  surprised  to 
find  how  large  has  been  the  number  of  Senators  and  Repre- 
sentatives who  during  that  time  have  openly  or  covertly  be- 
trayed their  constituents,  and  become  the  mere  dependents  of 


—  487  — 

the  Executives  who  during  their  official  term  filled  the  piesi- 
dential  office. 

I  will  not  now  speak  of  the  baseness  which  has  been  so 
open  and  unblushing-  within  the  memory  of  us  all.  For  the 
sake  of  place  and  power  a  large  number  of  public  men,  in  the 
past  half  century,  have  abandoned  cherished  convictions, 
betrayed  the  people,  and  become  the  mere  creatures  of  our 
acting  Executives,  so  that  to-day  our  political  highway  pre- 
sents an  almost  unbi'oken  line  of  unburied  political  skeletons, 
offensive  to  the  sight  and  poisonous  to  our  political  atmos- 
phere. Sir,  let  any  man  read  our  political  history  for  the 
past  forty  or  fifty  years,  and  he  will  find  that  an  executive 
nod  to  a  representative  of  the  same  political  party  has  been 
more  potent,  as  a  rule,  than  the  will  of  his  constituents.  I 
admit  that  this  abasement  was  far  more  general  than  it  is  to- 
day, during  the  period  in  which  the  slave-masters  of  the 
South  dominated  over  the  nation  and  northern  doughfaces 
did  their  bidding  with  alacrity  and  without  question. 

Experience  has  demonstrated  the  fact  that  executive 
blandishment  and  patronage  have  been  used  with  marked  suc- 
cess within  the  memory  of  us  all.  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives of  all  parties  have  alike  yielded  to  its  seductive  power. 

The  men  usually  selected  to  do  the  bidding  of  an  Execu- 
tive in  defiance  of  the  wishes  of  their  constituents  are  men 
elected  from  congressional  districts  which  never  re-elect  their 
representatives,  or  re-elect  them  but  once.  Such  districts,  as 
a  rule,  send  men  to  Congress  who  are  without  State  or 
national  reputations,  and  as  a  consequence  a  large  number  of 
such  men  are  always  ready  in  the  name  of  party  to  do  the 
bidding  of  an  unscrupulous  Executive,  and  accept  for  their 
services,  when  repudiated  by  their  constituents,  a  petty  ap- 
pointment, which  men  of  character,  ability,  and  a  political 
future  would  spurn.  So  long  as  Representatives  to  Congress 
are  elected  for  but  one,  or  at  most  for  but  two  terms,  and  be- 
cause they  reside  in  this  or  that  county  of  a  district  rather 
than  because  of  their  fitness,  ability,  or  fidelity  to  principles, 
and  so  long  as  the  President  is  clothed  with  such  vast  ap- 
pointing power,  and  he  is  permitted  to  demand,  as  now,  of 
his  appointees,  an  indorsement  of  **his  policy,"  including  his 
policy  for  a  re-election,  as  a  condition  to  their  appointment  or 


—  488  — 

continuance  in  office,  so  long*  will  constituencies  be  betrayed 
and  political  adventurers  be  successful. 

Practically,  sir,  the  demand  made,  disg-uise  it  as  we  may, 
of  the  g-reat  body  of  men  who  are  nominated  to  important 
positions  by  every  Executive  ambitious  for  a  re-election  is, 
will  you  pledg-e  yourself  to  support  *'  my  policy?" . 

THE  ROTATION  SYSTEM — ITS  STUPIDITY. 

In  a  number  of  congressional  districts  personally  known 
to  me,  the  rotation  system  prevails  so  rig-idly  that  they  never 
re-elect  a  gentleman  to  Congress,  no  matter  how  able  or 
faithful.  Political  aspirants  with  their  personal  friends 
come  together  in  what  they  are  pleased  to  call  conventions, 
and  negotiations  are  deliberately  entered  into  and  a  pro- 
gramme agreed  upon,  which  must  remain  undisturbed  for 
years  and  with  which  no  national  exigency  or  local  want  of 
the  people  must  interfere.  In  these  convention  conclaves  the 
people  are  without  a  voice  or  vote,  and  in  the  name  of  party 
they  are  bound  hand  and  foot.  It  is  generally  agreed  that 
the  nominee  for  the  first  term,  in  such  district,  after  a  new 
apportionment,  shall  be  given  to  the  county  having  the  most 
political  influence,  if  their  local  politicians  can  agree,  and 
thereafter,  if  there  is  more  than  one  county  in  the  district, 
that  the  candidate  shall  rotate  until  each  county  shall  in  turn 
be  served  with  a  candidate.  Experience  has  demonstrated 
how  indifferent  a  majority  of  such  Representatives  are  to  the 
wishes  and  wants  of  their  constituents. 

Of  the  practical  inefficiency  of  such  Representatives  I 
need  not  speak.  It  is  not  possible  for  them  to  be  otherwise 
than  inefficient.  Let  the  constituencies  who  have  so  re- 
peatedly suffered  under  this  stupid  system,  and  been  hu- 
miliated, disgraced,  and  betrayed,  apologize  to  the  nation  for 
sending  such  men  into  her  council  halls,  by  speedily  chang- 
ing a  system  which  is  the  nursery  of  the  most  insufferable 
demagogues. 

I  have  known  men  who  ought  never  to  have  been  in- 
trusted with  official  position  anywhere,  and  who  probably 
never  would  have  been  but  for  this  system,  change  their  resi- 
dence from  one  county  to  another  for  the  express  purpose  of 


—  489  — 

securing"  a  nomination  to  Congress,  and  succeed.  Their 
anxiety  to  serve  the  dear  people  would  become  so  g'reat  that 
they  would  anticipate  by  removing*  into  a  county  entitled 
under  their  ag-reement  to  the  candidate  at  the  next  election. 

Mr.  Chairman,  what  is  a  cong-ressional  district?  Leg-ally 
and  for  the  time  being-  it  is  one  political  community,  as  much 
as  any  county.  It  is  org-anized  by  law  as  an  entirety  for  the 
election  of  a  Representative  to  Cong-ress.  The  S3^stem  which 
provides  for  the  rotation  of  the  member  from  one  county  to 
another  every  two  or  four  years  was  not  adopted  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  people,  but  in  the  interest  of  politicians. 

I  know  many  constituencies  will  pardon  me  if  I  sug-g-est 
to  such  as  are  pledged  by  their  party  leaders  to  the  policy  of 
electing"  a  Representative  from  each  county  in  a  district,  or  to 
electing-  a  new  and  inexperienced  man  every  two  or  four  years, 
that  they  modify  it  so  far,  at  least,  as  to  select  a  g-entleman  to 
represent  them  because  of  his  character,  ability  and  well- 
known  fidelity  to  principles  which  they  reg-ard  as  fundamen- 
tal, and  that  they  require  the  candidate,  as  a  condition  to  his 
renomination,  that  he  *' board  round,"  when  at  home,  in  each 
county,  after  the  custom  of  our  western  schoolmasters  in 
early  times,  so  that  each  county  in  such  district  shall  have 
secured  to  it,  at  least  once  every  year  or  two,  a  Representa- 
tive in  Cong-ress  who  shall  thus  become  a  resident  of  every 
county.  This  would  be  a  vast  improvement  on  the  plan  so 
long-  adhered  to  in  the  North,  which  plan  enabled  the  politi- 
cal adventurers  who  have  so  often  held  the  balance  of  power 
in  all  our  great  national  strug-gles  to'crawl  into  the  national 
Congress.  As  a  class  these  were  the  men  who,  at  the  bid- 
ding- of  the  slave  barons,  betrayed  the  nation  into  the 
adoption  of  the  Missouri  compromise  of  1820;  and  ag-ain, 
when  it  was  repealed,  whose  votes  enacted  the  so-called  com- 
promises of  1850  into  law,  including-  the  infamous  fugitive- 
slave  act,  the  Kansas-Nebraska  acts  of  1854,  and  the  Lecomp- 
ton  constitution  of  1856;  in  short,  the  men  who  betrayed  the 
nation  in  every  g-reat  struggle  between  liberty  and  slavery 
for  the  past  half  century. 

A  large  proportion  of  the  men  who  thus  betrayed  their 
constituents,  after  being  repudiated  at  home,  received  petty 
appointments  from  the  President.     This  custom  of  compen- 


—  490  — 

sating-  the  nation's  betrayers,  by  their  appointment  to  office, 
has  been  sanctioned  and  sanctified  by  long-  and  successful 
usage,  so  that  an  act  of  successful  treachery  against  a  confid- 
ing constituency  opens  the  door  for  promotion  at  the  presi- 
dential mansion.  All  can  understand  that  so  corrupt  and 
corrupting-  a  custom  could  only  be  maintained  by  having- 
reckless  demagog-ues  and  small  men  without  character  rotated 
in  and  out  of  Congress  as  fast  as  possible.  The  South  favor- 
ed the  "  rotation  principle  "  for  the  North,  but  were  too  wise 
and  wily  to  adopt  it  themselves.  The  result  was  that  with 
the  immense  patronage  of  the  Government  in  the  hands  of  a 
President  controlled  by  the  slave  barons,  liberty  was  always 
betrayed. 

Had  I  time  I  mig-ht  here  present  some  interesting-  and 
instructive  facts,  showing-  how  few  men  the  North  main- 
tained in  Congress  beyond  a  single  term,  or  beyond  four 
years  in  the  House  for  twenty-five  years  before  the  war,  and 
how  the  South  continued  her  Representatives  until  her  men 
of  ordinary  abilities  became  so  familiar  with  the  public  busi- 
ness of  the  country  that  they  came  to  be  leaders  in  Cong-ress, 
and  by  a  careful  organization  of  the  committees,  controlled 
the  legislation  of  the  nation. 

When  I  came  into  the  Thirty-sixth  Congress  the  two 
Senators  from  Florida — a  political  community  without  the 
voting  population  of  the  congressional  district  which  I  have 
the  honor  to  represent  —  were  each  at  the  head  of  an  important 
committee  ;  one  at  the  head  of  the  Navy,  the  other  of  the 
Post-office ;  and  this  was  a  fair  sample  of  the  manner  in  which 
committees  were  organized  both  in  the  Senate  and  House  for 
many  years  before  the  war.  The  whole  State  of  Florida  did 
not  have  as  many  letters  go  through  its  post-offices  in  a  year 
as  go  through  one  city  in  my  district  in  a  single  week  ;  nor 
did  its  entire  commercial  interests  reach  in  one  year  an 
amount  equal  in  value  to  the  commerce  of  Toledo  every  ten 
days;  and  yet  these  two  men  shaped,  and  in  a  g-reat  measure 
controlled,  the  postal  and  naval  legislation  of  the  country. 
Thus  the  representatives  of  a  class  interest,  numbering-  but  a 
fewn  hundred  thousand  slave-owners,  the  most  offensive  and 
infamous  oligarchy  in  history,  by  the  political  machinery  of 
conventions  took  possession  of  the  Government  in  the  name 


—  491  — 

of  Democracy  and  filled  its  most  honorable  and  responsible 
offices  from  their  own  number.  I  am  g-lad  to  be  able  to  state 
that  thousands  of  good  men  all  over  the  country  are  beg"in- 
ning"  to  see  and  feel  the  necessity  of  a  radical  change  in  this 
matter.  Of  the  many  letters  which  I  have  received,  and  seen 
when  received  by  others,  none  is  more  to  the  point  than  one 
shown  me  a  few  moments  ago  by  my  colleague  [Mr.  Law- 
rence] ,  an  extract  from  which  I  will  read.  He  says  to  my 
colleague: 

**  Go  on.  You  have  borne  the  heat  and  burden  of  the 
day.  *  We  do  not  want  to  trade  horses  while  crossing  the 
stream.' 

'*We  like  your  bold,  manly  course,  and  have  learned  to 
appreciate  it  the  more  since  we  see  so  many  going  over  to  the 
-enemy.  We  want  to  make  the  example  that  it  pays  better  to 
remain  with  our  colors  than  to  sell  out  and  desert." 


DANGEROUS   POWER   OF  THE   PRESIDENT  IN   CONTROI.I,ING  CON- 
GRESSIONAI,  NOMINATIONS  AND  EI.ECTIONS. 

At  least  one-third  of  all  the  congressional  districts  in  the 
nation  may  safely  be  classed,  in  ordinary  party  times,  as 
politically  doubtful.  Such  districts  are  organized  by  the 
dominant  party  in  every  State  legislature  for  the  purpose  of 
securing,  if  possible,  to  their  party,  every  Representative  in 
Congress  from  the  State. 

A  majority  of  all  doubtful  or  close  districts  have  what  is 
l^nown  as  a  balance-of-power  faction  in  each  party,  composed 
for  the  most  part  of  dissatisfied  and  disappointed  men,  with 
political  adventurers  for  leaders,  who  are  always  plotting  for 
office,  especially  for  congressional  nominations,  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  **  rotation,"  and  **that  this  or  that  man  has  had  it 
long  enough;  and  that  it  is  their  turn  now."  If  they  cannot 
secure  a  nomination  from  one  party  they  do  not  hesitate  to 
ask  a  nomination  from  the  opposite  party.  If  they  cannot 
secure  a  nomination  from  either  party  they  do  not  hesitate 

♦TO  *'B0I.T"  OR  TO  ENTER  INTO  ANY  COALITION  WHICH  PROM- 
ISES TO  SECURE   DEFEAT  TO  ANY  MAN  WHO  STANDS    IN   THEIR 

WAY.     In  short,  they  will  do  any  act  which  they  believe  will 
compel  one  or  both  parties  to  a  compromise  in  the  selection 


—  492  — 

of  its  candidates,  under  the  threat  of  defeat  if  compliance 
with  their  demand  is  refused.  These  demands  are  usually 
the  petty  offices  at  the  disposal  of  the  Representative  from 
the  district,  and  a  bargain  as  to  which  faction  and  county  in 
the  district  shall  have  the  congressional  candidate  for  the 
next  term. 

In  this  way,  with  the  aid  of  the  plausible  cry,  *  *  rotation 
in  office,"  political  apostates  and  adventurers  and  men  with- 
out character,  ability,  or  principle  have  so  often  in  our  his- 
tory crept  into  the  council  halls  of  the  nation  and  misrepre- 
sented and  betrayed  the  people. 

In  such  districts  as  I  have  described,  the  question  too 
often  asked  by  the  best  men  of  both  parties  is  not  who  is  the 
most  reliable  and  competent  man  to  represent  us  in  Congress^ 
but  * '  who  can  the  most  certainly  defeat  the  candidate  of  the 
opposition."  To  accomplish  this,  men  who  never  were 
Republicans  have  been  selected  as  candidates  and  voted  for 
by  Republicans  since  the  organization  of  that  great  party^ 
and  sometimes  apostates,  or  men  but  recently  members  of  the 
opposite  party,  have  been  nominated  by  Republican  conven- 
tions, as  in  the  case  of  Andrew  Johnson,  not  because  they 
ever  advocated  or  honestly  entertained  Republican  ideas,  but 
because  political  tricksters  and  schemers  promised  their  sup- 
port, and  induced  the  party  to  believe  that  success  could  thus 
be  secured  at  the  election  by  the  nomination  of  such  candi- 
dates, and  that  defeat  would  be  inevitable  without  it.  As  a 
rule  the  men  thus  nominated  are  but  political  adventurers, 
thrown  to  the  surface  like  drift-wood  in  a  flood,  and,  though 
they  soon  sink  with  their  own  rottenness,  while  they  are  in 
power  they  corrupt  and  debase  the  nation. 

The  insane  desire  for  mere  party  success  rather  than  the 
triumph  of  ideas  in  the  election  of  honorable  and  responsible 
men  of  unquestioned  fidelity  has  invited  and  encouraged,  in 
almost  every  congressional  district  in  which  the  party  ma- 
jority is  uncertain,  a  score  or  more  of  "bolters,"  apostates, 
and  political  trimmers  to  thrust  themselves  upon  both  the 
great  political  parties  as  candidates  for  nomination  to  Con- 
gress. As  a  class  these  are  the  men  who  in  the  past  thirty  or 
forty  years  have  so  often  betrayed  constituencies  at  the  bid- 


—  493  — 

ding"  of  an  unscrupulous,  ambitious  Executive,  and  received 
their  reward  in  some  petty  office. 

"When  a  State  or  congressional  district  accepts  as  its 
representative  a  drunkard  or  a  man  without  moral  character 
and  destitute  of  political  principles,  it  treads  the  path  which 
leads  the  nation  on  the  highway  to  ruin.  Far  better  that  a 
party  be  defeated  than  that  it  should  elect  a  man  morally 
base  enough  to  betray  it.  Far  better  defeat  with  men  of 
character  representing-  its  ideas  than  success  with  men  who 
represent  neither  moral  nor  political  convictions.  That  a 
system  so  vicious  and  corrupting  should  so  long  have  continued 
in  any  State  or  locality,  even  under  the  despotism  of  party 
conventions,  is  one  of  the  inexplicable  mysteries  of  Ameri- 
can politics. 

To  the  fact  that  the  rotation  system  was  in  a  measure 
abolished  by  the  Republican  party,  and  faithful  and  expe- 
rienced men  retained  in  Congress  from  a  large  number  of 
Northern  States  during-  the  war^and  since,  does  the  nation 
owe  in  g-reat  part  the  successful  legislation  which  carried  it 
triumphantly  through  the  war  and  prepared  it  the  better  to 
resist  the  usurpations  and  defeat  in  part  the  conspiracies  of 
the  acting-  President  and  his  co-conspirators  and  allies. 
With  new,  untried,  and  inexperienced  men  every  two  or  four 
years  such  a  result  would  have  been  impossible. 

So  long-  as  the  system  which  I  have  described  of  nomi- 
nating- and  electing  Representatives  to  Congress  is  adhered  to 
—  and  I  concede  that  the  district  system  is  infinitely  better 
than  the  general  ticket  system  plan  which  at  one  time  pre- 
vailed in  a  number  of  States,  where  the  entire  cong-ressional 
delegation  from  a  State  was  elected  on  one  ticket  —  I  say 
that  so  long-  as  the  system  now  prevailing  of  selecting-  Rep- 
resentatives to  Congress  continues  and  the  vast  patronage  of 
the  Government  remains,  as  now,  in  the  hands  of  the  Execu- 
tive, so  long-  will  a  new  set  of  unknown  and  unfaithful  men 
be  found  in  Congress  to  do  the  bidding  of  any  Executive  of 
their  party  who  is  unscrupulous  enough  to  employ  the  Gov- 
ernment patronage  for  that  purpose. 

Had  Mr.  Lincoln  desired  the  defeat  of  the  radical  Repub- 
lican candidates  for  Congress  in  1862  he  could  have  secured 
it  in  a  majority  of  congressional  districts  in  the  nation.     Had 


—  494  — 

Mr.  Johnson  been  a  man  of  character  and  ability  he  could  in 
1866,  by  ordinary  manag-ement  and  a  judicious  use  of  the 
public  patronag-e,  have  secured  in  close  districts  the  defeat  of 
all  Republicans  opposed  to  "  his  policy."  Through  his  thir- 
ty or  forty  thousand  appointees  and  his  newspaper  organs 
professing-  Republicanism,  and  such  Republicans  as  he  then 
had  in  Cong-ress  co-operating-  with  him,  he  could  have  said, 
in  a  way  not  to  be  misunderstood,  that  such  a  result  would 
be  agreeable  to  him,  and  that  a  larg-e  number  of  leading-  Re- 
publicans, in  Congress  and  out  of  it,  concurred  with  him  in 
believing  that  the  defeat  of  all  radicals  was  necessary  to  the 
complete  success  of  the  Republican  party.  And  there  were 
a  number  of  professed  Republicans  then  in  Congress  stupid 
enough  or  base  enough  to  listen  to  such  schemes  and  to  say  that 
the  President's  purposes  were  **to  fight  out  his  differences 
with  the  radicals  in  the  Republican  party;"  that  "  in  no  event 
would  he  go  over  to  the  enemy."  Fortunately  for  the  nation, 
Mr.  Johnson's  open  apostasy  and  base  betrayal  of  the  great 
party  which  elected  him  ;  his  offensive  and  disgusting  exhi- 
bition of  himself  throughout  the  country,  and  the  want  of 
character  in  his  so-called  Republican  adherents  was  all  that 
saved  us  from  division  and  defeat  at  the  elections  in  1866  and 
since. 

Mr.  Chairman,  there  are  but  few  congressional  districts 
in  which  any  President  of  character  and  good  standing  with 
his  party  may  not,  by  a  free  use  of  the  vast  patronage  in  his 
hands,  defeat,  either  for  nomination  or  election,  any  candi- 
date of  his  party  for  Congress  who  is  obnoxious  to  him. 
That  such  vast  power  ought  not  to  be  lodged  in  the  hands  of 
any  President  will  be  conceded  by  all  true  friends  of  demo- 
cratic government. 

As  the  nation  grows  in  population  and  wealth  this  vast,, 
uncontrolled  and  uncontrollable  power  increases  and  becomes 
more  dangerous.  Its  corrupting  influence  reaches  out  and 
subsidizes  men  in  every  county  of  the  republic. 

Sir,  on  behalf  of  all  who  cherish  the  democratic  idea^ 
I  plead  for  the  submission,  by  this  Congress,  of  such  an 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  as  shall,  when  adopted,  give 
security  against  the  corruption  and  the  danger  which  is  in- 


—  495  — 

separable  from  the  selfish  use  of  the  vast  appointing-  power 
in  the  hands  of  any  President  desirous  of  a  re-election. 

Before  the  rebellion  such  Representatives  in  Congfress  as 
I  have  described  were  alwa3'S  sufficiently  numerous  to  pre^ 
vent,  by  uniting-  with  the  opposition,  the  passage  of  any 
important  measure  obnoxious  to  the  President  if  he  exercised 
the  veto  power.  Hence  we  see  that  a  President  of  character 
and  ability  may,  with  the  vast  patronage  at  his  disposal  and 
a  liberal  use  of  the  veto,  defy,  in  ordinary  party  times,  both 
Congress  and  the  nation  for  his  entire  term. 

THE   REMEDY  OF  IMPEACHMENT    BUT    **  A   SCARECROW." 

As  to  the  impeachment  and  removal  of  a  President,  that 
will  probably  never  be  attempted  again.  The  late  melan- 
choly failure  or  refusal  of  the  so-called  high  court  to  convict 
and  depose  an  admitted  usurper  and  violator  of  law,  who 
was  without  a  party  and  powerless  to  resist  any  order  of  that 
tribunal,  has  practically  settled  that  question  for  all  time  to 
come.  The  nation  must  seek  some  other  protection  from  the 
usurpations  of  its  Executives  than  the  high  court  of  impeach- 
ment. Jefferson  said  that  the  clause  of  the  Constitution 
providing  for  the  impeachment  of  the  President  would  prove 
but  *'a  scarecrow."  To-day  we  all  know  that  it  is  a  dead 
letter. 

We  have  all  witnessed  the  resort  which  was  had  by  artful 
men  to  technical  subterfuges  and  legal  sophistries  in  order  to 
release  the  President  from  all  accountability  to  the  nation. 

If  Jefferson  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitu- 
tion could  foresee  and  declare  that  **  impeachment  would  prove 
but  a  SCARECROW,"  we  who  have  witnessed  its  practical  work- 
ings may,  I  think,  without  incurring  the  charge  of  rashness, 
proclaim  it  "  A  national  farce." 

In  the  light  of  what  has  so  recently  transpired  I  am  more 
profoundly  impressed  than  ever  with  the  great  wisdom  and 
prophetic  foresight  of  the  real  statesmen  of  the  Revolution. 
They  comprehended  the  danger  of  executive  power  and  the 
impossibility  of  successful  impeachment  before  the  Senate. 

In  the  Virginia  convention  Mr.  George  Mason,  in  speak- 
ing of  this  defect  in  the  national  Constitution,  said; 


—  496  — 

*'It  has  been  wittily  observed  that  the  Constitution  has 
married  the  President  and  Senate  — has  made  them  man  and 
wife.  I  believe  the  consequence  that  g^enerally  results  from 
marriage  will  happen  here.  They  will  be  continually  sup- 
porting* and  aiding  each  other.  They  will  always  consider 
their  interests  as  united.     Wk  know  th:^  advantage  th:^  few 

HAV£)  OVER  THE  MANY.  ThEY  CAN  WITH  FACILITY  ACT  IN  CON- 
CERT AND  ON  A  UNIFORM  SYSTEM;  THEY  MAY  JOIN  SCHEMES  AND 
PLOT  AGAINST  THE  PEOPLE  WITHOUT  ANY  CHANCE  OF  DETEC- 
TION. The  Senate  and  President  will  form  a  combina- 
tion THAT  cannot  BE  PREVENTED  BY  THE  REPRESENTATIVES. 
The  executive  and  legislative  powers  thus  connected  will 
destroy  all  balances.  This  would  have  been  prevented  by  a 
constitutional  council  to  aid  the  President  m  the  discharge  of 
his  office;  vesting  the  Senate  at  the  same  time  with  the  power 
of  impeaching  them.  Then  we  should  have  real  responsi- 
bility. In  its  present  form  the  guilty  try  themselves. 
The  President  is  tried  by  his  counselors.  He  is  not 
removed  from  office  during  his  trial.  When  he  is  arraigned 
for  treason  he  has  the  command  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  and 
may  surround  the  Senate  with  thirty  thousand  troops."  .  .  . 
**He  may  frequently  pardon  crimes  which  were  advised  by 
himself.  It  may  happen  at  some  future  day  that  he  will 
establish  a  monarchy  or  destroy  the  republic.  If  he 
has  the  power  of  granting  pardons  before  indictment 

AND  conviction,  MAY  HE  NOT  STOP  INQUIRY  AND  PREVENT 
DETECTION?" 

Mr.  Madison  answered  Mr.  Mason  as  follows: 

*'  There  is  one  security  in  this  case  to  which  gentlemen 
may  not  have  adverted.  If  the  President  be  connected  in 
any  suspicious  manner  with  any  persons,  and  there  be  grounds 
to  believe  he  will  shelter  himself,  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives  can  impeach   him.     They  can  remove  him  if  found 

guilty;  THEY  CAN  suspend  HIM  WHEN  SUSPECTED,  AND  THE 
POWER  WILL  DEVOLVE  UPON  THE  ViCE-PrESIDENT.  ShOULD 
HE  BE  SUSPECTED  ALSO,  HE  MAY  LIKEWISE  BE  SUSPENDED  TILL 
HE  BE  IMPEACHED  AND  REMOVED,  AND  THE  LEGISLATURE  MAY 
MAKE     A    TEMPORARY    APPOINTMENT.      ThIS   IS    A    GREAT   SE- 


I  do  not  forget  that  Mr.  Madison,  after  becoming  Presi- 
dent, yielded  to  influences  which  have  controlled  other  men 
after  obtaining  power,  and  that  he  denied  the  authority  of 
Congress  to  suspend  the  President  during  trial.  I  prefer  the 
opinion  of  Madison  when  speaking  in  the  Virginia  conven- 
tion, to  the  opinion  of  Madison  after  he  became  President. 


—  497  — 

Mr.  Monroe,  who  afterwards  became  President,  declared  that 
the  power  conceded  to  the  Executive  under  the  Constitution 
was  dangerous  to  the  liberties  of  the  people.     He  said: 

**The  President  oug-ht  to  act  under  the  strong-est  im- 
pulses of  reward  and  punishment,  which  are  the  strongest 
incentives  to  human  action.  There  are  two  ways  of  secur- 
ing- this  point.  Hs  ought  to  depend  on  the  peopi^e  op 
America  for  his  appointment  and  continuance  in  office. 
He  oug-ht  to  be  tried  by  dispassionate  judges.     His  respon- 

SIBII.ITY  ought,  further,  TO  BE  DIRECT  AND  IMMEDIATE.'* 
.    .    .       **To  WHOM  IS  HE  RESPONSIBLE?      To  THE  SENATE,  HIS 

OWN  COUNCIL.  If  he  makes  a  treaty  bartering-  the  interests 
of  his  country,  by  whom  is  he  to  be  tried?  By  the  very  per- 
sons who  advised  him  to  perpetrate  the  act.     Is  this  any 

SECURITY?" 

Mr.  Grayson,  another  disting-uished  member  of  the  same 
convention,  during-  the  debates  from  which  I  have  just 
quoted,  said: 

**  Consider  the  means  of  importance  he  (the  President) 
will  have  by  appointing-  officers.  If  he  has  a  g-ood  under- 
standing* with  the  Senate  they  will  join  to  prevent  a  dis- 
covery of  his  misdeeds."  .  .  .     "As  this  Government  is 

ORGANIZED  IT  WOULD  BE  DANGEROUS  TO  TRUST  THE  PRESIDENT 

WITH  SUCH  POWERS.  How  will  you  punish  him  if  he  abuse  his 
power?  Will  you  call  him  before  the  Senate?  They  are  his 
counselors  and  partners  in  crimes.  "Where  are  your  checks? 
We  oug-ht  to  be  extremely  cautious  in  this  country.  If  ever 
THE  Government  be  changed  it  will  probably  be  into  a 

DESPOTISM." 

Has  not  our  recent  experience  justified  all  that  was  said 
by  the  considerate  statesmen  from  whom  I  have  quoted,  of 
the  dang-er  of  executive  power  and  the  impossibility  of  redress 
by  impeachment  and  trial  before  the  Senate.  These  brief 
speeches  are  so  conclusive,  when  coupled  with  events  which 
have  just  transpired,  that  I  do  not  hesitate  to  declare  the 
remedy  by  impeachment  for  executive  crimes  and  misde- 
meanors **  A  NATIONAL  FARCE."  From  all  that  has  transpired 
am  I  not  justified  in  so  proclaiming-?    What  are  the  facts? 

The  great  criminal  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  broug-ht 
to  the  bar  of  the  nation's  appointed  court,  and  the  issue 
proved  too  much  for  the  weakness  of  human  nature.  The 
32 


-_498  — 

executive  power  asserts  its  defiance  of  laws  and  Constitution 
and  its  supremacy  over  both,  and  the  people  are  powerless  in 
the  presence  of  the  usurper.  Weeks  ago  he  is  said  to  have 
communicated  the  forthcoming*  decision  of  the  Senate  and 
named  the  very  members  thereof  who  were  to  vote  for  his 
acquittal.  The  people  with  one  accord  had  pronounced  him 
guilty,  but  the  high  court  enter  up  a  verdict  of  acquittal. 
All  this  is  done  under  the  sanction  of  a  judicial  oath,  and 
the  people  are  told  that  they  must  not  go  behind  that  to 
question  the  judicial  verdict  of  Senators.  In  answer  to  this 
I  need  only  reply  that  the  vilest  enormities  ever  inflicted  on 
mankind  of  which  we  have  any  record  in  history  were  com- 
mitted under  the  sanction  and  solemnities  of  a  judicial  oath. 

If  public  rumor  be  true,  the  verdict  acquitting  the  Presi- 
dent was  not  rendered  because  of  law  or  evidence,  but  was 
the  result  of  a  secret,  deliberate  and  carefully  organized  com- 
bination, brought  about  by  personal  hatreds,  individual  am- 
bitions, presidential  electioneering  schemes  in  the  interest  of 
of&ce-holding  and  office-seeking  cliques;  and  alas!  all  fear  by 
a  more  monstrous  prostitution  of  the  great  trust  committed 
to  each  individual  member  of  the  court  which  shall  be  name- 
less here. 

If  such  combinations,  with  the  means  which  are  said  to 
have  been  employed,  may  auccessfully  prevent  the  removal  of 
a  dangerous  and  guilty  ;  resident,  by  the  great  tribunal  pro- 
vided by  our  fathers  for  the  protection  and  security  of  the 
republic,  we  may  look  for  th'"  early  inauguration  of  a  policy 
which  will  speedily  bring  into  entire  subordination  the  legis- 
lative to  the  executive  department  of  the  Government. 

From  the  judgment  of  this  high  tribunal,  made  under 
the  solemn  obligations  of  a  judicial  oath,  we  intend  to  ap- 
peal to  a  higher  and  safer  tribunal,  the  great  tribunal  of  the 
people,  who,  though  not  acting  under  the  sanction  of  official 
or  judicial  oaths,  will  render  a  verdict  quite  as  honestly  and 
quite  as  free  from  partisan  hatred  —  a  verdict  which  shall,  at 
all  events,  be  free  from  the  taint  of  dishonor  and  corruption. 

To  me  the  only  hope  of  the  nation  is  in  that  power 
which  can  make  Presidents  and  Senators.  To  that  incorrup- 
tible power  we  shall  appeal  from  a  verdict  which  is  utterly 
indefensible  and  a  mockery  of  justice. 


—  499  — 

To  the  people  we  also  intend  to  appeal  for  an  amend- 
ment to  their  org-anic  law  which  shall  abolish  the  Vice-Pres* 
idential  office  and  provide  ag-ainst  the  re-election  of  any  man 
to  the  Presidency,  as  a  means  of  obtaining:  additional  security 
ag'ainst  the  encroachments  of  the  executive  power.  Pass 
this  amendment ;  secure  a  fair  representation  to  the  minority; 
provide  for  a  modification  of  the  veto  power  by  authorizing; 
the  President  to  return  a  bill  with  his  objections,  but  provide 
that  on  a  reconsideration  a  majority  of  the  members  elected 
and  qualified  in  the  Senate  and  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives shall  be  required  to  enact  the  bill  into  law  over  the  veto, 
instead  of  two-thirds  of  a  quorum,  as  now,  and  the  people 
will  have  all  the  security  necessary  to  protect  them  ag-ainst 
hasty,  partisan  or  unconstitutional  leg-islation.  Add  to  this 
a  civil  tenure-of-office  act  which  shall  take  away  from  Senators 
and  Representatives  the  authority  which  custom  has  secured 
to  those  representing-  the  administration  party  of  desig-nating* 
persons  for  appointment  and  lodg-e  it  with  a  board  of  exam- 
iners, as  free  to  act  as  the  examining-  board  at  West  Point, 
which  board  shall  examine  all  applicants  for  appointment 
and  for  promotion,  and  before  whom  all  shall  have  a  fair 
hearing-,  with  a  copy  of  the  charg-es  and  specifications  prior 
to  their  dismissal  from  office  ;  and  we  will  do  somethings 
toward  remedying-  the  present  unjust  and  indefensible  system 
of  appointing-  persons  to  office  in  our  civil  service.  Provide 
with  this  a  modification  of  the  pardoning-  power,  which 
oug-ht  never  to  be  lodg-ed  in  the  hands  of  any  one  man,  and  a 
provision  authorizing-  the  House  of  Representatives,  by  a 
two- thirds  vote,  to  demand  a  chang-e  of  any  member  of  the 
Cabinet,  and  the  people  will  retain  in  their  hands  such  con- 
trol of  their  public  servants  as  will  be  a  g-uarantee  of  their 
fidelity  and  faithfulness.  In  this  way  the  dang-erotis  assump- 
tions of  the  Executive  can  be  successfully  provided  ag-ainst 
and  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  people  preserved.  If  some 
such  provision  as  I  have  sug-g-ested  is  not  adopted,  then  the 
declaration  made  by  Franklin  in  the  convention  which 
framed  the  Constitution,  that  — 

**  The  executive  power  will  be  always  increasing*  here  as 
elsewhere  till  it  ends  in  monarchy," 


—  500  — 

will,  I  fear,  some  day  not  far  distant  become  a  prophecy  ful- 
filled. 


PRESIDENTIAL  CANDIDATHS  NOT  SELECTED  BY  CONVENTIONS  BE- 
CAUSE OF  FITNESS,  CHARACTER,  OR  ABILITY. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  considerations  which  so  often  prevail 
in  the  nomination  of  Representatives  to  Cong-ress  in  closely- 
contested  districts  have  too  often  prevailed  with  both  parties 
in  the  nomination  of  their  presidential  candidates.  The 
question  asked  by  the  leaders  and  active  men  in  each  party  is 
not,  as  it  should  be,  *'  Who  of  all  the  public  men  of  my  party 
is  the  best  qualified,  because  of  executive  ability,  character, 
culture  and  fidelity  to  principles,  to  discharg-e  the  duties  of 
the  presidential  of&ce  with  credit  to  himself  and  honor  to  the 
nation  both  at  home  and  abroad;  who  has  the  most  honor- 
able record,  the  most  blameless  public  and  private  life  with 
which  to  adorn  and  dignify  the  most  exalted  and  honorable 
political  office  on  earth?"  But  the  question  asked  is,  *  *  Where 
can  we  find  a  candidate  without  a  public  record,  a  man  of 
whom  our  opponents  can  say  nothing-,  and  of  whom  we  may 
say  what  we  please,  to  satisfy  the  interests  or  prejudices  of 
any  locality  without  fear  of  contradiction;  a  man  who  will  the 
most  certainly  secure  the  electoral  vote  of  this  or  that  State 
which  political  prophets  declare  to  be  doubtful;  States  which 
are  conceded  to  hold  the  balance  of  power  in  the  presidential 
contest?"     These  are  the  questions  asked. 

It  could  not  well  be  otherwise  under  such  a  political  sys- 
tem than  that  untried,  unfaithful  and  incompetent  men,  com- 
paratively unknown  to  the  g-reat  body  of  people,  should  so 
often  have  reached  the  presidential  office.  I  need  not  cite 
more  than  one  instance  in  our  history  to  show  how  success- 
fully the  honest  voters  of  a  great  State  have  been  defrauded 
and  betrayed  by  the  nomination  of  such  men  as  I  have  de- 
scribed. 

In  1844  the  people  of  Pennsylvania  were  induced  to  vote 
for  James  K.  Polk  and  ag-ainst  Henry  Clay,  because  the  Dem- 
ocratic leaders  in  that  State  adopted  and  carried  upon  all 
their  banners  the  rallying-  watchwords,  *'Polk,  Dallas  and 
the  tariff  of  '42,"  watchwords  which  would  have  defeated 


them  if  placed  upon  their  banners  in  the  South  or  West. 
After  the  election  the  people  whose  votes  had  thus  been  ob- 
tained were  openly  and  unblushingly  betrayed  by  the  repeal 
of  the  tariff  of  1842,  which  act  received  the  casting-  vote  of 
Vice-President  Dallas,  of  Pennsylvania,  and  secured  the  ap- 
proval of  President  Polk. 

The  people  who  have  been  so  often  betrayed  begin  to 
recog-nize  the  fact  that  treachery  in  politics  has  become  a 
trade,  and  that  so  long"  as  the  convention  and  electoral  sys- 
tem prevails  they  are  powerless  in  the  hands  of  its  manag-ers. 

They  know  that,  as  a  rule,  so  long  as  the  people  submit 
to  this  system,  no  man  will  be  nominated  by  either  party  for 
the  Presidency  who  is  their  first  choice,  or  for  whom  a  major- 
ity of  the  electors  of  either  party  would  voluntarily  vote  for 
nomination  at  the  ballot-box,  if  they  could  do  so  under  the 
protection  of  law. 

Adopt  the  system  which  I  propose  and  no  third  or  fourth- 
rate  man  would  probably  ever  be  nominated  for  President, 
certainly  no  man  could  by  any  possibility  be  nominated 
whose  political  opinions  were  unknown  and  with  whose  polit- 
ical record  the  people  were  not  familiar.  The  Republican 
party  with  such  a  system  would  never  have  been  guilty  of  the 
folly  of  nominating  Andrew  Johnson  —  nor  would  the  voters 
in  the  Democratic  party  entertain  for  a  moment  the  proposi- 
tion to  nominate  the  Chief  Justice  as  their  candidate.  Yet 
Johnson  was  nominated  by  a  Republican  convention  and 
some  of  the  Democratic  managers  profess  to  favor  the  nom- 
ination of  Mr.  Chase  in  their  convention. 

All  know  that  Johnson  was  the  choice  of  a  few  tricksters 
in  the  Baltimore  convention,  and  not  the  choice  of  the  Re- 
publican party.  Mr.  Chase  would  not  be  the  first  choice  of 
one  Democrat  in  a  thousand,  yet  men  are  plotting  for  his 
nomination  in  the  Democratic  convention,  knowing  that  if  he 
can  be  nominated  the  despotism  of  king  caucus  would  compel 
the  party  to  yield  him  its  support. 

In  order  to  obtain  a  sufficient  number  of  votes  to  be  in- 
cluded in  the  list  of  the  five  highest  or  the  three  highest 
voted  for  at  the  first  election,  it  would  be  necessary,  under 
the  plan  which  I  propose,  to  present  to  the  voters  of  both 
parties  or  all  parties,  men  of  well-known  character,  ability 


—  502  — 

and  political  integritj.  Ko  faction  or  minority  in  any  party 
could  then  form  combinations  and  secure  nominations  by 
fraud,  nor  could  they  defeat,  as  now,  the  nomination  of  any 
man  who  was  the  choice  of  the  majority ;  schemers  could 
not  hold  the  "balance  of  power"  in  any  State,  and  compel 
the  nomination  of  their  candidate  on  pain  of  defeat  at  the 
election.  The  voice  of  each  party  in  the  nation  would  speak 
and  be  'heard  as  a  unit,  and  there  would  be  no  desperate 
efforts  made,  as  now,  by  either  party  to  secure  a  bare  major- 
ity in  large  States  by  fraud  and  corruption,  in  order  to  secure 
their  electoral  vote. 

This  proposition  is  so  just  that  I  hope  it  will  commend 
itself  to  the  Congress  of  the  nation,  as  I  am  confident  it  will 
to  the  great  body  of  the  American  people.  Its  adopcion 
will  secure  to  the  voters  of  the  nation  a  system,  plain,  simple, 
natural — a  system  free  from  complications  and  from  the  con- 
trol of  minorities  —  one  which  permits  no  body  of  men  or 
party  machinery  to  interpose  between  the  people  and  the 
ballot-box. 

ClTlZi^NSHIP  SUFFRAGE 

Mr.  Chairman,  if  we  adopt  the  proposition  for  the  elec- 
tion of  the  President  by  a  direct  vote  of  the  people,  the  neces- 
sity of  securing  the  privileges  of  the  ballot  to  every  citizen 
without  distinction  of  race  or  color,  whether  native  or  foreign 
born,  will  be  conceded  by  all  who  desire  the  unity  and  stabil- 
ity of  our  Government. 

While  I  hold  that  Congress  has  the  power,  under  the 
Constitution  as  it  is,  to  clothe  every  citizen  with  the  privilege 
of  the  ballot,  I  am  confident  it  will  never  be.  secured  to  them 
except  by  an  amendment  to  the  national  Constitution. 

I  am  ready  now,  as  I  have  been  for  years,  to  vote  for  an 
act  of  Congress  securing  the  great  privilege  of  the  ballot  to  all 
citizens  without  regard  to  race  or  color  in  every  State  and 
Territory  of  the  Republic. 

I  cannot,  however,  shut  my  eyes  to  the  fact  that  such  an 
act  of  Congress  passed  so  soon  after  the  rejection  by  a  num- 
ber of  States  of  amendments  to  their  constitutions  proposing^ 
to  confer  suffrage  on  colored  citizens,  would  meet  with  such 


—  503-^ 

determined  and  united  opposition  from  the  so-called  Demo- 
cratic party  and  from  some  professed  Republicans,  that  in 
many  localities  it  would  end  in  violence  and  resistance  to  the 
execution  of  the  law. 

I  need  not  add  that  this  resistance  and  violence  would  be 
inaug-urated  by  the  very  class  who  to-day  would  demand  the 
prompt  and  merciless  execution  of  the  infamous  and  brutal 
fugitive-slave  act,  if  slavery  were  not  abolished 

In  the  name  of  democracy  and  Christianity  the  enslave- 
ment of  men  has  been  sanctioned,  and  the  most  God-defying* 
laws  executed  with  the  basest  alacrity;  while  those  euctct- 
ments  which  ennoble  and  dig-nify  the  human  race  and  recog-- 
nize  the  rig-hts  and  privileg-es  of  men  are  condemned  and  re- 
sisted by  its  professed  disciples. 

I  want  citizenship  and  suffrage  to  be  synonymous.  To 
put  the  question  beyond  the  power  of  States  to  withhold  it,  I 
propose  the  amendment  to  article  fourteen,  now  submitted. 

A  large  number  of  Republicans  who  concede  that  the 
qualifications  of  an  elector  ought  to  be  the  same  in  every 
State,  and  that  it  is  more  properly  a  national  than  a  State 
question,  do  not  believe  Congress  has  the  power  under  our 
present  Constitution  to  enact  a  law  conferring  suffrage  in  the 
States,  nevertheless  they  are  ready  and  willing  to  vote  for 
such  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  as  shall  make  citizen- 
ship and  suffrage  uniform  throughout  the  nation. 

For  this  purpose  I  have  added  to  the  proposed  amendment 
for  the  election  of  President  a  section  on  suffrage,  to  which  I 
invite  special  attention. 

This  is  the  third  or  fourth  time  I  have  brought  forward 
a  proposition  on  suffrage  substantially  like  the  one  just  pre- 
sented to  the  House.  I  do  so  again  because  I  believe  the 
question  of  citizenship  suffrage  a  question  which  ought  to 
be  met  and  settled  now.  Important  and  all-absorbing  as 
many  questions  are  which  now  press  themselves  upon  our 
consideration,  to  me  no  question  is  so  vitally  important  as 
this.  Tariffs,  taxation  and  finance  ought  not  to  be  permitted 
to  supersede  a  question  affecting  the  peace  and  personal 
security  of  every  citizen,  and,  I  may  add,  the  peace  and 
security  of  the  nation. 


—  504  — 

No  party  can  be  justified  in  withholding-  the  ballot  from 
any  citizen  of  mature  years,  native  or  foreign  born,  except 
such  as  are  non  compos  or  aregfuilty  of  infamous  crimes;  nor 
can  they  justly  confer  this  great  privilege  upon  one  class 
of  citizens  to  the  exclusion  of  another  class  simply  because 
one  is  white  and  the  other  black. 

True  democracy  pleads  for  the  equal  rights  of  all  men 
before  the  law.  It  demands  the  ballot  for  every  man,  because^ 
under  a  government  such  as  ours,  the  ballot  is  the  poor  man's 
weapon  of  protection  and  defense.  It  gives  liim  dignity  and 
power;  it  recognizes  his  manhood  and  secures  him  justice;  it 
makes  the  government  his  agent  instead  of  his  master.  We 
all  know  from  experience  something  of  the  educational  in- 
fluence and  self-protecting  power  of  the  ballot. 

It  quickens  and  expands  the  thoughts  of  men  and  enables 
them  the  better  to  comprehend  their  own  interests  and  the 
higher  and  more  important  interests  of  the  State.  To  secure 
this  self -educating,  self-protecting  power  to  all,  I  again  press 
upon  your  consideration  this  amendment.  Its  adoption  will 
make  the  national  Constitution  what  it  ought  to  be,  the 
shield  of  every  citizen,  so  that  no  State  may  ever  again 
deprive  him,  without  just  cause,  of  this  highest  privilege  of 
American  citizenship;  so  that  hereafter,  if  a  citizen  remove 
from  one  State  into  another,  he  shall  not  on  that  account  be 
deprived  by  State  law  of  the  ballot  and  be  treated  in  his  own 
country  as  an  alien. 

Pass  this  amendment,  and  we  shall  conform  our  national 
Constitution  to  our  new  condition  as  a  nation.  We  will  there- 
by place  in  the  hands  of  each  citizen  a  new  power  for  its 
preservation,  so  that  we  shall  become,  in  fact,  one  people^ 
living  under  a  common  Constitution,  which  is  the  outgrowth 
of  civilization,  experience,  and  necessity;  a  Constitution 
which  recognizes  justice  as  the  supreme  law  and  reflects  the 
convictions  and  aspirations  of  a  free  and  united  people.  Ta 
this  proposition,  so  long  cherished  and  believed  by  me  to  be 
for  the  best  interests  of  my  country,  I  invoke  the  considerate 
judgment  of  all  men  and  an  impartial  verdict  at  the  bar  of 
public  opinion. 


HON.  JAMBS  M.  ASHLEY  UNANIMOUSLY  KE-NOMI- 
NATED  FOR  CONGRESS 


BY     THE     REPUBLICAN     CONGRESSIONAL    CONVENTION    OP    THE 
TENTH  DISTRICT. 


At  Napoleon,  August  19,  1868. 


The  Republican  Congressional  Convention  for  the  Tenth 
District  met,  pursuant  to  call,  at  Napoleon  on  the  19th  inst., 
and  organized  by  electing"  Hon.  E.  S.  Blakeslee  of  "Williams 
County,  President,  and  F.  C.  Cully,  of  Wood  County,  Secre- 
tary.    Hon.  J.  M.  Ashley  was  nominated  by  acclamation. 

The  Committee  on  Platform  presented  their  report,  which 
was  unanimously  adopted.  Among*  the  resolutions  were  the 
following-: 

Resolved,  That  in  the  Hon.  J.  M.  Ashley,  the  10th 
Cong^ressional  District  has  a  true,  worthy  and  able  Represen- 
tative, and  we  do  hereby  most  cordially  endorse  his  political 
action  as  in  harmony  with  true  Republican  principles. 

Resolved,  That  we  cordially  n approve  and  recommend 
the  adoption  of  the  constitutional  amendment  introduced  into 
Congress,  on  the  29th  of  May  last,  by  our  Representative, 
Hon.  J.  M.  Ashley,  so  far  as  it  proposes  the  election  of  a 
President  by  a  direct  vote  of  the  people.  That  we  also  en- 
dorse his  proposition  to  make  citizenship  and  suffrage  uni- 
form through  all  the  States  and  Territories  of  the  republic. 

The  Committee  appointed  to  notify  Mr.  Ashley  of  his 
nomination,  returned  and  reported  Mr.  Ashley  present  to 
speak  for  himself.  Mr.  Ashley  was  received  with  enthusias- 
tic applause,  and  addressed  the  convention  as  follows: 

(505) 


—  506  — 

Mr.  President  and  Genti,emen  of  the  Convention: 

With  all  my  heart  I  thank  you  for  this  generous  and  cor- 
dial welcome. 

I  have  no  words  at  command  with  which  to  clothe  the 
thoughts  struggling  in  my  heart  for  utterance.  I  would  that 
I  had  command  of  language,  that  I  might  appropriately  ex- 
press to  you  the  emotions  that  well  up  from  my  heart  to  my 
lips,  so  that  you  might  realize  how  deeply  and  sensibly  I  feel 
the  value  of  your  unwavering  support.  As  in  the  past  it 
lias  strengthened  me  in  the  discharge  of  every  public  duty 
and  in  all  our  political  struggles,  so  in  the  future  it  will 
nerve  my  arm  in  the  battle  for  the  right. 

I  appear  before  you  in  obedience  to  your  summons,  to 
accept  the  nomination  which  you  have  just  tendered  me  with 
such  unanimity  and  enthusiasm. 

I  take  with  pride  the  position  which  you  have  assigned 
tne,  and  beg  you  and  the  noble  constituency  whom  you  have 
the  honor  to  represent,  to  accept  my  grateful  acknowledg- 
ments for  these  repeated  and  distinguished  marks  of  their 
respect,  esteem,  and  confidence. 

We  are  about  to  enter  upon  a  campaign  in  the  Tenth 

District,  the  importance  of  which  must  not  be  underestimated. 

I  shall  need  and  hope  to  have  your  hearty  co-operation, 

as  well  as  that  of  every  Republican  and  every  friend  of  the 

workingman  in  the  District. 

Our  labor  is  not  for  the  mere  triumph  of  party,  or  the 
election  of  individual  men,  but  for  the  triumph  of  great 
principles,  upon  the  success  of  which  we  believe  the  future 
peace  and  welfare  of  the  the  nation  depends.  These  princi- 
ples are  authoritatively  announced  for  us  in  the  national 
Republican  platform  which  you  have  endorsed.  I  subscribe 
to  them,  most  heartily,  so  far  as  they  go,  and  only  wish  they 
were  clearer  and  stronger  in  favor  of  impartial  suffrage. 

Conflicting  political  opinions,  which  are  fundamental, 
are  sooner  or  later  crystallized  into  political  creeds  and  at- 
tract to  their  support  all  who  honestly  subscribe  to  them. 
Hence  we  have  conflicting  political  organizations.  In  a  free 
government,  such  as  ours,  they  are  a  necessity.  A  republi- 
can government  could  not  long  exist  without  them.     All  will 


—  507  — 

agree  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  citizen  to  support  with  its 
influence  and  his  ballot,  the  party  which  best  represents  his 
political  convictions. 

Which  of  the  two  g-reat  parties  now  appealing-  to  you  for 
your  support  best  represents  your  views  of  local  and  national 
policy?  Which  by  its  acts  and  its  history  is  the  best  entitled 
to  your  confidence  and  gratitude?  As  you  do  not  judg-e  men 
by  their  professions  and  promises,  but  by  their  acts  and  the 
company  which  they  keep,  so  if  you  are  honest  with  your- 
selves and  just  to  your  country,  you  will  not  judg-e  parties  by 
their  promises  and  professions,  but  rather  by  their  acts  and 
the  company  which  they  keep. 

[Here  the  audience  was  so  great  as  to  fill  the  court-house 
to  suffocation,  whereupon  an  adjournment  was  had  to  the 
open  air,  where,  to  an  immense  crowd,  Mr.  Ashley  continued 
as  follows:] 

Let  me  ask  what  acts  the  party  calling-  itself  Democratic, 
has  done  for  the  past  quarter  of  a  century,  whether  in  power 
or  out  of  power,  which  entitle  it  to  your  g-ratitude  and  sup- 
port? What  promise  has  it  made  which  it  has  not  broken? 
What  prediction  has  it  made,  which  has  not  been  falsified? 
What  company  has  it  been  keeping-  which  entitles  it  to  your 
love  and  confidence  and  to  the  confidence  and  love  of  the 
Union  soldier? 

From  the  election  of  Van  Buren  in  1836  to  the  election  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  in  1860,  with  the  exception  of  one  month,  this 
party  has  had  absolute  control  of  the  National  Government 
and  of  nearly  all  the  State  g-overnments.  Its  name  was  at- 
tractive; its  professions  hig-h-sounding-;  its  promises  alluring-. 

In  the  name  of  democracy  it  assumed  unwarranted  power. 
It  declared  against  g-ranting-  special  privileg-es  to  the  few  at 
the  expense  of  the  many,  while  it  fostered  and  aided  in 
huilding-  up  an  aristocracy  the  most  despotic  and  offensive  ever 
known  among*  men:  an  aristocracy  of  slave  barons.  While 
professing"  to  defend  the  liberties  and  the  rig-hts  of  mankind, 
it  enslaved  millions  of  men  without  scruple  and  sold  them 
without  remorse,  like  beasts  in  the  shambles.  When  the  free 
labor  of  the  country  saw  and  felt  the  degrading-  competition 
of  slave  labor  with  their  own,  and  demanded  that  it  should 
not  be  permitted  to  go  into  Territories  then  free,  this  party 


—  508— 

"became  the  ally  of  the  monopolists  who  claimed  to  own  the 
laborer,  and  at  the  bidding*  of  these  slave  barons,  aided  in 
deg-rading-  free  labor  by  maintaining-  that  this  olig"archy  of 
slave  barons  had  a  right  to  take  their  slaves  into  any  free 
Territory  of  the  nation  in  defiance  of  the  people.  While  pro- 
fessing- a  love  for  the  Union  superior  to  all  other  parties,  it 
announced  doctrines  which,  if  practically  applied,  could  only 
result  in  the  destruction  of  the  Union.  While  charging-  all 
anti-slavery  men  with  being  disunionists,  they  openly  support 
the  most  notorious  disunionists  for  the  most  responsible  offices. 
To  every  exacting  demand  of  these  slave  barons  it  compelled 
the  nation  to  yield  a  degrading  obedience.  With  alacrity  it 
voted  aye  whenever  they  demanded  more  terrritory  for  the 
extension  of  slavery.  To  their  demand  for  a  fugitive-slave 
law,  the  most  infamous  known  in  all  history,  it  willingly 
consented.  To  their  demand  that  the  free  territories  of  Kan- 
sas and  Nebraska,  which  by  solemn  covenant  had  been  dedi- 
cated to  free  labor,  should  be  opened  up  to  slavery,  it  abjectly 
said  amen.  And  finally,  when  this  slave  baron  aristocracy 
became  satisfied  that  the  free  labor  of  the  country  would  no 
longer  submit  in  the  name  of  democracy  to  their  imperious 
■demands  and  unconstitutional  usurpations,  they  defiantly 
proclaimed  that  if  the  people  should  elect  a  President  in 
favor  of  free  labor  and  unfriendly  to  this  privileged  class 
and  the  pretensions  of  slavery,  they  would  put  into  practical 
operation  their  doctrine  of  State  rights,  secede  from  the 
Union  and  destroy  the  government. 

Even  this  traitorous  threat  was  approved  and  defended 
by  a  MAJORITY  of  the  Northern  leaders  of  this  party,  includ- 
ing James  Buchanan,  ex-President  Pierce,  Gov.  Seymour, 
Vallandigham,  Pendleton  and  Pugh.  Some  of  these,  men 
joined  the  traitors  in  declaring  that  the  United  States  had 
no  constitutional  power  to  prevent  secession,  and  declared 
menacingly  that  if  the  Union  men  of  the  nation  attempted 
to  march  an  army  into  the  South  to  put  down  rebellion,  or  in 
their  own  language,  **  attempted  to  coerce  a  sovereign 
SISTER  State,  we  woui<d  have  to  march  over  their  dead 
bodies." 

I  heard  this  declaration  more  than  once  from  their 
acknowledged  leaders. 


—  509—. 

This  is  the  record  of  our  opponents  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century  before  the  war,  on  the  question  of  slavery,  the  right 
of  secession  and  the  power  of  the  nation  to  protect  its  own  life 
when  assailed. 

I  hold  that  slavery  is  violative  of  every  democratic  prin- 
ciple, and  that  a  slaveholder  at  heart  could  no  more  be  a 
Democrat,  in  truth,  than  the  prince  of  darkness  could  become 
an  ang-el  of  lig-ht.  I  hold  that  the  maintenance  by  this  par- 
ty of  the  rightfulness  of  slavery  and  their  support  of  the  slave 
barons,  laid  the  foundation  for  our  late  civil  war,  and  that 
their  defense  of  the  doctrines  of  state  rights  and  secession  aided 
and  precipitated  the  rebellion  and  encouraged  and  strengthened 
it  after  the  war  began. 

Indeed,  without  this  aid  and  co-operation  of  Northern 
pro-slavery  Democrats,  the  rebellion  would  have  been  impos- 
sible, or  if  possible,  must  of  necessity  have  been  of  but  short 
duration. 

During  the  canvass  of  1860,  this  party  openly  declared 
that  if  the  friends  of  free  labor  elected  Mr.  Lincoln,  the  slave 
oligarchy  would  not  submit.  After  his  election  and  before 
his  inauguration,  part  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  Cabinet  and  many 
of  the  recognized  leaders  of  his  party,  conspired  with  the 
slave-holding  traitors  in  an  attempt  to  take  possession  of  the 
National  Capitol  and  inaugurate  their  rebel  government,  and 
thus  prevent  the  inauguration  of  Mr.  Lincoln  at  Washington. 
Their  conspiracies,  fortunately,  failed,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
inaugurated.  The  government,  however,  was  almost  in 
ruins,  as  they  intended  it  should  be,  before  Mr.  Lincoln  could 
assume  power  and  protect  it.  They  had  armed  the  South  and 
disarmed  the  North.  They  had  deliberately  destroyed  the 
national  credit  —  bankrupted  the  treasury,  and  laid  the 
foundation  for  foreign  intervention. 

Seven  States  had  seceded  and  formed  a  National  Confed- 
erate Government,  with  the  co-operation,  or  at  least  without 
the  protest,  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  administration.  This  Confed- 
erate Government  had  organized  armies,  which,  under  the 
command  of  its  authorized  leaders,  was  marching  upon  the 
Capitol  of  the  Republic.  You  cannot  have  forgotten  that  all 
this  occurred  before  Mr.  Lincoln  was  inaugurated  on  the  4th 
of  March,  1861.     After  this,  many  of  the  Northern  leaders  of 


—  510  — 

this  party,  both  in  and  out  of  Congress,  joined  in  the  support 
of  Buchanan's  declaration  that  **  if  there  was  no  constitutional 
right  for  secession,  there  was  cleari^y  no  constitutionai^ 

AUTHORITY  TO  PREVENT  SECESSION  BY  FORCE.'' 

They  proclaimed  every  measure  adopted  by  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  the  loyal  Congress  to  put  down  the  rebellion  '*  danger- 
ous USURPATIONS."  They  declared  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  procla- 
mations were  all  void,  and  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  a 
violation  of  **  vested  rights."  Indeed,  during  the  entire 
war,  nothing  was  regarded  by  them  as  constitutional  which 
promised  to  crush  the  rebellion.  They  prophesied  national 
bankruptcy,  and  everywhere  published  that  the  national  debt 
would  never  be  paid.  They  declared  the  war  a  failure,  and 
did  all  they  could  to  make  it  a  failure,  by  discouraging  enlist- 
ments, and  encouraging  desertions  ;  by  conspiring  to  resist 
the  government  and  aid  the  rebellion  by  a  counter  Northern 
insurrection.  They  were  even  guilty  of  the  humiliating  in- 
famy of  asking  Lord  Lyons,  the  British  Minister,  to  co-oper- 
ate with  them  in  securing  the  intervention  of  the  five  great 
powers  of  Europe  in  favor  of  the  rebel  cause.  Thanks  to  the 
heroism,  endurance  and  fidelity  of  the  Union  soldiers  and  the 
great  party  to  which  you  and  I  belong,  the  conspiracies  of 
these  men  all  failed;  their  prophecies  all  proved  false,  and 
the  mightiest  rebellion  the  world  ever  saw  was  crushed;  the 
constitutional  authority  of  the  nation  maintained  over  every 
foot  of  the  national  territory  without  compromise  and  without 
dishonor,  and  but  for  the  conduct  of  this  party  for  three 
years,  and  their  co-operation  with  Andrew  Johnson,  every 
Southern  State  would  ere  this  have  been  restored  to  its 
"practical  relations  in  the  Union,"  and  the  nation 
placed  beyond  the  danger  of  another  rebellion.  After  the  re- 
bellion was  crushed  and  the  rebel  armies  disbanded,  these 
men  who  before  the  war  were  the  political  disciples  of  the 
rebel  chiefs,  and  their  open  and  secret  allies  during  the  war, 
now  unblushingly  apologized  for  and  defended  the  **lost 
CAUSE,"  declaring  that  the  rebels  had  committed  no  crime, 
and  had  lost  none  of  their  rights  by  secession  and  rebellion, 
but  were  entitled  without  conditions,  and  on  their  own  mo- 
tion, to  return  to  the  national  Congress,  with  all  the  rights, 
privileges  and  dignities  of  loyal  citizens  and  loyal  States. 


—  511  — 

This  wonderful  party  could  never  have  survived  its  great 
crimes  and  violated  pledges,  its  betrayal  of  freedom,  and  its 
hostility  to  free  labor,  but  for  its  attractive  and  alluring^ 
name. 

It  has  opposed  every  reform  in  the  interest  of  liberty  and 
free  labor  for  the  past  quarter  of  a  century.  It  opposed  the  con- 
stitutional amendment  abolishing-  slavery  throughout  the  re- 
public, and  sought  to  defeat  the  ratification  of  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment,  recently  adopted,  which  amendment  secured  the 
equal  rights  of  all  citizens  before  the  law  and  the  equal  pro- 
tection of  the  law  to  every  stranger  within  our  gates.  It 
opposed  the  restoration  of  the  rebel  States  to  the  Union  on 
the  basis  of  justice,  and  became  the  ally  of  our  apostate 
President,  and  with  the  aid  of  seven  wise  and  incorruptible 
judicial  Republican  Senators,  saved  him  from  the  conviction 
due  for  his  indefensible  crimes. 

At  last  it  openly  joined  hands  in  its  great  wigwam  in 
New  York  with  a  majority  of  the  late  rebel  leaders,  and  has 
presented  for  your  suffrage  Seymour  and  Blair,  on  a  platform 
hostile  to  peace  and  constitutional  government. 

In  all  their  leaders  said  and  did  in  that  convention,  you 
will  find  no  sentiment  in  favor  of  universal  liberty,  or  im- 
partial suffrage — nor  in  platform  or  speech  will  you  find  a 
word  or  line  in  condemnation  of  the  rebellion  and  its  horrible 
crimes;  but  everywhere  outspoken  sympathy  with  the  rebel 
leaders  and  their  agents,  and  outspoken  hatred  of  the 
nation's  deliverer  and  peerless  chieftain,  General  Grant. 

This  is  in  brief,  a  summary  of  the  record,  the  prophesies 
and  the  promises  which  the  leaders  of  the  so-called  Demo- 
cratic party,  who  are  now  asking  for  your  votes,  have  made 
and  the  company  they  have  kept  and  are  now  keeping. 

If  any  man  approves  and  endorses  all  this,  and  much 
more  than  I  have  time  to  enumerate,  let  him  vote  for  Seymour 
and  Blair,  and  the  nominees  of  that  party.  If  he  does  not, 
let  him  vote  for  Grant  and  Colfax,  and  to  maintain  the  9jea,t 
party  that  saved  the  nation's  life,  secured  the  triumph  of 
free  labor,  and  the  liberty  of  millions. 

Let  me  now  ask  you  to  look  for  a  few  moments  at  the 
record  of  the  Republican  party;  a  record  so  grand  and  noble 
that  no  poor  words  of  mine  can  present  it,  as  it  is  indelibiv 


—  512  — 

impressed  upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of  all  who  love  liberty 
and  justice. 

Its  principles  came  down  to  earth  more  than  eighteen 
hundred  years  ago.  Our  fathers,  when  they  established  this 
g-overnment,  recognized  and  embodied  its  great  principles  in 
our  matchless  Constitution.  Prosperity  came,  and  slavery, 
which  our  fathers  supposed  would  be  powerless  under  the 
new  government,  soon  overshadowed  and  controlled  it,  and 
for  many  years,  in  the  name  of  democracy,  made  the  love  of 
liberty  a  crime. 

For  nearly  forty  years  a  few  of  the  grandest  men  in  the 
world's  history,  went  forth  like  one  of  old  crying  in  the 
wilderness,  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  national  jubilee  of  our 
redemption.  Without  official  position,  without  money,  with- 
out power,  they  went  forth  proclaiming  the  gospel  of  liberty 
for  all,  and  because  each  *'  camk  neither  eating  nor  drink- 
ing" in  the  Democratic  wigwam,  they  said,  *'he  hath  a 
DEViiv,"  and  being  unable  to  listen  and  withstand  such  dan- 
gerous heresies,  they  forthwith  stoned  and  mobbed,  and  as- 
sailed with  unsavory  eggs  these  prophets  of  the  new  evan- 
gel, who,  in  the  land  of  Washington,  came  pleading  for  the 
liberty  of  the  human  race. 

After  a  long  ml  weary  struggle,  in  which  the  war 
against  slavery  was  waged  with  irresistible  power,  despite 
mob  law  and  mob  violence  and  the  fiendish  spirit  of  hate  and 
prejudice,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  carried  by  its  matchless 
force  into  the  presidential  chair. 

The  slave  barons'  rebellion  was  then  inaugurated  and 
crushed.  The  fundamental  principles  proclaimed  by  the 
Republican  party,  became  the  corner-stone  of  our  national 
Constitution.  Millions  of  men  emancipated  by  Mr.  Lincoln's 
proclamation,  had  their  freedom  guaranteed  and  made  secure 
by  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  prohibiting  slavery 
forever,  and  after  a  long  struggle  they  were  enfranchised  in 
all  the  rebel  States,  so  that  never  again,  on  American  soil, 
shall  a  slave  stand  in  chains  beneath 

**The  starry- gemmed  flag  of  the  free." 

The  Fourteenth  Amendment  was  also  proposed  and  adopted, 
and  to-day  it  is  part  of  our  national  Constitution.     These  two 


—  sis- 
amendments  are  worth  the  strugg-le  of  a  century.  By  them 
liberty  and  justice  are  established  throug-hout  all  the  borders 
of  the  republic.  All  men  are  thus  made  equal  before  the 
law,  and  cannot  be  denied,  in  any  State,  the  equal  protection 
of  the  law.  No  traitor  of  the  class  enumerated  can  hold  any 
office  of  honor,  trust,  or  profit  until  his  disabilities  are 
removed  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  each  House  of  Congress. 
The  public  debt,  created  to  save  the  nation's  life,  and  to  pay 
the  pensions  and  bounties  of  soldiers  and  their  widows  a-nd 
orphans,  shall  not  be  questioned  in  any  place. 

What  a  sublime  triumph!  The  rebellion  crushed,  and 
liberty  and  equal  justice  for  all  made  the  fundamental  law. 
No  broken  promises;  no  violated  faith;  no  alliance  with 
treason;  no  conspiracy  with  European  monarchies  in  aid  of 
the  rebel  cause  and  ag-ainst  the  life  of  the  republic.  This  is 
the  record  of  the  Republican  party. 

For  all  this  we  are  indebted  to  the  men  who  received 
into  their  hearts  the  sublime  doctrines  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  and  consecrated  their  lives  to  a  vindication  of 
the  g'reat  truths  which  it  contains. 

To  the  anti-slavery  men  and  women  of  the  United 
States  we  owe  our  political  redemption  as  a  nation. 

They  who  endured  social  and  political  ostracism,  the 
hatred  of  slave  masters  and  the  cowardly  assaults  of  Northern 
mobs,  in  defense  of  those  who  were  manacled  and  dumb,  and 
could  not  ask  for  help,  were  the  moral  heroes  of  our  great 
anti-slavery  revolution.  To  them  and  to  many  thousands 
whose  names  will  never  be  written  on  the  pag-es  of  history, 
but  whose  lives  v/ere  as  true,  as  unselfish  and  as  consecrated 
as  any,  h  the  nation  indebted  for  its  reg-enerated  Constitution, 
its  vindication  of  the  rights  of  human  nature,  and  its  solemn 
pledge  for  the  future  impartial  administration  of  justice. 

To  me  these  are  the  men  whose  lives  are  the  most 
beautiful  and  the  most  valuable.  I  admire  most  of  all  that 
man  who,  having  adopted  ideas  which  he  believes  to  be  right, 
adheres  to  them  through  good  and  evil  report,  and  conse- 
crates his  life  to  their  development.  I  do  not  ask  whether  he 
agrees  or  disagrees  with  me  on  any  other  question.     I  only 


33 


—  514  — 

care  to  know  that  he  follows  with  fidelity  his  hig-hest  and  best 
convictions. 

I  hail  any  true  man  as  a  worthy  co-worker  in  the  inter- 
ests of  mankind,  who,  with  the  same  labor,  can  cause  one 
additional  spear  of  g-rass  to  g-row  where  but  one  grows  now. 
I  welcome  any  man  who,  by  any  invention  or  contribution  to 
science  or  art,  to  literature,  or  to  law,  aids  in  elevating", 
ennobling-  and  bettering*  the  condition  of  mankind. 

The  world  is  full  of  men  whose  pure  and  unselfish  lives 
ennoble  and  dig-nify  the  human  race. 

My  exemplars  are  the  men  who  in  all  ag-es  have  lived  such 
lives,  whether  relig-ious  reformers  like  Luther  or  Wesle}^,  or 
philosophers  and  statesmen  like  Hampden  and  Sydney,  Locke 
and  Bacon,  Cobden  andBrig-ht,  and  John  Sl,iart  Mill,  or  like 
our  own  "Washing-ton  and  Lincoln,  Phillips  and  Garrison, 
Chase  and  Sumner,  Greeley  and  Gerrit  Smith.  To  me  the 
only  model  statesman,  is  he  who  secures  liberty  and  impartial 
justice  for  all  and  protects  the  weak  ag-ainst  the  strong-.  He 
is  the  statesman  and  the  benefactor  who  aids  in  educating- 
the  ig-norant,  and  in  lightening-  the  cares  of  the  toiling-  mil- 
lions. Since  I  became  3'our  representative  I  have  attempted 
to  follow  the  pathway  illumined  by  the  footprints  of  such 
men  as  I  have  named.  How  well  I  have  succeeded  you  must 
determine. 

I  welcome  all  men  as  co-laborers  in  the  interests  of 
the  liberty  of  mankind,  whether  ag-reeing-  with  me  or  not, 
who  follow  conscientiously  their  hig-hest  and  best  convic- 
tions, for  "th:^  harvest  is  pi^knty  but  the  i^aborers  are 

FEW." 

He  who  consecrates  his  life  to  any  great  work  in  the  in- 
terest of  truth  and  justice,  of  science  or  mechanics,  or  any- 
thing which  promises  to  benefit  mankind,  commands  my 
highest  admiration.  Only  day  before  yesterday,  from  all 
parts  of  Continental  Europe  there  were  gathered  together  in 
Abyssinia,  so  recently  the  theatre  of  desolating  war,  a  large 
number  of  scholars  and  philosophers,  to  make  astronom- 
ical observations  in  the  interest  of  science,  civilization  and 
peace. 

As  the  world  is  interested  in  the  event,  and  I  hope  is  to  be 
benefited  by  the  discoveries  which  the  several  corps  of  scien. 


—  515  — 

tific  explorers  now  in  that  country  may  make,  I  allude  to  it 
here,  and  use  the  fact,  to  illustrate  what  I  meatf,  when  I  say 
that  I  welcome  and  recognize  all  men,  in  whatever  depart- 
ment of  human  labor,  who  follow  their  highest  and  best  con- 
victions and  consecrate  their  lives  to  the  great  work  of  better- 
ing the  condition  of  mankind. 

The  gentlemen  to  whom  I  have  referred  visited  Abyssinia 
because  there  was  to  be  a  total  eclipse  of  the  sun  in  the  far 
East  on  the  17th  of  this  month.  The  sun  would  be  as  far 
from  the  earth  as  it  ever  is,  while  the  moon  was  almost  as 
near.  The  sun  would  thus  appear  small,  and  the  moon  com- 
paratively large.  These  conditions  make  it  favorable  for 
astronomical  observations,  and  as  the  eclipse  was  expected 
to  be  total  in  Abyssinia  and  remain  unchanged  for  about 
seven  minutes,  the  men  of  science  have  gone  thither. 

Their  theory  is,  that  there  is  another  and  a  younger 
planet,  nearer  the  sun  than  Mercury,  which  has  never  been 
seen  by  mortal  eye,  and  of  whose  movements  they  propose  to 
take  observations.  No  telescope  has  ever  yet  penetrated  this 
space  or  revealed  the  mystery  of  the  presence  of  this  planet, 
and  yet  there  were  hundreds  of  men  gathered  from  all  parts 
of  Europe  day  before  yesterday,  confident  that  their  theory 
would  be  confirmed.  This  to  me  is  a  sublime  spectacle.  Not 
for  the  love  of  money,  or  power,  or  place  were  these  men 
gathered  together,  but  for  the  love  of  science  and  the  hope 
of  benefiting  mankind.  The  men  who  in  workshop,  or  field, 
or  garret,  toil  to  develop  any  idea  which  promises  to  promote 
the  peace  and  happiness  of  the  human  race,  are  the  men  wha 
command  my  enthusiastic  admiration. 

These  are  the  world's  real  heroes,  to  whom  mankind  owe 
a  debt  of  gratitude  which  they  can  never  repay.  These  are  the 
kind  of  men  for  the  most  part  who  organized  and  consolidated 
the  great  Republican  party  of  America  and  led  it  to  victory. 
These  are  the  men  in  whose  presence  the  world  should  stand 
with  uncovered  head. 

There  are  thousands  of  men  and  women  in  this  District 
whose  unselfish  fidelity  to  the  right,  in  all  our  great  strug- 
gles, entitle  them  to  be  classed  with  the  world's  real  heroes;, 
these  are  those  whom  I  have  sought  more  especially  to  repre- 


—  516  — 

sent;  and  they  are  the  men,  I  am  proud  to  know,  who  have 
upheld  me  in  every  battle. 

In  the  presidential  canvass  upon  which  we  are  just  en- 
tering-, this  is  the  class  of  men  upon  whom  the  nation  must 
rely.  Whatever  may  be  our  differences  as  to  men,  or  on  mi- 
nor questions  of  tariffs  and  taxation,  we  are  all  ag-reed  as  to 
the  imperative  necessity  of  saving"  the  nation  from  the  possi- 
bility of  another  rebellion.  This  can  be  done  by  the  election 
of  General  Grant,  because  all  believe  that  his  election  will 
g-ive  us  peace.  This,  all  men  concede,  will  save  us  from  a 
reig*n  of  terror  and  violence.  No  existing-  State  g-overnment 
will  be  subverted  or  overthrown.  No  loyal  man,  whether 
white  or  black,  will  be  disfranchised  or  deprived  of  his  nat- 
ural or  political  rig-hts,  but  the  work  of  enfranchisement  wi41 
go  steadily  and  securely  on  until  all  men  who  swear  fidelity 
to  the  Constitution  shall  be  enfranchised  and  disenthralled. 

I  had  intended,  in  what  I  said  to-day,  to  render  a  short 
account  of  my  stewardship  since  I  became  your  Representa- 
tive, but  I  have  already  detained  you  too  long-.  There  is  one 
matter,  however,  to  which,  in  closing,  I  will  refer  to  here 
and  at  this  time,  so  as  to  put  to  rest  the  silly  inventions  of 
men  who  seem  only  to  hope  for  political  preferment  by  mis- 
representing- and  pulling-  others  down. 

If  any  man  can  point  to  a  vote,  or  to  a  speech  which  I 
have  made  in  Congress  in  favor  of  or  ag-ainst  the  passag-e  of 
any  law,  to  which  he  objects,  I  am  ready  to  answer. 

No  man  has  ever  been  deceived,  when  voting-  for  me,  and 
I  do  not  intend  that  any  man  shall  be  deceived. 

Upon  the  question  of  suffrage,  I  made  a  speech  last  year, 
to  which  I  wish  to  call  your  attention.  You  will  find  it  in 
the  Cong-ressional  Globe  of  last  December.  I  stand  by  the 
propositions  and  declarations  which  I  then  made,  because 
they  are  the  sentiments  of  my  heart. 

Agreeing-  with  the  great  body  of  the  Republican  party 
as  to  the  practicability  and  necessity  of  impartial  suffrage  I 
could  never,  by  my  vote,  consent  to  the  disfranchisement  of 
any  person,  competent  for  the  ordinary  duties  of  a  citizen, 
except  as  a  punishment  for  crime. 

I  hold  that  every  adult  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and 
every  adult  citizen  of  a  civilized  nation  who  is  naturalized 


—  517  — 

in  the  United  States,  and  not  disqualified  because  non  com- 
pos, or  by  conviction  for  crime,  ought  to  have  a  voice  in  the 
affairs  of  his  g-overnment.  In  this  country  our  fathers  pro- 
claimed the  logic  of  the  American  revolution  when  they 
declared  the  great  fundamental  truth,  which  was  then,  for 
the  first  time,  recognized  among  men,  **that  all  governments 
derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed.'* 
Upon  this  impregnable  truth  I  stand,  as  I  have  ever  stood, 
and  plead  for  the  enfranchisement  of  every  citizen  capaci- 
tated for  the  ordinary  duties  of  life,  whether  native  born  or 
naturalized,  white  or  black.  I  demand  that  all  shall  have 
the  gneat  privilege  and  self-protecting  power  of  the  ballot 
because  they  are  American  citizens.  "What  I  ask  for  myself 
and  mine  I  demand  for  the  humblest  among  men.  I  have, 
therefore,  proposed  that  citizenship  and  suffrage  should  be 
uniform  throughout  the  nation,  and  this  I  am  happy  to  know 
you  have  authoritatively  endorsed. 

I  hold  that  the  government  which  does  not  secure  equal 
rights  for  all  its  citizens,  without  regard  to  race,  nationality 
or  color,  is  not  a  just  government,  and  is  in  no  sense  of  the 
word  a  democratic  or  republican  government. 

I  say  this  much  here  and  now  on  the  question  of  suffrage, 
because  I  have  been  falsely  charged  with  attempting  to  dis- 
franchise American  citizens,  especially  the  Germans,  who 
have  ever  been  my  most  earnest  and  consistent  friends.     I  do 

NOT  NOW,  nor  have;  I  EVER  ADVOCATED  THE  ESTABI^ISHMENT 
OF  A  STANDARD  FOR  VOTING  INCONSISTENT  WITH  THE  IDEA  OF 
IMPARTIAI,  SUFFRAGE. 

I  recognize,  as  the  corner-stone  of  the  republic,  the  com- 
mon sense  and  the  love  of  justice  of  her  toiling  millions. 
Their  strong  arms  and  brave  hearts  must  ever  be  her  shield 
of  protection  and  defense.  As  a  nation,  I  know  that  our 
future  greatness,  and  grandeur,  and  glory,  depend  upon 
them.  By  no  act  or  vote  of  mine  shall  any  natural  right  or 
political  privilege  be  taken  away  from  any  of  these,  whether 
native  or  foreign  born,  either  because  they  are  poor,  or  be- 
cause they  are  ignorant,  or  because  they  are  black,  so  long  as 
they  recognize  their  allegiance  to  our  Constitution,  and  live 
in  obedience  to  law,  beneath  the  protecting  folds  of  the  ban- 
ner of  the  free. 


—  518  — 


W.  J.  GAINES, 


The  speaker  was  frequently  interrupted  with  applause 
from  the  immense  crowd  he  was  addressing.  The  convention 
dispersed  at  about  6  p.  m. 

Letter  from  Bishop  W.  J.  Gaines,  D.  D.,  Atlanta,  Ga. 
"We  have  never  read  a  grander  speech  than  the  foregoing,  made 
on  accepting-  a  political  nomination.  In  thoug-ht  and  style,  in  cleai- 
ness  of  statement,  and  in  all  that  goes  to  make  tip  a  model  and 
manly  political  stump  speech,  this  speech  at  Napoleon,  in  1868,  is  not 
surpassed  in  this  collection.  "I  hold  that'the  government  which  does 
not  secure  equal  rights  for  its  citizens,  without  regard  to  race,  na- 
tionality or  color,  is  not  a  just  g-overnment,  and  is  in  no  sense  of  the 
word  a  democratic  or  republican  government.  I  say  this  much  here 
and  now  on  the  question  of  suffrage,  because  I  have  been  falsely 
charged  with  attemptingf  to  disfranchise  American  citizens,  especially  the  Germans, 
vho  have  ever  been  my  most  earnest  and  consistent  friends.    I  do  not,  nor  have  I 

EVER  ADVOCATED  THE  ESTABLISHMENTOF  A  STANDARD  FOR  VOTING  INCONSISTENTWITH 

THB  IDEA  OF  IMPARTIAL.  stTFFRAGE.'*  A  caref  ul  reader  of  the  orations  and  speeches 
published  in  this  volume,  cannot  fail  to  be  impressed  with  [tlie  dignity  and  character 
of  the  man  who  made  them.  His  unquestioned  ability,  his  singleness  of  purpose.and  his 
transparent  sincerity,  shine  out  bright  and  clear  on  every  page.  In  the  fierce  and  pas- 
sionate battle  between  freedom  and  slavery,  he  early  in  life  unselfishly  espoused  the 
cause  of  our  race,  because,  as  he  declared  in  some  of  the  speeches  in  this  book,"  he  be- 
lieved that  the  true  democratic  idea.rf'ecog'nized  liberty  as  the  birthright  of  the  human 
race.'*  And  this  belief  is  so  happily  expressed  and  so  g-enerously  stated  in  all  he  said 
or  wrote,  when  protesting*  ag"ainst  the  enslavement  of  men,;  that  even  now,  it  gives 
force  and  power  to  what  he  then  wrote  and  said.  As  our  Methodist  brethren  say,  he 
simply  believed,  and  so  believing,  was  able  to  impress  that  belief  on  his  hearers,  and 
now  we  do  not  doubt  that  the  speeches  which  we  have  compiled  will  make  a  like  im- 
pression on  all  who  read  this  book.  W.  J.  Gaines. 


SPEBCH 

OF  HON.  JAMES  M.  ASHLEY,  OF  OHIO. 


Dewvered  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
February  13tli,  1869. 


DEMOCRATIC     REPRESENTATIVE     GOVERNMENT     CAN     ONI,Y     BE 

MAINTAINED  BY  THE   SUBORDINATION  OF  THE  EXECUl'IVE 

AND  JUDICIAI,  TO  THE  LEGISI.ATIVE  AUTHORITY. 


THE  MINORITY  MUST  HAVE  PROPORTIONABI^E  REPRESENTATION 
IN  STATE  LEGISI^ATURES,  AND  IN  THE  NATIONAI,  CONGRESS. 


The  House  being  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  State 
of  the  Union — 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio,  said: 

Mr.  Chairman:  At  the  last  session  I  proposed  an  amend- 
ment to  the  national  Constitution  which  provided  for  the 
abolition  of  the  ofi5.ce  of  Vice-President,  and  for  the  nomina- 
tion and  election  of  the  President  without  the  intervention  of 
caucuses,  conventions,  or  presidential  electors.  In  addition 
to  this  there  was  a  clause  which  provided  that  the  election  of 
a  President  should  never  devolve,  as  now,  on  the  House  of 
Representatives. 

When  submitting"  that  proposition  I  intended  to  do  no 
more  than  suggest  the  practicability  of  abolishing  the  ofiSce 
of  Vice-President  and  to  call  the  attention  of  the  thoughtful 
men  of  the  nation  to  the  admitted  defect  in  our  present  system 
of  electing  the  President.  I  did  not  expect  to  secure,  either 
at  that  session  or  this,  the  favorable  action  of  Congress  on 

(S19) 


—  520— 

that  proposition;  nor  do  I  now  expect  to  secure  favorable  ac* 
tion  on  the  propositions  I  am  about  to  present.     I  know  how 
reluctantly  the  mass  of  mankind  consent  to  reforms  or  changes 
of  any  kind,  especially  in  matters  of  g-overnment.     I  know 
how  accustomed  they  are  to  run  in  grooves,  and  how  adverse 
they  are  to  agitators  and  to  all  ideas  which  disturb  them  or 
jog  them  out  of  their  old  and  familiar  paths;  nor  am  I  un- 
mindful of  the  fact  that  it  would  probably  require  years  of 
persistent  labor  to  bring  the  people  to  approve  the  changes  in 
their  organic   law  which  I  propose.     John  Stuart  Mill,  in 
speaking  of  governmental  reform,  says  that  * 'there  is  a  natural 
prejudice  against  everything  which  .prof esses  much;  that  its 
perfection  stands  in  its  way,  and  is  the  great  obstacle  to  its 
success."     Admitting  the   full  force  of  this  statement,   and 
realizing  how  thankless  is  the  self-imposed  task  which  I  am 
about  to  undertake,  I  nevertheless  feel  it  to  be  my  duty,  before 
the  expiration  of  my  term  of  service,  to  offer  for  the  consid- 
eration of  the  people,  and  especially  for  the  consideration  of 
those  who  are  soon  to  be  charged  with  the  administration  of 
the   Government,   the  propositions  which   I  now  make  for 
amending  the  national  Constitution.     The  clerk  will  please 
read. 

Mr.  Wii^wams,  of  Indiana.  I  would  like  to  ask  the  gen- 
tleman from  Ohio  why  he  offers  these  propositions  now,  if, 
as  he  says,  he  has  no  hope  of  their  passage  during  this 
Congress. 

Mr.  Ashi,e)y,  of  Ohio.  The  gentleman  from  Indiana  [Mr. 
Williams]  asks  me  why  I  introduce  these  propositions  now  if 
I  have  no  hope  of  their  passage.  After  the  amendment  is 
read,  and  before  submitting  the  observations  which  I  propose 
to  make,  I  will  answer  him.  Let  the  amendment  providing 
for  the  modification  of  the  veto  power  be  now  read. 


THK  T.KTO  POWER. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows: 

Strike  out  clauses  two  and  three  in  section  seven  of  the 
Constitution  and  insert  the  following: 

Every  bill  which  shall  have  passed  the  House  of  Repre* 


—  521  — 

sentatives  and  the  Senate  shall,  before  it  becomes  a  law,  be 
presented  to  the  President  of  the  United  States;  if  he  ap- 
prove, he  shall  sign  it,  but  if  not,  he  shall  return  it  with  his 
objections  to  the  house  in  which  it  originated,  who  shall  en- 
ter the  objections  at  large  on  their  journal  and  proceed  to  re- 
consider it.  If,  j^fter  such  reconsideration,  a  majority  of  all 
the  members  elected  and  qualified  in  that  House  shall  agree 
to  pass  the  bill,  it  shall  be  sent,  together  with  the  President's 
objections,  to  the  other  House,  by  which  it  shall  likewise  be 
reconsidered,  and  if  approved  by  a  majority  of  all  the  mem- 
bers elected  and  qualified  in  that  house  it  shall  become  a  law. 
But  in  all  cases  the  votes  of  both  houses  shall  be  determined  by 
the  yeas  and  nays,  and  the  name  of  the  person  voting  for  and 
against  the  bill  shall  be  entered  on  the  journal  in  each  house 
respectively.  If  any  bill  shall  not  be  returned  by  the  Presi- 
dent within  ten  days  (Sundays  excepted)  after  it  shall  have 
been  presented  to  hftn  the  same  shall  be  a  law  in  like  man- 
ner as  if  he  had  signed  it,  unless  the  Congress  by  adjournment 
prevent  its  return,  in  which  case  it  shall  not  be  a  law.  Everj 
order,  resolution  or  vote  to  which  the  concurrence  of  the  Sen- 
ate and  House  of  Representatives  may  be  necessary  (except 
on  a  question  of  adjournment)  shall  be  presented  to  the  Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States,  and  before  the  same  shall  take 
effect  shall  be  approved  by  him,  or  being  disapproved  by  him 
shall  be  repassed  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives 
according  to  the  rules  'and  limitations  prescribed  in  the  case 
of  a  bill. 

Mr.  ASHI.EY,  of  Ohio.  I  will  say  to  my  friend  from  In- 
diana [Mn  Williams]  that  I  offer  this  amendment  as  I  have 
heretofore  offered  other  propositions  which  at  the  time  of 
offering  them  I  did  not  expect  to  see  pass.  I  have  sometimes 
offered  propositions  for  which  I  had  no  intention  of  voting,, 
in  order  to  provoke  a  discussion  of  the  question  presented. 
For  this  I  have  been  roundly  abused  by  many,  while  others 
have  called  me  the  '^suggesting  member."  I  offer  the  prop- 
ositions which  I  now  submit  and  advocate  them  because  con- 
vinced of  their  necessity.  As  the  most  disgraceful  executive 
administration  which  has  ever  cursed  the  country  is  about  to 
die  and  pass  into  history,  I  believe  it  an  opportune  moment  im 
which  to  present  and  discuss  such  propositions  as  I  now  sub- 
mit, so  that  the  people  may  be  apprised  of  the  danger  which 
threatens  them  in  the  future. 

Mr.  Wii.i,iams,  of  Indiana.  But  you  cannot  get  a  vote  on 
them  now. 


—  522  — 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  I  know  that.  Only  a  moment  ag-o 
I  said  that  I  did  not  offer  them  with  any  hope  of  seeing-  them 
passed  by  this  Congress.  That  does  not  deter  me,  however, 
from  presenting-  and  discussing  them.  I  know  that  many 
men  would  not  present  them  unless  assured  jof  their  favorable 
reception  by  their  party.  I  care  nothing  about  that.  During- 
my  term  of  service  here  I  have  been  more  concerned  to  be 
right  than  to  have  personal  success,  or  to  have  the  credit  of 
securing  the  passage  of  any  particular  measure.  This  is  well 
known  to  my  associates  here,  and  especially  to  g-entlemen 
who  for  the  past  ten  years  have  been  connected  with  the 
public  press.  I  have  been  more  anxious  that  the  work  in 
which  I  was  engaged  should  be  done,  and  well  done,  than  I 
have  been  about  what  would  happen  politically  to  myself.  I 
have  always  acted  on  the  theory  that  politically  he  who  would 
save  his  own  life  should  lose  it.  If  in  our  reconstruction 
measures  the  Republican  party  as  a  body  had  acted  upon  this 
theory,  and  gone  to  the  root  of  the  matter,  and  made  our 
Constitution  conform  to  our  new  condition  as  a  nation, 
instead  of  enacting  laws  and  submitting  constitutional 
amendments  which  were  but  patchwork,  we  should  not 
now  be  environed  with  the  difficulties  which  surround 
US.  I  submit  these  propositions  because  I  believe  they  involve 
practical  questions  of  the  hig-hest  importance,  and  because  I 
believe  that  to  statesmen  no  question  affecting  the  welfare  of 
the  nation  or  the  rig-hts  of  its  citizens  can  be  of  secondary 
importance. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  necessity  of  the 
propositions  which  I  make  for  the  abolition  of  the  king-ly 
prerogatives  of  the  President  by  a  modification  of  the  veto  pow- 
er ;  and  providing- the  manner  of  appointing  and  the  manner  in 
which  all  appointees  should  be  removed  from  office;  for  limit- 
ing the  terms  of  service  of  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  as  also 
their  jurisdiction;  for  making^  them  after  their  appointment 
inelig-ible  to  any  office  under  the  National  Government, 
except,  perhaps,  foreign  embassadorships,  and  [for  retiring- 
them  at  the  end  of  their  term  of  service  on  such  pay  as  Con- 
gress may  deem  to  be  just  and  proper.  No  less  important,  it 
seems  to  me,  is  the  question  of  appointing-  United  States 
Senators  by  a  direct  vote  of  the  qualified  electors  of  each. 


—  523  — 

State  by  ballot,  instead  of  electing"  them  as  now  by  the  legis- 
latures of  the  several  States;  and  last,  thoug-h  not  least,  the 
necessity  of  securing  to  the  minority  an  equitable  voice  in 
the  administration  of  the  government.  To  these  several 
propositions  I  invite  the  considerate  attention  of  all  who 
recognize  the  fact  that  the  whole  power  of  the  government  is 
gradually  but  surely  passing  into  the  hands  of  the  President 
and  the  Supreme  Court. 

Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  claimed  by  the  advocates  of  the  veto 
-power  that  under  our  form  of  government  the  Executive 
represents  the  whole  people,  and  is  the  person  in  whose 
hands  the  requisite  power  ought  to  be  lodged  to  protect  the 
interests  and  rights  of  minorities,  and  to  check  hasty  and  in- 
considerate legislation.  To  this  I  answer  that  hasty  and  in- 
considerate legislation  may  be  checked  an^  a  careful  recon- 
sideration had  of  every  bill  which  Congress  may  pass  by  the 
return  of  such  bill  by  the  President,  with  his  objections,  and 
its  reconsideration  and  passage  by  a  majority  of  all  the  Sena- 
tors and  Representatives  elected  and  qualified,  as  I  propose 
in  the  amendment  which  I  have  submitted. 

It  is  a  fallacy  to  suppose  that  the  minority  can  have  any 
security  from  the  use  of  the  executive  veto.  The  only  way 
in  which  such  protection  could  be  obtained  for  them  would 
"be  for  the  majority  in  the  two  houses  of  Congress  to  concede 
to  the  minority  the  President  —  a  proposition  which  the  ma- 
jority would  not  entertain  for  a  moment.  All  know  that,  as 
a  rule,  the  party  strong  enough  to  elect  its  President  will  be 
strong  enough  to  elect  a  majority  of  Representatives  of  the 
same  political  faith,  so  that  there  must  always  be  added  to 
the  numerical  strength  of  the  representative  majority  the  co- 
operative will  of  a  President  of  their  own  selection,  armed 
with  the  veto  power,  which  under  our  system  is  secured  to 
the  President,  and  by  its  use  and  the  entire  patronage  of 
the  government,  which,  as  all  know,  amounts  to  many  hun- 
dred millions,  he  is  practically  a  king  during  his  official  term. 

If  we  can  modify  the  executive  veto  and  obtain  an  equi- 
table representatibn  in  Congress  for  the  minority,  the  future 
of  representative  government  in  this  country  will  be  secured; 
without  it  we  cannot  have  such  a  negative  on  the  acts  of  the 
majority  as  will  afford  proper  security  to  the  rights  of  minor- 


—  524  — 

ities,  and  the  legislative  will  of  partisan  majorities  will  by 
degree*  be  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  the  Executive.  The 
experience  of  the  past  quarter  of  a  century  demonstrates  the 
fact  that  the  whole  power  of  the  National  Government  is  g-rad- 
ually  but  surely  passing-  under  the  complete  control  of  our 
Presidents.  The  strug-g"le  of  the  g-reat  political  parties  for 
place  and  power  streng-thens  his  authority,  and  makes  his 
will  during-  his  term  of  office  the  only  law  known  to  partisan 
Representatives  in  Congress.  Against  this  violation  of  the 
representative  principle  and  this  dangerous  innovation  by  our 
Executives  of  the  fundamental  theory  upon  which  our  Gov- 
ernment was  founded  I  am  utterly  opposed.  All  will  admit 
that  the  veto  power  conferred  upon  the  Executive  by  the 
present  Constitution  is  a  power  at  war  with  the  democratic 
idea.  There  are  but  few  men  who  have  given  the  subject 
any  consideration  who  will  not  concede  that  it  is  a  dangerous 
power  to  lodge  in  the  hands  of  any  mg-n,  and  that  it  is  a. 
power  with  which  no  man,  however  able  or  reputable,  should 
be  intrusted  in  a  republic.  This  power  in  the  hands  of 
any  man  who  is  not  absolutely  infamous  or  an  imbecile  en- 
ables him,  with  the  use  of  executive  patronage,  to  defeat  the 
will  of  the  nation  so  long  as  he  remains  in  the  presidential 
office.  No  man  has  ever  discharged  the  duties  of  the  execu- 
tive office,  nor  is  it  probable  that  any  man  ever  will,  who  is- 
so  far  above  the  representatives  of  the  people  either  in  wis- 
dom or  patriotism  as  to  justify  the  lodgment  of  such  vast 
power  in  his  hands. 

I  am  willing,  if  after  discussion  it  be  thought  best  ta 
have  some  check  against  haste  and  inconsiderate  legislation, 
that  the  President  shall  have  a  modified  negative,  such  as  I 
propose,  so  that  the  representatives  of  the  people  may  avail 
themselves  of  any  suggestions  which  a  citizen  so  distin- 
guished as  our  Presidents  ought  to  be,  might  make  to  Con- 
gress when  returning  a  bill  for  their  reconsideration.  I  am 
unwilling,  however,  to  intrust  any  man  with  power  sufficient 
to  overrule  the  deliberately  formed  opinions  of  a  majority  of 
all  the  men  who  have  been  elected  and  qualified  as  Senators 
and  Representatives  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 
The  veto  power,  as  now  conferred  by  the  Constitution,  makes 
the  will  of  the  President  equivalent  to  that  of  twelve  Sena- 


—  525  — 

tors,  when  there  are  seventy-eight  members  of  that  body,  and 
equivalent  to  thirty-eig-ht  members  of  this  House,  when  com- 
posed of  two  hundred  and  thirty-three  members.  Thus  one 
man,  often  a  very  ordinary  man,  is  made  by  this  anti- 
democratic provision  of  our  Constitution  the  equal  in  legisla- 
tive power,  and  the  theory  is  that  he  is  equal  in  wisdom,  to 
iifty  Senators  and  Representatives  when  the  two  houses  to- 
g-ether have  311  members. 

For  instance,  when  the  States  are  all  represented  in  the 
Senate  there  are  seventy-eight  Senators;  of  this  number  forty 
are  a  majority.  If  the  President  veto  a  bill  it  requires  two- 
thirds  of  the  Senate  to  repass  it,  which,  in  a  full  Senate,  with 
seventy-eight  members,  requires  fifty-two  votes.  It  will 
thus  be  seen,  that  the  veto  power  makes  the  President  equal 
in  legislative  power  to  twelve  Senators.  In  the  House,  with 
233  members  present,  it  requires  117  votes  to  pass  a  bill.  If 
the  President  veto  it  it  requires  156  votes  to  pass  it  over  the  veto, 
which  makes  the  veto  power  of  the  President  equal  to  thirty- 
eight  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  and  equiva- 
lent to  fifty  Senators  and  Representatives  when  both  houses 
number  311  members.  Add  to  this  monarchical  prerogative 
the  overshadowing  authority  which  the  appointing  power  al- 
ways confers  on  an  executive  or  king,  and  you  have  at  the , 
head  of  the  Government,  a  man  whose  will  is  practically  the 
law  of  the  land,  as  long  as  he  is  able  to  maintain  himself  in 
the  presidential  office. 

The  framers  of  the  Constitution  intended  that  there 
should  be  three  departments  in  this  Government,  the  legisla- 
tive, executive  and  judicial,  and  that  these  departments 
should  be  separate  and  distinct.  That  was  their  theory. 
They  held,  as  I  hold,  that  no  free  government  can  long  en- 
dure which  violates  this  fundamental  theory.  If  this  theory 
be  a  correct  one,  then  the  Executive  of  this  nation  ought  not 
to  be  clothed  with  any  part  of  the  law-making  power.  It  was 
intended  that  our  laws  should  be  the  embodied  will  of  the 
nation,  as  authoritatively  expressed  by  Congress.  To  execute 
.  these  laws  was  to  be  the  duty  of  the  Executive,  and  I  hold 
that  this  ought  to  be  his  chief  duty.  To  clothe  the  Executive 
with  the  veto  power  is  to  make  him  part  of  the  law-making 
power,  which  is  a  violation  of  the  theory  upon  which  the 


—  526  — 

government  was  organized.  I  shall  never  cease  my  war  up- 
on this  kingly  prerogative.  I  believe  it  to  be  utterly  indefen- 
sible in  a  democratic  republic.  Secure  the  minority  an  equal 
personal  representation  in  the  national  Congress,  as  I  pro- 
pose, and  there  can  be  no  necessity  for  the  veto  and  no  pre- 
text for  maintaining  so  despotic  and  dangerous  a  power  in. 
the  hands  of  any  man. 

Examine  the  yea  and  nay  vote  of  this  House  for  ten 
years  and  you  will  find  that  when  a  majority  of  all  proposi- 
tions were  voted  upon  about  one-fifth  of  the  members  were 
absent.  If  one-fifth  of  the  members  of  both  houses  are  ab- 
sent when  propositions  are  voted  upon,  as  a  rule  it  will  be 
found  that  the  larger  number  are  of  the  majority  party.  In  a 
House  of  233  members  we  will  have,  if  about  one-fifth  are 
absent,  say  190  votes;  of  this  number  96  are  a  majority.  If 
the  President  return  a  bill  with  his  objections,  my  amend- 
ment requires  the  bill  to  secure  117  votes  to  again  pass  it, 
whereas,  under  our  present  Constitution,  a  less  number  may 
make  two-thirds  of  a  quorum  and  pass  the  bill  over  the  veto.^ 
One  hundred  and  seventeen  members  make  a  quorum  in  a 
full  House  composed  of  233  members;  a  majority  of  this 
quorum,  or  59,  may  pass  a  bill.  If  it  is  vetoed,  and  only  a 
quorum  are  present,  78  members  may  pass  the  bill  over  the 
veto,  or  39  less  than  a  majority  of  all  the  members  of  the 
House.  Practically  then,  the  proposition  which  I  make  gives^ 
the  minority  all  the  security  they  ought  to  have  against 
hasty  and  inconsiderate  legislation  where  provision  is  made 
that  a  bill  to  be  repassed  must  have  a  majority  of  all  the 
members  elected  and  qualified  in  each  House.  It  requires 
time  and  labor  to  bring  the  absent  members  here  when  ques- 
tions of  great  importance  are  pending.  A  bill,  therefore, 
which,  on  a  rehearing,  passes  both  houses  by  a  majority  of 
all  the  members  of  each,  notwithstanding  the  President's  ob- 
jections, ought,  in  my  opinion,  to  become  a  law. 

From  the  organization  of  the  government  to  this  hour 
no  one  question  has  employed  so  much  of  the  time  and  atten- 
tion of  the  thoughtful  statesmen  of  the  nation  as  the  danger 
incident  to  the  use  and  abuse  of  the  executive  power.  When 
our  entire  annual  revenue  from  all  sources  did  not  exceed 
$25,000,000,  and  the  number  of  officers  and  agents  employed 


—  527  — 

by  the  g-overnment  did  not  number  one-fifth  what  they  do  to- 
da}',  this  subject  engaged  the  attention  for  many  years  of  the 
ablest  men  in  Congress.  Clay,  Berrien,  Badg-er,  Ewing-, 
White,  Webster,  and  many  other  statesmen  of  national 
reputations  and  conceded  abilities  all  concurred  in  the  neces- 
sity of  modifying"  the  executive  veto  and  limiting-  the  use  of 
executive  patronage.  To  this  last  proposition  Mr.  Calhoun 
g^ave  much  thought  and  labor,  demonstrating-  its  necessity  by 
able  speeches  and  one  of  the  most  valuable  reports  ever  sub- 
mitted on  that  subject  to  Cong-ress.  No  man  can  read  the 
able  reports  made  to  Cong-ress  in  1835  and  the  discussion  on 
these  two  questions  in  both  houses  of  Cong-ress,  both  before 
and  since  that  time,  without  being-  deeply  impressed  with  the 
g-reat  wisdom  and  foresight  of  the  men  whom  I  have  named. 

Some  estimate  may  be  formed  of  the  vast  patronag-e  now 
at  the  disposal  of  the  Executive  by  an  inquiry  into  the  amount 
of  revenue  annually  collected  and  disbursed,  and  the  number 
of  of&cers  and  ag-ents  employed  by  the  government  in  its  col- 
lection and  disbursement. 

The  Clerk  will  please  read  the  tabular  statement  which  I 
send  to  the  desk,  showing  the  amount  in  millions  and  tenths 
collected  and  expended  by  the  government  annually. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows: 
Table  showing  the  receipts  and  expenditures  of  the  United 

States  Government  in  millions  of  dollars  and  tenths  from 

July  1,  1861,  to  June  30,  1868: 

Fiscal  year.        Receipts.         Expenditures.     Balances. 

1862 612.6  565.7  46.9 

1863 936.3  899.8  36.5 

1864 1430.0  1295.5  134.5 

1865 1940.4  1906.4  33.9 

1866 1304.8  1139.3  165.5 

1867 1263.2  1093.1  170.1 

1868 1200.9  1069.9  131.0 


Total  in  seven  years  8688.1  7969.7  718.4 


Average  per  year 1241.1  1138.5  102.6 

Mr.  Ashi,ey,  of  Ohio.     It  will  be  seen  by  this  lablc  ihat 


—  528  — 

our  averag-e  annual  receipts  for  the  past  seven  years  were 
over  $1,241,000,000;  that  our  annual  expenditures  were  over 
$1,138,000,000,  and  that  there  has  been  on  an  averag-e  during" 
all  that  time  over  $100,000,000  in  the  public  treasury. 

Mr.  Chairman,  if  the  ablest  statesmen  of  the  past  g-enera- 
tion  were  alarmed  for  the  safety  of  republican  institutions,  be- 
cause of  the  use  which  the  Executive  power  could  make  of  tlie 
patronag-e  of  the  g-overnment  when  its  entire  revenue  did  not 
exceed  $25,000,000,  audits  officers  were  less  than  one-fifth  of 
the  present  number,  what  would  be  their  amazement  could 
they  look  upon  these  fig-ures  and  realize  the  enormous  in- 
crease of  power  and  patronag-e  now  claimed  for  the  Executive 
and  conceded  to  him  by  the  leading-  men  of  the  nation  with- 
out a  protest. 

TheOFFiciAiv  Register  for  1867  shows  the  number  of 
g-overnment  officers  and  employees  in  civil  service  to  be  about 
75,000.  The  cost  of  the  civil  and  miscellaneous  list  for  the 
fiscal  year  1867  was  $49,600,000,  and  for  1868,  $51,600,000. 
The  expenditures  of  the  War  and  Navy  Departments  for  1867 
were  $126,300,000;  for  1868,  $149,000,000.  The  number  of 
non-commissioned  officers  and  privates  in  the  army  for  1867 
was  77,000,  that  of  commissioned  officers  about  3,000.  The 
number  of  officers  and  men  employed  in  the  navy  in  1867  was 
over  11,000.  So  that  in  the  civil  and  military  and  naval  ser- 
vice of  the  g-overnment  there  are  over  160,000  in  the  employ 
of  the  government,  all  of  whom  are  practically  subject  to  the 
order  of  the  President  and  dependent  for  subsistence  on  the 
public  treasury. 

Startling-  as  is  this  array,  it  does  not  include  those  who 
furnish  supplies  for  the  army  and  navy  and  for  the  Indian 
and  other  departments  of  the  g-overnment,  all  of  whom  are 
more  or  less  dependent  on  the  g-overnment  for  support.  Ex- 
perience teaches  us  that  this  vast  army  of  office-holders,  em- 
ployees, ag-ents,  and  dependents  are  influenced  more  or  less  by 
the  Executive  will,  and  I  am  confident  their  power  has  never 
been  overestimated. 

Add  to  these,  the  innumerable  number  of  office  expectants, 
in  every  county,  in  every  State  and  Territory,  who  are  intent 
on  securing  the  offices  and  places  now  occupied  b}"  others, 
and  you  may  form  some  estimate  of  the  many  thousands  in 


—  529  — 

the  couniry  now  appealing*  to  the  Executive  for  a  recog"nition  of 
their  claims.  Of  this  great  army  a  larg-e  majority  stand  ready 
to  declare  that  every  act  and  utterance  of  the  Executive  is  the 
embodiment  of  wisdom  and  the  perfection  of  statesmanship; 
indeed,  they  will  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  most  impercep- 
tible wink  of  the  eye  or  nod  of  the  head  of  his  Excellency  has 
behind  it  a  meaning*  as  full  of  significance  as  any  of  his  ut- 
terances. So  utterly  abased  and  subservient  has  the  public 
mind  become  because  of  the  existence  of  this  over-shadowing 
power-  that  men  are  dumb  in  the  presence  of  the  Executive, 
and  dare  not  so  much  as  express  an  opinion,  much  less  criti- 
cise unfavorably  his  official  acts.  It  is  well  known  to  ob- 
servers how  devoid  of  all  manhood  men  become  under  the 
practical  workings  of  this  pernicious  system,  which  centres 
all  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Executive. 

Even  the  acting  President,  whose  treason  I  regard  as 
baser  than  that  of  Davis,  had  an  army  of  apologists  and  de- 
fenders in  the  Republican  party.  It  is  well  known  that  there 
were  at  one  time  in  the  Senate  and  House  of  the  Thirty- 
ninth  Congress  over  sixty  men  elected  by  the  Republican  par- 
ty who  stood  ready  to  co-operate  with  Johnson  in  his  work  of 
usurpation  if  there  could  be  but  the  certainty  of  success. 
How  many  of  them  were  ready  to  go  the  whole  length,  as 
he  did,  and  abandon  the  great  central  idea  of  the  Republican 
party,  will  never  be  known.  Nor  will  the  nation  ever  know 
how  much  it  owes  to  its  faithful  representatives  who  defeated 
this  infamous  conspiracy.  There  are  members  now  within 
the  sound  of  my  voice,  who  know  where  these  men  met  in  se- 
cret in  this  city,  to  confer  with  a  President  whose  apostasy 
was  known  to  all  men,  and  whose  treason  was  as  clear  as  the 
sun  at  noonday.  No  such  meetings  would  ever  have  been 
held,  no  such  infamous  proposition  would  have  been  for  a 
moment  entertained  by  these  men,  but  for  the  fact  that  the 
President  had  the  veto  and  appointing  power.  Before  this 
corrupting  power  men  intrusted  and  honored  by  the  Republi- 
can party  abased  themselves,  and  for  a  time  imperiled  the 
future  of  the  republic. 


34 


—  530  — 

ON  THE  PARDONING  POWER. 

Mr.  Chairman,  in  order  to  prevent  the  abuse  of  the  par- 
doning- power  now  conferred  by  the  Constitution  on  the  Ex- 
ecutive, section  two  of  article  two  ought  to  be  amended  so  as 
read: 

And  he  (the  President)  shall  have  power,  with  the  ap- 
proval in  writing"  of  a  majority  of  his  Cabinet  council,  to 
grant  reprieves  and  pardons  for  offenses  committed  against 
the  United  States  after  trial  and  conviction,  except  in  cases 
of  impeachment;  but  he  shall  grant  no  general  amnesty  or 
pardon  to  persons  who  are  or  who  may  have  been  engaged  in 
insurrection  or  rebellion  against  the  United  States  until  he 
shall  have  first  obtained  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Con- 
gress. 

I  suggest  this  additional  proposition,  because  I  believe 
that  no  one  man  in  any  government  ought  to  be  clothed  with 
unlimited  power  to  grant  pardons.  It  is  a  power  liable  to  great 
abuse  in  the  hands  of  any  man,  however  able  or  upright.  In 
the  hands  of  a  bad  man  it  is  a  power  which  defeats  the  ends 
of  justice  and  gives  immunity  to  crime.  The  acting  Presi- 
dent has  been  for  four  years  a  national  dispenser  of  pardons. 
I  do  not  now  refer  to  the  unwarranted  assumption  of  power 
on  the  part  of  the  acting  Executive  in  pardoning  all  the  re- 
sponsible and  most  guilty  leaders  of  the  late  rebellion,  nor  to  the 
fact  that  it  is  publicly  announced  as  by  authority,  that  before 
he  retires  from  office,  he  will  probably  pardon  the  last  of  the 
assassin  conspirators  who  murdered  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  thus 
placed  him  in  the  presidential  office.  It  is  enough  to  refer 
to  the  fact  that  he  has  pardoned  confessed  criminals  before 
trial,  and  to  the  still  more  startling  fact  that  he  has  pardoned 
over  one  hundred  men,  after  trial  and  conviction,  for  the 
crime  of  counterfeiting  the  notes  and  other  securities  of  the 
United  States. 

I  need  not  say  to  members  of  this  House  that  counterfeit- 
ing is  one  of  the  most  indefensible  of  all  crimes.  Successful 
counterfeiting  requires  a  large  outlay  of  money,  a  hign  order 
of  intellect  and  great  skill  in  the  preparation  of  everything 
connected  with  it.  It  must  be  done  deliberately  and.  with 
great  secrecy.  No  immediate  or  pressing  want  of  the  person 
engaged  in  it,  nor  of  any  one  depending  on  him  for  support, 


-  531  — 

can  be  the  impelling  cause.  No  sudden  impulse  of  passion; 
no  motive  such  as  often  prompts  men  to  commit  crime  under 
the  pretext  of  retaliating-  for  some  actual  or  fancied  injury; 
no  cry  of  despair  from  wife  and  children  because  of  hung-er 
and  cold,  but  almost  every  person  eng-aged  in  the  commission 
of  this  crime  is  a  cultivated,  deliberate,  calculating-  villain, 
coolly  weig-hing-  his  chances  and  premeditating-  his  every  act. 
I  am  unable  to  divine  th6  motive  which  has  prompted  the 
acting-  Executive  to  set  at  larg-e  almost  every  one  of  this  class 
of  criminals  who  during  the  past  four  years  have  been  dis- 
covered, tried,  and  convicted  at  great  cost  to  the  government. 
The  fact,  I  believe,  is  notorious  and  undisputed,  and  I  can 
only  account  for  the  apparent  indifference  of  the  public  to 
this  shameless  prostitution  of  authority,  intended  only  for 
beneficent  purposes,  on  the  hypothesis  that  they  feel  power- 
less in  the  presence  of  the  defiant  usurper  of  the  White 
House,  who,  having  been  acquitted  by  the  Senate  of  greater 
crimes,  may,  without  question  and  with  impunity,  commit 
the  lesser  one  of  turning  hundreds  of  dangerous  criminals  up- 
on the  country  to  prey  upon  the  ignorant  and  unsuspecting 
and  again  engage  in  depreciating  the  credit  of  the  nation  by 
counterfeiting  its  securities.  If  the  approval  in  writing  of  a 
majority  of  Mr.  Johnson's  Cabinet  had  been  required  as  a 
condition  to  the  pardon  of  the  counterfeiters  whom  he  has  re- 
leased, I  am  confident  that  but  few,  if  any  of  them,  would 
have  been  set  at  large  to  prey  again  upon  the  country.  At 
all  events  I  am  unwilling  to  lodge  the  power  to  pardon  even 
common  criminals  in  the  hands  of  any  one  man.  In  short,  I 
am  against  the  one-man  power  in  any  form,  in  any  depart- 
ment of  the  Government. 

If  the  question  were  now  submitted  to  me  whether  to  con- 
tinue the  executive  office  with  the  power  now  lodged  in  the 
hands  of  the  President,  or  abolish  the  office  altogether,  I 
would  vote  to  abolish  it.  For  years  I  have  believed  that  the 
executive  power  was  the  rock  on  which  as  a  nation  we  should 
eventually  be  broken  to  pieces.  It  is  the  province  of  true 
statesmanship  to  point  out  prospective  danger  and  suggest 
the  remedy,  rather  than  delay  it  until  a  usurper,  such  as  we 
now  have  at  the  head  of  the  Government,  forces  a  recognition 
of  the  danger.     The  greater  our  confidence  in  General  Grant 


—  532  — 

the  more  anxious  we  should  be  to  adopt  an  adequate  remedj 
during-  the  life  of  his  administration.  We  ought  not  to  f org-el 
that  Johnson  succeeded  Lincoln,  and  that  we  may  need  pro- 
tection from  the  successor  to  General  Grant. 

THKR^  MUST  B^  ORGANIZED  OPPOSITION  TO  EXECUTIVE  USUR- 
PATION. 

After  the  important  questions  g-rowing*  out  of  the  late 
rebellion  are  permanently  settled,  and  the  question  of  citizen- 
ship suffrag-e  is  disposed  of  by  the  adoption  of  the  constitu 
tional  amendment  now  before  us,  I  cannot  affii^iate  with  an^ 

PARTY  WHICH,  AS  AN  ORGANIZATION,  PROPOSES  TO  MAINTAIJ: 
THE  KINGI.Y  AND  DANGEROUS  PREROGATIVES  NOW  CONCEDED  TC 

THE  President  by  custom  and  usage.     If  we  are  to  continue 

the  presidential  office  at  all,  it  must  be  simply  as  an  executive 

and  as  no  part  of  the  law-making-  power.     The  duty  of  th( 

President  must  be  strictly  limited  to  the  execution  of  the 

law.     The  veto  power,  the  appointing-  power,  and  the  powei 

of  removal  at  pleasure  and  without  cause  are  all  king-ly  pre 

rog-atives,  and  at  war  with  the  theory  of  a  republican  anc 

democratic  government.     As  the  national  life  is  born  of  th< 

will  of  the  people,  so  the  leg-islative  representation  of  tha 

will  must  be  the  national  Cong-ress.     In  all  governments  th( 

ultimate  power  must  somewhere  have  a  lodgment.     In  a  re 

public  it  is  safest  in  the  hands  of  the  people's  representatives 

The  nearer  this  ultimate  power  is  to  the  people  the  more 

directly  and  easily  it  can  be  molded  and  controlled  by  them 

An  absolute  power  in  any  government  which  is  abov< 

and  superior  to  the  people  is  a  despotism.     It  is  a  fallacy  t< 

assume  that  there  must  be  lodged  in  some  department  of  the 

government  a  despotic  power  such  as  the  veto  power.     Ii 

any  light  in  which  I  am  able  to  view  this  great  question 

can  see  only  danger  in  the  constant  encroachments  and  usur 

pations  of  the  executive   and  judicial  departments   of   th 

government,  and  safety  and  security  for  the  people  only  b^ 

the  lodgment  of  the  ultimate  power  of  the  nation   in  th^ 

national  Congress.     To  the  danger    inseparable   from  th^ 

lodgment  of  such  kingly  prerogatives  in  the  hands  of  an; 

one  man  as  are  now  conceded  to  the  President  may  be  addec 


—  533  — 

the  danger  of  our  present  system  of  making  nominations.' 
The  caucus  and  convention  system  and  the  manner  of  elect- 
ing* the  President  and  Vice-President  by  electors,  or  by  the 
House  of  Representatives  when  the  electors  fail  to  make  a 
choice,  all  tend  to  exclude  the  people  from  a  direct  voice  in 
the  government  of  the  nation,  and  enable  a  few  to  control 
the  government  and  administer  it,  not  according  to  the  will 
of  the  people,  but  as  decreed  by  nominating  conventions  and 
by  irresponsible  bodies  unknown  to  the  Constitution.  All 
attempts  to  maintain  the  domination  of  the  executive  over 
the  legislative  department  of  the  government  must  be 
defeated,  and  all  efforts  to  clothe  the  Executive  with  new 
prerogatives  or  an  increase  of  his  present  overshadowing 
power,  must  be  met  by  prompt,  vigorous,  and  organized  re- 
sistance; and  to  this  great  work  I  shall  in  the  future  direct 
whatever  of  political  influence  I  may  have. 

THB  JUDICIAI.   AMENDMENT. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  now  submit  an  amendment  providing 
for  the  better  organization  of  the  Supreme  Court,  which  the 
.  Clerk  will  please  read. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows: 

Strike  out  section  1  of  article  3,  and  insert  the  following: 
The  judicial  power  of  the  United  States  shall  be  vested 
in  one  Supreme  Court,  and  in  such  inferior  courts  as  the  Con- 
gress may  from  time  to  time  ordain  and  establish.  The 
judges,  both  of  the  Supreme  and  district  courts,  shall  hold 
their  offices  for  twenty  years:  Provided,  That  no  judge 
shall  act  as  a  member  of  the  Supreme  Court  nor  of  any  Dis- 
trict Court  of  the  United  States  after  he  shall  have  reached 
the  age  of  seventy  years.  After  their  appointment  and 
qualification  they  shall  be  ineligible  to  any  office  under  the 
National  Government.  They  shall  at  stated  times  receive  for 
their  services  a  compensation  which  shall  not  be  diminished 
during  their  continuance  in  office.  After  the  expiration  of 
the  term  of  service  of  each  judge  of  the  Supreme  or  of  any 
District  Court  of  the  United  States,  the  Congress  shall,  by 
law,  provide  such  annual  compensation  as  they  may  deem 
proper  for  each  retiring  judge  during  life,  which  compensa- 
tion shall  not  be  diminished. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.     Mr.  Chairman,  next  to  the  dan- 


-534- 

g"er  inseparable  from  the  use  and  abuse  of  executive  power  is 
the  danger  to  be  apprehended  from  judicial  usurpation  and 
judicial  corruption.  The  history  of  judicial  usurpations  in 
the  United  States  is  a  history  running-  over  many  years  of 
judicial  *' sapping  and  mining."  The  judicial  power  is  all 
the  more  dangerous  because  ever  silent  and  insidious.  In  all 
ages  and  countries  its  most  diabolical  crimes  have  been  com- 
mitted in  the  sacred  name  of  justice  and  of  law.  Jefferson  was 
right  when  he  declared  that  — 

**  The  germ  of  dissolution  of  our  government  was  in  the 
constitution  of  the  Federal  judiciary,  an  irresponsible  body 
(for  impeachment  is  scarcely  a  scarecrow),  working  like 
gravity  by  night  and  by  day,  gaining  a  little  to-day  and  a 
little  to-morrow,  and  advancing  its  noiseless  steps  over  the 
field  of  jurisdiction."  **The  foundations  are  already  deeply 
laid  by  their  decisions  for  the  annihilation  of  constitutional 
State  rights,  and  the  removal  of  every  check,  every  counter- 
poise, to  the  engulfing  power  of  which  themselves  are  to 
make  a  sovereign  part."  "An  opinion  is  huddled  up  in  con- 
clave, perhaps  by  a  majority  of  one,  delivered  as  if  unani- 
mous and  with  the  silent  acquiescence  of  lazy  or  timid 
associates  by  a  crafty  chief  judge." 

**It  has  proved  that  the  power  of  declaring*  what  the 
law  is  AD  LIBITUM,  by  sapping  and  mining  slyly,  and  without 
alarm,  the  foundations  of  the  Constitution,  can  do  what  open 
force  would  not  dare  to  attempt." 

I  have  no  time  at  this  late  hour  to  go  into  a  history  of 
the  usurpations  of  the  Supreme  and  District  Courts  of  the 
United  States.  Such  a  history  would  present  a  long  and 
black  catalogue  of  unjust  and  infamous  decisions.  The  first 
speech  which  I  made  in  this  House  was  devoted  to  an  exposi- 
tion of  its  betrayal  of  human  rights  and  its  shameless  affirma- 
tion of  the  right  of  slavery.  I  have  nothing  to  retract  of 
what  I  then  said  of  its  indefensible  subserviency  to  the  slave 
barons  and  to  the  baneful  spirit  of  party;  nor  can  I  modify, 
as  I  should  be  glad  to  do,  what  I  then  said  of  the  undisguised 
personal  and  political  ambition  for  the  Presidency  of  some  if 
not  a  majority  of  its  members. 

Years  before  the  Dred  Scott  decision  was  delivered  an 
attempt  was  made  to  prepare  the  way  for  that  usurpation,  or 
any  other  which  might  be  deemed  for  the  interest  of  slavery, 
by   a  studied  and  labored   effort   on  the   part   of  the  slave 


- — 535  — 

barons  and  their  northern  allies  to  impress  the  country  with 
a  greater  veneration  for  that  "aug-ust  tribunal"  known  as 
the  Supreme  Court  than  for  any  other  department  of  the 
government. 

Its  decisions  were  declared  to  be  **finalities,"  from  which 
there  was  to  be  no  appeal,  and  its  immaculate  wisdom  and 
purity  were  everywhere  the  theme  of  an  enthusastic  partisan 
press  and  party  leaders,  who  demanded  that  its  decisions 
should  be  received  as  unquestioned  law.  Statutes  were  enacted 
which  declared  they  were  to  be  operative,  provided  they  were 
in  subordination  to  the  Constitution  as  interpreted  by  a  ma- 
jority of  this  *'aug-ust  tribunal,"  composed  of  nine  men,  of 
whom  five  were  a  majority.  So  persistently  did  political 
demag-og-ues  press  this  point  upon  the  country  that  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Supreme  Court  beg-an  to  act  as  if  they  were  in 
fact,  an  **aug-ust  tribunal,"  endowed  with  a  wisdom  unknown 
to  the  rest  of  mankind,  and  that  they  had  an  intuitive  knowl- 
edg-e  of  the  Constitution  unknown  to  any  other  body  of  men. 
Those  who  knew  the  court  when  the  Dred  Scott  decision  was 
pronounced,  will  not  hesitate  to  admit  that  whatever  knowl- 
edg-e  of  the  Constitution  a  majority  of  them  had,  was  probably 
*' intuitive,"  and  that  their  leg-al  endowments  were  of  a  char- 
acter incomprehensible  to  the  g-reat  body  of  intellig-ent  men 
who  read  that  decision.  So  thoroug-hly  did  a  majority  of  this 
court  believe  in  the  infallibility  of  their,  assumed  power,  that 
they  consulted  with  and  g-ave  directions  for  the  g-uidanc?  of 
their  partisan  friends,  and  were  preparing-  to  assume  and  to  in- 
terpret without  question,  the  Constitution,  for  both  the  execu- 
tive and  legislative  departments  of  the  Government.  Justice 
"Wayne,  of  Georg-ia,  than  whom  there  was  no  purer  or  better 
man  on  the  bench  in  his  day,  believed,  and  so  expressed  him- 
self to  his  friends,  *'that  if  the  Supreme  Court  could  be 
brought  to  make  a  unanimous  decision  in  the  Dred  Scott  case 
[in  favor  of  slavery,  of  course],  that  it  would  settle  that 
question  for  all  time  to  come."  This  was  the  kind  of  im- 
maculate judicial  wisdom,  to  which  the  nation  was  called  up- 
on to  submit  without  question. 

It  is  now  well  known  to  all,  that  the  Dred  Scott  decision 
was  made  on  the  demand  of  the  slave  barons.  But  for  a 
supposed  party  necessity,  there  never  would  have  been  a  Dred 


—  536  — 

Scott  case  before  the  court.  It  required  years  of  unscrupu- 
lous partisan  labor,  to  pack  the  court  with  men,  who  would 
consent  to  deg-rade  the  judicial  office,  by  making*  such  an  atro- 
cious decision.  After  the  case  had  been  finally  arg-ued  and 
the  court  were  ready  to  pronounce  the  required  pro-slavery 
judgment  upon  it,  and  had  authorized  Judge  Nelson  to  pre- 
pare the  opinion  of  the  court,  dismissing-  the  case  on  the  only 
point  which  the  slave  barons  then  desired  to  have  passed  up- 
on, namely,  that  Dred  Scott  being*  the  descendant  of  an  Afri- 
can slave  could  not  become  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and 
therefore  could  not  bring"  a  suit  in  the  courts  of  the  United 
States  ag-ainst  a  slave  master,  the  court  were  brought  to  an 
unlooked-for  point  in  the  case  by  the  announcement  of  Judge 
McLean  that  he  should  deliver  a  dissenting-  opinion,  and  re- 
view at  length  the  status  of  the  slave  under  the  Constitution, 
thus  going-  into  the  whole  question  of  slavery. 

It  is  conceded  by  all  who  are  familiar  with  the  inside 
history  of  this  case,  that  but  for  the  fact  that  there  were  men 
then  upon  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court,  as  there  are  now, 
with  a  mania  for  the  Presidency,  which  can  only  be  g-iven  up 
at  death,  we  should  never  have  had  the  Dred  Scott  decision. 
Judge  McLean,  whose  purity  of  life  and  g-reat  ability  no  man 
who  knew  him  will  question,  had  for  years  been  an  aspirant 
for  the  Presidency.  He  saw  an  opportunity  to  make  polit- 
ical capital  out  of  a  g-eneral  review  of  the  slavery  question,  from 
a  judicial  standpoint,  and  when  he  announced  his  purpose  to 
his  associates  on  the  bench,  he  caused  a  panic  among-  them, 
such  as  does  not  often  overtake  that  *'  august  tribunal."  It 
was  on  the  eve  of  the  presidential  campaign  for  1856,  and 
the  pro-slavery  party  could  not  afford  to  have  such  a  bomb- 
shell thrown  into  their  camp.  The  court,  therefore,  or  a  ma- 
jority of  it,  reserved  the  decision  of  the  question,  and  or- 
dered the  case  to  be  rearg-ued  in  order  to  g-ain  time  and 
to  await  the  result  of  the  presidential  election.  They  did 
this  in  order  that  they  might  know  positively,  whether  they 
could  rely  on  the  executive  arm  of  the  Government,  to  enforce 
with  the  army  and  navy  their  contemplated  usurpation. 

The  points  to  be  made  in  Judge  McLean's  dissen  ing" 
opinion  were  well  known  to  his  partisan  friends;  and  the 
fact  that  he  was  to  deliver  such  an  opinion  was  publicly  used 


OO/ 


with  a  view  to  secure  for  him  if  possible,  the  Republican 
nomination  at  Philadelphia  for  the  Presidency.  The  opin* 
ions  of  the  majority  of  the  court  were  also  known  to  the  par- 
tisan friends  of  the  court.  After  the  presidential  election^ 
the  public  mind  was  prepared  for  the  forthcoming-  decision 
by  skillful  manipulations,  such  as  were  never  employed  before^ 
President  Pierce  in  his  last  annual  messag-e  apprised  the 
country  of  the  fact  that  this  Dred  Scott  decision  had  been, 
ag-reed  upon,  although  at  that  time  it  had  not  been  oflS.cially 
announced  from  the  bench,  and  that  the  court  "had  finally  de- 
termined the  pending-  question  in  every  form  in  which  it  could 
arise."  Mr.  Buchanan  in  his  inaug-ural  address  referred  io 
the  forthcoming-  Dred  Scott  decision  in  these  words. 

To  their  decision,  in  common  with  all  g-ood  citizens,  I 
shall  cheerfully  submit,  whatever  it  may  be. 

These  declarations  of  the  outg-oing-  and  the  incoming- 
Chief  Mag-istrates  were  demanded  by  the  slave  barons,  so  as 
to  streng-then  the  purpose  of  the  court,  and  to  g-ive  official 
notice  to  all  applicants  for  office  under  Mr.  Buchanan,  that 
they  must  endorse  one  of  the  most  startling-  and  indefensible 
decisions  ever  delivered  by  any  judicial  tribunal  in  the  world,, 
before  their  claims  for  official  positions  could  even  have  a 
hearing-  before  the  Executive.  So  successful  did  the  plotters 
work,  that  the  partisans  of  the  court  succeeded  in  many  of 
the  free  States  in  procuring-  an  endorsement  by  their  party 
State  conventions  of  this  monstrous  decision.  Then  the 
office-seekers  of  the  nation,  with  an  alacrity  and  baseness, 
which  no  lang-uag-e  can  describe,  bowed  down  in  submission 
before  the  slave  barons,  kissed  the  hands  that  smote  them> 
and  accepted  menial  positions  as  a  reward  for  their  infamy.. 
All  this  because  the  Supreme  Court  had  been  molded  into  a 
political  tribunal,  and  had  upon  its  bench  political  partisans, 
and  aspirants  for  the  Presidency.  I  wish  the  court  were 
altogether  what  it  ought  to  be  now.  I  regret  as  much  as. 
any  man  that  it  is  not.  I  need  not  dwell  upon  the  painful 
exhibitions  which  may  be  witnessed  any  day  gentlemen  will 
take  the  trouble  to  go  into  the  room  of  the  Supreme  Court. 
Theie  they  will  find  men  upon  the  bench,  passing  upon 
questions  of  the  greatest  magnitude,  who  are  entirely  unfit 


—  538  — 

for  the  discharg-e  of  such  responsible  and  important  duties  as 
are  almost  daily  devolving-  upon  them. 

It  is  painful  for  me  to  say  this,  and  I  do  so  only  because  I 
believe  it  to  be  an  imperative  duty.  It  is  proper  that  the  peo- 
ple should  know  the  facts,  so  they  may  demand  of  their 
representatives  a  remedy  for  the  admitted  defect  in  our  judi- 
cial system.  I  presume  the  members  of  the  present  court  are 
substantially  like  their  predecessors,  no  better,  and  I  hope  no 
worse. 

It  is  well  known  that  for  some  time  before  Judg-e 
McLean's  death,  his  associates  on  the  bench,  at  the  request  of 
friends,  relieved  him  from  all  responsible  labor  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  opinions.  Though  sleeping-  upon  the  bench  during- 
the  greater  part  of  the  time  the  court  was  in  session,  and 
dying-  with  age,  he  was  almost  daily  voting-  upon  and  aiding* 
to  decide  questions  of  the  g-ravest  character,  and  even  then 
was  not  without  hope  of  ultimately  reaching-  the  Presidency. 

Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  a  sad  sight  to  see  such  a  body  as  the 
Supreme  Court  ought  to  be,  with  one-third  of  its  membkrs 

SLEEPING  UPON  THE  BENCH  AND  DYING  WITH  AGE,  AND  ONE- 
THIRD  OR  MORE  CRAZED  WITH  THE  GI.ITTER  OP  THE  PRESIDENCY. 

I  need  not  say  how  utterly  this  condition  of  body  and  mind 
unfits  men  for  the  proper  discharge  of  the  judicial  ofi&ce.  If 
there  is  one  body  of  men  more  than  another  in  this  country 
who  oug-ht  to  be  financially  removed  from  temptation,  and 
intellectually  to  be  clear  and  unclouded,  as  well  as  free  from 
all  partisan  ambition,  it  is  the  members  of  the  Supreme 
Court. 

Our  experience  with  this  branch  of  the  government  has 
been  a  sad  one,  I  will  not  attempt  to  go  into  a  history  of  its 
usurpations,  its  perversion  of  law,  its  criminal  injustice,  its 
political  chicanery.  It  would  employ  more  than  the  entire 
time  allowed  me,  and  then  I  could  not  present  one-half  of  the 
enormities  of  which  it  has  been  guilty.  The  people  have 
been  compelled  more  than  once  to  disregard  and  reverse  its 
infamous  and  unjust  decisions,  and  they  must  be  prepared  to 
do  so  again.  They  were  not  long  in  comprehending  the  ex- 
tent of  the  danger  in  the  Dred  Scott  usurpation.  They  knew 
that  the  power  which  had  the  conceded  right  to  pass  without 
appeal  on^  the  constitutionality  of  the  nation's  laws  would 


—  539  — 

soon  become  the  nation's  master.  If  tins  doctrine  could 
liave  obtained,  the  sovereig'ntj  of  the  nation  would,  sooner 
or  later,  have  been  usurped  by  the  national  judiciary.  Con- 
gress mig-ht  have  enacted  laws,  but  the  court  would  have 
annulled  them  at  pleasure.  Thanks  to  the  intellig-ence  and 
virtue  of  the  people,  it  required  but  few  years  to  reverse  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  and  break  in  pieces  the  ebonj-  imag-e  of 
slavery  which  this  *'  august  tribunal "  had  setup,  and  demand- 
ed that  the  nation  should  worship.  The  people  of  this  country 
could  not  be  made  to  cry  out,  great  is  the  Diana  of  slavery; 
immaculate  and  wise  is  this  "  august  tribunal;"  its  interpre- 
tation of  the  Constitution  shall  be  a  ''finality,"  "binding 
upon  the  executive  and  legislative  departments  of  the  gov- 
■ernment  and  all  the  officers  and  agents  thereof." 

This  attempted  usurpation  on  the  part  of  the  court 
not  only  failed,  but  ignominiously  failed,  and  the  individual 
members  of  the  court  were  arraigned  at  the  bar  of  public 
opinion,  and  put  into  history  with  the  men,  who  in  all  ages 
liave  disgraced  and  dishonored  the  judicial  office.  If  the 
proposition  which  I  have  made,  had  from  the  organization 
of  the  government  been  a  part  of  the  Constitution,  every 
man  will  concede  that  no  such  decision  as  the  Dred  Scott 
decision  would  ever  have  been  made.  Let  us,  then,  provide 
for  such  a  reorganization  of  the  Supreme  and  District  Courts 
of  the  United  States  as  experience  teaches  to  be  necessary. 
Let  us  also  restrict  their  jurisdiction  to  the  fewest  possible 
questions  consistent  with  the  administration  of  the  National 
Government,  and  we  may  hope  to  see  the  organization  of  a 
judicial  tribunal  which  shall  command  the  respect  of  all 
Americans,  and  also  the  respect  of  intelligent  men  through- 
out the  world. 

THE   MINORITY    MUST    HAVE    PROPORTIONAI,   PKRSONAI.  REPRE- 
SENTATION IN  THE   GOVERNMENT. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  proposition  which  I  now  present  is,  in 
tny  opinion,  one  of  more  importance  to  the  future  peace  and 
unity  of  this  nation  than  any  new  proposition  which  has 
€ver  been  suggested,  involving  as  it  does  the  whole  question 
of  representative  government,  and  presenting  the  question  of 


—  540— 

the  rig-ht  of  minorities  to  proportional  representation  in  tlie 
g-overnment  equal  to  their  numerical  strength  at  each  elec- 
tion.    The  Clerk  will  please  read. 
The  Clerk  read  as  follows: 


ARTICI.K  — . 

In  the  election  of  Representatives  to  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States,  whenever  more  than  one  Representative 
is  to  be  elected  from  a  State,  Cong-ress  shall  by  law  desig'nate 
the  manner  in  which  such  additional  Representatives  shall  be 
chosen,  and  shall  provide  for  securing-  to  the  qualified  elec- 
tors in  such  State  proportional  personal  representation  in. 
Cong-ress  as  near  as  may  be. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  Mr.  Chairman,  under  our  sys- 
tem constituencies  are  often  compelled  to  intrust  to  repre- 
sentatives, especially  to  Senators,  the  settlement  of  questions- 
of  vast  importance  which  have  arisen  after  their  election. 
Unless  some  system  can  be  devised  by  which  the  opinions  of 
a  constituency  can  be  obtained  on  any  new  and  important 
question  which  may  have  arisen  after  an  election  of  a  Sen- 
ator or  Representative,  the  people  must  continue  to  intrust, 
as  now,  the  settlement  of  such  questions  to  men  over  whom 
they  can  have  no  control  until  the  next  reg-ular  election. 
The  number  of  Senators  and  Representatives  who  have  served 
in  Cong-ress  since  I  came  into  public  life,  and  have  openly 
and  defiantly  betrayed  or  misrepresented  the  constituencies 
which  elected  them,  is  far  greater  than  is  g-enerally  supposed, 
and  until  the  time  came  to  fill  their  places  by  a  new  election 
such  constituencies  have  been  powerless  in  the  presence  of 
their  own  chosen  servants.  It  will  be  conceded  by  all  that  if 
the  voice  of  betrayed  or  misrepresented  constituencies  could 
have  been  authoritatively  heard,  great  questions  v/hich  have 
been  passed  upon  within  the  memory  of  us  all,  would  have  been 
disposed  of  otherwise  than  as  they  have  been,  and  questions 
which  have  not  yet  been  acted  upon,  would  be  settled  other- 
wise than  as  they  will  be. 

If  in  the  past  quarter  of  a  century,  the  voice  of  every  con- 
stituency in  the  nation  could  have  been  authoritatively  col- 
lected, and  their  will  obeyed,  there  would  have  been  less  of 


—  541- 

compromising",  less  of  patchwork  in  legislation,  less  defiance 
on  the  part  of  Senators  and  Representatives,  and  fewer  be- 
trayals of  constituencies,  either  by  Presidents,  Cabinet  Min- 
isters or  others.  The  people,  however,  are  so  wedded  to  our 
present  system  of  electing*  Presidents  and  Senators  and  Rep- 
resentatives, that  it  is  hardly  probable  that  they  can  now 
be  moved  to  adopt  a  plan  so  advanced  as  that  which  de- 
mands THE  RIGHT  OF  EVERY  CONSTITUENCY,  AT  ATL,!,  TIMES  TO 
INSTRUCT  OR  RECALI*  THEIR  PUBLIC  SERVANTS  AND  SUBSTITUTE 

OTHERS  IN  THEIR  STEAD.  It  therefore  becomes  all  the  more 
importrjit,  that  a  system  should  be  adopted  which  will  secure 
to  every  elector,  the  rig-ht  to  vote  for  such  persons  as  in  his 
judgment  will  best  represent  his  opinions  on  the  leading" 
questions  of  the  day,  and  to  whose  judgment  and  fidelity  he 
is  willing  to  intrust  the  disposition  of  all  new  questions  which 
may  arise,  and  on  which,  at  the  time  of  voting,  he  can  have 
formed  no  opinions. 

Mr.  Chairman,  in  submitting  this  proposition,  the  object 
I  have  in  view  is  to  secure  to  every  elector,  no  matter  where 
he  may  reside  in  a  State,  the  right  to  vote  for  any  citizen  in 
his  State,  whom  he  may  prefer  to  represent  him  in 
Congress,  so  that  the  free  exercise  of  his  individual  judgment 
shall  not  be  restricted  to  the  locality  of  his  residence,  or  to 
accepting  a  candidate  imposed  upon  him  by  local  caucuses 
and  local  conventions.  Experience,  I  think,  has  demonstrated 
the  necessity  of  devising  some  improvement  in  our  electoral 
system.  We  must  adopt  a  system,  not  oni^y  for  nominat- 
ing AND  EI.ECTING  THE  PRESIDENT  BY  A  DIRECT  VOTE  OF  THE 
PEOPLE  BY  BALLOT,  WITHOUT  THE  INTERVENTION  OF  CAUCUSES 
AND  CONVENTIONS  AND   PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTORS,  but  we  mUSt 

inaugurate  a  system  for  electing  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives in  Congress  and  for  State  Legislatures,  which  will  se- 
cure a  more  equitable  representation  and  give  greater  protec- 
tion to  the  interests  and  rights  of  minorities.  The  despotism 
^nd  injustice  of  the  majority  has  been  felt  with  fearful  power 
in  this  nation.  For  more  than  three-quarters  of  a  century  in 
the  name  of  Christianity  and  of  liberty  the  majority  have  en- 
slaved millions  of  men.     During  all  that  time  demagogues 

CLAMORED  FOR  THE  RIGHT  OF  THE  MAJORITY  TO  ENACT  VIL- 
LAINY INTO  LAW.     Compromising  with  slavery  was  then  re- 


—  542  — 

garded  as  the  highest  statesmanship.  The  right  of  the  mi- 
nority to  a  voice  in  the  Government  or  even  to  a  hearing  was. 
imperiously  denied,  and  bars  and  bolts  and  dungeons,  mob 
law  and  social' and  political  ostracism  was  the  lot  of  those 
who  in  the  land  of  Washington  came  pleading  for  the  liberty 
of  the  human  race.  Experience  warns  us  of  the  fatal  conse- 
quences of  such  injustice  and  of  all  compromises  with  wrong 
and  of  all  temporary  and  superficial  legislation.  Put  the 
propositions  which  I  have  made  into  the  Constitution,  and 
they  will  become  the  crowning  glory  of  our  fundamental  law. 
We  shall  thus  abolish  the  kingly  prerogatives  of  the  Presi- 
dent, and  recognize  the  supremacy  of  the  people  by  making 
it  the  imperative  duty  of  the  Government  to  see  that  the 
rights  of  minorities  are  respected  and  protected.  *'  The  office 
of  government,"  says  one  of  the  ablest  women  of  America, 
**is  to  represent  the  rights  of  all,  not  the  will  of  all." 

True  representation  is  the  corner-stone  of  the  republic; 
without  it  democracy  surrenders  to  the  minority,  and  a  ruling 
minority  in  any  government  will  always  become  an  aristoc- 
racy. Democracy  cannot  be  maintained  by  any  people  simply 
by  declaring  for  a  government  of  the  majority,  unless  it 
recognizes  the  divine  law,  which  commands  all  to  **do  unta 
others  as  they  would  that  others  should  do  unto  them."  The 
*' golden  rule"  is  the  foundation-stone  of  true  democracy, 
and  the  nation  which  builds  upon  any  other  foundation, 
though  by  the  consent  of  the  majority,  builds  upon  the  sand. 
What  i  want  to  secure  in  the  administration  of  the  govern- 
ment is  not  the  absolute  domination  of  the  majority,  but  to 
have  the  enlightened  *'will  of  the  majority  constituted 
guardian  of  the  rights  of  all."  My  purpos:^  is  to  so  reor- 
ganize TH:e  GOVKRNMKNI*  THAT  IT  SHAI^Iy  RECOGNIZE  THE 
DIVINE  LAW  OE  LIBERTY  AND  JUSTICE,  AND  BE  ADMINISTERED 
BY  THE  CONSENT  OE  ALL,  IN  THE  INTEREST  OF  ALL,  AND  WITH 

REPRESENTATION  FOR  ALL.  This  Cannot  be  done  by  concen- 
trating so  much  power  in  the  hands  of  the  President  or  in 
the  national  judiciary;  nor  can  it  be  done  by  refusing  ta 
recognize  the  right  of  minorities  to  proportional  represen- 
tation in  the  State  legislatures  and  in  the  national  Congress. 
The  system  which  I  wish  to  see  inaugurated  is  based  upon  the 
fundamental  idea  that  every  legislative  body  should  reflect 


—  543^ 

the  sentiments  and  convictions  of  the  whole  people  which  it 
is  chosen  to  represent.  Adopt  this  plan,  and  every  constit- 
uency sufficiently  numerous  in  a  State  to  entitle  them  to 
more  than  one  Representative  in  Congress  or  to  any  number 
in  a  State  leg-islature,  can  secure  such  Representatives. 

Under  our  present  system  t«he  minority  in  half  the  States 
are  often  without  a  voice  in  the  National  Government.  The 
legislative  power  of  Ohio  to-day  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
minority  of  the  electors  of  that  State.  This  could  never 
happen  under  the  system  which  I  hope  some  day  to  see 
adopted,  not  only  by  the  States,  but  by  the  National  Govern- 
ment. The  system  so  ably  presented  by  Mr.  Hare,  of  Great 
Britain,  commends  itself  to  me  because  of  its  admirable  sim- 
plicity and  its  absolute  security  to  the  interests  and  rights  of 
minorities.  It  would  be  mathematically  impossible  under  that 
system  for  the  minority  in  any  State  to  obtain  control  of  its 
legislature,  or  the  minority  of  the  nation  to  obtain  a  majority 
in  Congress,  while  at  the  same  time  it  would  secure  to  minori- 
ties a  just  representation  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  votes 
which  they  polled  at  each  election. 

I  have  not  time  to  dwell,  as  I  should  be  glad  to  do,  at 
greater  length  upon  the  inestimable  value  of  this  most  ad- 
mirable system;  a  system  which  has  the  approval  of  John 
Stuart  Mill  and  many  of  the  ablest  statesmen  of  Europe  and 
America.  With  some  modifications  it  could  be  adopted  by 
every  State.  But  if  custom  and  the  ambition  of  local  party 
leaders  render  the  adoption  of  Mr.  Hare's  plan  impossible,  I 
am  confident  that  a  discussion  of  the  question  of  minority 
representation  which  it  presents  will  result  in  an  amendment 
to  our  present  indefensible  system.  For  the  sake  of  illustra- 
tion, let  me  state  the  manner  in  which  the  voters  of  Ohio 
are  clothed  in  unequal  political  power.  I  do  not  now  speak 
of  the  entire  disfranchisement  of  minorities,  which  is  done 
in  almost  every  State  by  gerrymandering,  but  the  unequal 
apportionment  of  States  into  senatorial  and  legislative  dis- 
tricts, as  in  Maryland  and  Delaware. 

In  addition  to  this  I  refer  to  the  great  power  which  in 
certain  localities  in  many  States  is  conferred  upon  one  yoter 
and  denied  to  another.  For  instance,  in  Hamilton  county, 
in  my  State,  each  elector  votes  for  nine  representatives  and 


—  544  — 

three  senators  to  the  State  legislature,  making*  twelve  mem- 
bers of  the  State  legislature  for  whom  one  elector  votes  on 
one  ticket. 

In  the  county  in  which  I  reside,  and  indeed  in  a  majority 
of  the  counties  in  the  State,  they  elect  but  one  member  of 
the  House  and  one  senator  in  each  district,  so  that  each  elec- 
tor outside  of  Hamilton  county  can  vote  for  but  one  represen- 
tative and  one  senator  to  the  State  legislature,  except  in  such 
years  as  a  few  of  the  districts  or  counties  have  one  additional 
senator  or  representative,  which  we  call  "a  float."  Every 
voter,  therefore,  in  Hamilton  county  has  a  large  increase  of 
political  power  over  a  voter  in  Lucas  in  the  choice  of  mem- 
bers of  the  State  legislature.  This  inequality  and  injustice, 
all  will  agree,  ought  not  to  be  maintained.  The  political 
power  of  the  State  as  represented  by  the  number  of  votes 
cast  by  each  party  can  be  fairly  distributed  and  the  minority 
secured  its  proportional  representation  without  an  entire 
abandonment  of  the  district  system  to  which  custom  and  the 
interests  of  local  politicians  so  much  attach  us. 

To  illustrate,  suppose  we  should  alter  our  State  consti- 
tution in  Ohio  so  that  the  Senate  should  be  composed  of 
forty-eight  members  and  the  House  of  ninety-six  members, 
and  that  in  making  the  apportionment  in  the  constitution  as 
it  is  now  the  State  should  be  divided  into  eleven  senatorial 
and  twenty-two  representative  districts,  electing  four  sena- 
tors and  four  representatives  in  each  district,  each  senatorial 
district  being  divided  into  two  representative  districts;  and 
that  the  remaining  four  senators  and  eight  representatives 
should  be  elected  as  we  now  elect  floats,  except  that  they  be 
elected  for  the  State  at  large.  This  would  place  every  voter 
in  the  State  on  an  equal  footing  as  to  the  number  of  members 
of  the  State  legislature  for  whom  he  would  be  permitted  to 
vote.. 

If,  after  such  an  appointment  the  electors  were  permitted 
—  as  I  think  they  ought  to  be  —  to  adopt  the  cumulative  and 
alternate  system  of  voting,  the  minority  if  they  numbered  a 
fraction  above  one-fourth  of  the  voters  in  any  district  could 
secure  one  senator  and  representative,  or  if  they  numbered 
a  fraction  above  one-eighth  of  the  voters  in  the  State  they 


—  545  — 

could  secure  one  senator  and  two  representatives  for  the  State 
at  larg-e. 

If  the  electors  in  any  district  were  dissatisfied,  as  they 
often  are  with  one  or  more  of  the  candidates  nominated  by 
their  party,  they  oug-ht  to  be  permitted  to  cumulate  and  alter- 
nate their  votes  on  any  one  or  more  candidates,  either  for  the 
State  at  larg-e  or  in  their  own  district,  desig-nating"  on  their 
ballots  their  first,  second,  third  and  fourth  choice,  so  that 
their  votes  should  not  be  lost  by  a  larg-er  number  being-  cast 
for  any  one  candidate  than  would  elect  him,  or  for  a  candi- 
date who  would  not  receive  enough  to  elect  him.  Under  this 
system  each  party  would  be  compelled  to  present  its  best  and 
ablest  men  or  suffer  defeat.  Each  elector  having-  the  rig-ht  of 
alternate  and  cumulative  voting-,  he  could  vote  for  any  one  or 
more  of  the  candidates,  either  for  the  State  at  larg-e  or  in  his 
district,  and  would  do  so  rather  than  vote  for  an  objection- 
able and  unworthy  man  of  his  party  merely  because  he  was 
the  caucus  nominee,  if  in  doing-  so  he  thereby  increased  the 
vote  of  his  favorite  candidate. 

Let  me  illustrate  this  point,  so  that  I  shall  not  be  misun- 
derstood. I  would  provide  that  each  elector  should  vote  one 
ballot.  On'that  ballot  he  should  name  his  choice  for  State  and 
county  officers  as  now.  State  and  county  officers  being-  minis- 
terial and  not  legislative,  and  each  voter  being-  entitled  to 
vote  for  but  one  of  such  officers,  the  right  of  alternate  and 
cumulative  voting-  cannot  be  provided  for.  Only  where  the 
elector  has  the  rig-ht  to  vote  for  two  or  more  candidates  for 
the  same  office  —  like  members  of  the  leg-islature  or  Cong-ress 
—  can  the  system  of  cumulative  and  alternative  voting-  be  ap- 
plied. For  example,  every  State  has  but  one  g-overnor,  and 
every  county  but  one  clerk  of  the  court,  and  each  elector 
must  vote  for  but  one,  if  he  votes  at  all.  Hence  this  system 
which  I  propose  recog-nizes  the  supremacy  of  the  leg-islative  de- 
partment in  the  Government,  and  provides  for  the  proportional 
representation  of  the  minority,  so  that  that  minority  may  have 
a  voice  in  prescribii:;g-  by  law  the  mode  and  manner  in  which 
all  ministerial  officers  of  the  Government  shall  discharge  the 
powers  and  duties  of  their  respective  offices.     If  any  system 


35 


—  546  — 

can  be  devised  which  will  give  more  absolute  power  to  the 
people  I  am  for  it. 

In  voting"  under  this  system  the  ballots  would  be  made 
up  substantially  as  follows: 

Repubwcan  Stats  Tickkt. 


For  Governor, 
For  Judge  Supreme  Court, 


For  Secretary  of  State, 
For  Attorney  General, 

For  Board  Public  Works, 
For  School  Commissioner, 


County  Ticket, 
For  Auditor, 

For  County  Clerk, 

For  Probate  Judge, 

For  Sheriff, 

For  Commissioner, 


547  — 


Legislative  Ticket, 
For  Senators — State  at  Large, 


For  Hepresentatives — State  at  Large, 


1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
S. 
6. 
7. 
8. 


For  Senators  Tenth  District,  composed  of  the  Counties  of- 


For  Representatives  Twentieth  District,  composed  of  the 
Counties  of , 


548- 


Congressional  Ticket— For  Bepresentatives  in  Congress^ 
State  at  Large, 

1.    , 

2.     , 

3.    

For  Representatives  in  Congress,  Fourth  District,  composed 
of  the  Counties  of — , 

1.    , 

2.     , 

3.     , 

4.    -— . 


In  electing"  Representatives  to  Congress  I  have  provided 
that  the  same  system  should  be  adopted  which  I  have  sug- 
g-ested  for  electing  members  of  State  legislatures.  Every 
State  entitled  to  less  than  eight  Representatives  in  Congress 
should  elect  them  on  one  ticket  for  the  State  at  large.  In 
each  State  entitled  to  eight  members  and  over,  the  number  to 
which  they  are  entitled  should  be  divided  by  four,  and  the 
State  apportioned  into  as  many  districts  as  there  are  products 
of  such  division,  the  additional  number  of  members  to  which 
they  are  entitled,  if  there  be  any,  to  be  elected  for  the  State 
at  large,  as  General  Logan  is  now  elected  by  the  State  of 
Illinois.  Thus  in  Ohio  we  should  have,  until  a  new  appor- 
tionment was  made,  four  congressional  districts,  in  each  of 
which  four  Representatives  to  Congress  would  be  elect- 
ed and  the  remaining  three  members  would  be  elected 
by  the  State  at  large.  Under  this  system  every  voter  in 
Ohio  would  vote  for  seven  Representatives  in  Congress;  or, 
if  he  preferred  to  do  so,  he  could,  by  alternative  and  cumula- 
tive voting,  give  his  seven  votes  to  any  one  candidate.  Thus 
a  minority  in  Ohio,  if  they  numbered  a  fraction  above  one- 
seventh  of  the  voters  of  a  State,  by  uniting  on  one  candidate. 


—  549  — 

could  secure  one  Representative  in  Congress,  and  in  no  event 
could  they  elect  a  greater  number  of  Representatives  than 
they  would  be  entitled  to  by  the  number  of  votes  which  they 
were  able  to  cast. 

If  it  be  sug-g-ested  that  the  electors  in  States  having-  but 
one  or  two  Representatives  would  not  have  equal  political 
power  with  electors  in  the  larg-er  States,  I  answer  that  they 
are  more  than  compensated  by  the  two  Senators  which  repre- 
sent a  small  population  in  the  Senate.  It  requires  no  arg-u- 
ment  to  show  that  this  system  would  do  much  to  destroy  the 
baneful  effects  of  party  spirit;  that  it  would  check  the  use  of 
money  at  elections,  and  prevent  the  great  frauds  which  are 
yearly  J^ecoming*  more  and  more  alarming*.  In  addition  to 
this,  it  would  tend  to  secure  the  services  of  the  ablest  men 
in  Cong-ress  and  in  State  leg-islatures.  The  men  who  were 
nominated  and  elected  to  the  Senate  and  House  for  a  State  at 
larg-e,  as  a  rule,  would  be  the  ablest  men  each  party  could 
select  in  the  State.  So,  also,  of  Representatives  to  Cong-ress; 
the  people  of  the  whole  State  having-  a  right  to  vote  for  one, 
or  two,  or  three  Representatives  to  Congress  for  the  State  at 
large  would  be  careful  to  select  gentlemen  of  well-known  abili- 
ty and  fidelity.  In  this  way  able  and  faithful  and  experienced 
men  would  be  retained  in  public  life,  because  local  factions 
and  the  local  ambitions  of  aspirants  could  not  be  so  success- 
fully used  as  now  to  defeat  them.  More  would  be  expected 
of  a  man  who  was  nominated  and  elected  to  the  legislature 
for  the  State  at  large  than  of  a  local  candidate  from  almost 
any  county,  and  so  of  a  man  nominated  and  elected  by  a  State 
at  large  as  a  Representative  to  the  Congress  of  the  nation. 

This  plan  is  so  just  and  fair  that  it  must  sooner  or  later 
commend  itself  to  the  great  body  of  thinking  men  in  the 
country.  Each  voter  should  have  the  right  to  say  on  his  bal- 
lot, *'I  desire  to  be  represented  by  the  candidate  whose  name 
I  have  placed  opposite  No.  1.  I  therefore  cast  all  my  votes 
for  him.  If  he  should  obtain  more  than  the  quota  of  votes 
necessary  to  elect  him,  or  if  he  should  fail  to  obtain  a  suffi- 
cient number,  and  thus  cannot  become  my  Representative,  I 
direct  that  my  vote  be  transferred  to  the  candidate  which  I 
have  designated  as  No.  2,  he  being  my  second  choice;"  and  so 


m 


—  550—  1 

on,  under  the  same  conditions,  to  the  number  of  candidates 
for  whom  each  elector  is  entitled  to  vote. 

If  the  system  of  electing-  the  President  and  Vice-Presi- 
dent by  the  appointment  of  electoral  colleges  is  to  be  main- 
tained, then  they  oug-ht  to  be  elected  by  districts  and  States 
as  I  suggest  in  case  of  Congressmen,  and  not  in  single  dis- 
tricts as  proposed  by  the  constitutional  amendment  which  has 
just  passed  the  Senate  and  is  now  on  our  table.  One  of  the 
amendments  which  I  have  suggested  to  that  amendment  is  in 
my  opinion  far  preferable,  and  yet  I  do  not  intend  to  vote  for 
it,  even  if  adopted  as  an  amendment  to  the  Senate  proposi- 
tion; I  mean  the  amendment  which  I  offered  a  day  or  two  ago, 
which  provides  for  the  appointment  of  electors  of  President 
and  Vice-President  by  the  legislatures  to  represent  the  will  of 
the  voters  as  expressed  by  them  at  the  general  election.  I 
would  be  very  glad,  however,  to  have  the  opportunity  of 
voting  for  the  proposition  which  I  made  at  the  last  session 
and  again  at  this,  which  provides  for  the  nomination  and 

ELECTION  OP  THE  PRESIDENT  BY  A  DIRECT  VOTE  OP  THE  PEOPLE 
BY  BALLOT.  Ip  we  are  TO  HAVE  A  PRESIDENT  AT  ALL,  I  WANT 
HIM  ELECTED  DIRECTLY  BY  THE  QUALIFIED  VOTERS  OP  THE  NA- 
TION. I  am  opposed  to  the  single  district  plan,  because  it 
does  not  secure  an  equitable  representation  to  the  voters  of 
the  nation.  Under  that  system  a  minority  of  the  whole  peo- 
ple have  elected  a  President  and  would  be  able  to  do  so  again. 
It  is  true,  as  my  friend  [Mr.  Williams,  of  Indiana]  suggests, 
that  the  minority  have  and  may  again  elect  the  President  un- 
der our  present  system.  I  prefer,  however,  to  retain  that 
system,  imperfect  as  all  admit  it  to  be,  until  we  can  adopt  a 
better  one.  The  scene  which  transpired  in  this  House  on 
Wednesday,  when  counting  the  electoral  vote,  ought  to  be  a 
warning  to  the  statesmen  of  the  nation.  It  developed  in  a 
practical  manner  the  weak  and  dangerous  point  in  our  system 
of  electing  the  President.  If  the  rejection  of  the  vote  of  a 
State  by  Congress  should  at  any  time  happen  to  change  the 
result  of  a  presidential  election  the  consequences  would  be 
fearful. 

Suppose,  when  counting  the  vote  the  other  day,  there 
had  been  three  or  more  candidates  for  President  (as  there  have 
been  several  times),  and  that  each  candidate  had  received  a. 


—  551  — 

sufficient  number  of  electoral  votes  to  have  defeated  an  elec- 
tion by  the  electoral  colleg-e,  and  the  friends  of  the  defeated 
candidates  had  united  and  thrown  out  the  vote  of  one  or 
more  States,  so  that  it  would  defeat  the  person  having-  a  ma- 
jority of  all  the  certified  votes  returned,  and  thus  have 
defeated  an  election  by  the  Electoral  College  and  brought 
the  election  into  this  House.  Can  any  man  contemplate  such 
a  conting-ency  without  alarm?  In  a  full  House  of  233  mem- 
bers, thirty-eight  men  from  the  small  States,  by  uniting, 
could  elect  the  President,  and,  if  they  saw  fit  to  do  so,  they 
could  select  of  the  three  candidates  before  the  House  the 
person  having  the  smallest  number  of  electoral  votes.  Do 
gentlemen  suppose  the  people  of  the  country  would  submit 
to  such  injustice  without  a  fearful  strug-gle?  Of  course  no 
sane  man  pretends  to  defend  a  system  which  invites  such 
conspiracies,  and  which  makes  such  scenes  as  we  witnessed 
last  Wednesday  possible  when  counting-  the  electoral  vote. 
Let  any  Congress  assume  to  throw  out  votes  enough  to 
change  the  result  of  a  presidential  election,  and  they  will 
inaugurate  revolution. 

I  am  asked  by  gentlemen  around  me  if  I  would  sit  here  and 
count  the  vote  of  a  State  if  the  certificate  was  a  forgery,  or  if 
the  election  in  the  State  had  been  carried  by  force  or  fraud. 
I  answer  certainly  not.  If  compelled  to  vote,  I  must  vote  for 
what  I  believe  to  be  right  and  let  consequences  take  care  of 
themselves;  but  if  I  voted  to  reject  one  or  more  States,  and 
their  rejection  changed  the  result  of  the  election,  I  would  be 
voting"  for  that  which  would  inaugurate  revolution.  And  I 
will  say,  in  passing-,  that  no  question  of  contest  as  to  the 
validity  of  the  presidential  election  should  ever  be  permitted 
to  come  before  Congress.  If  frauds  are  committed  or  force  is 
employed  in  any  State,  the  question  should  be  settled  in  the 
District  Courts  of  the  United  States  for  the  district  in  which 
the  fraud  or  force  was  alleged  to  have  been  practiced.  The 
District  Courts  in  each  State  are  the  courts  before  which  such 
■questions  should  be  determined.  The  question  of  the  validity 
of  any  election  being  thus  adjudicated  and  passed  upon  by  a 
national  judicial  tribunal,  in  the  State  where  the  alleged 
frauds  were  charged,  Congress  would  have  no  other  duty  to 


—  SS2- 


n 


perform  than  to  count  the  vote  as  returned,  and  officially  pro- 
claim the  result. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  all  this  is  a  dig-ression  into  which  I 
have  been  drawn  by  the  sug'g'estions  and  questions  of  gentle- 
men around  me.     Let  me  now  g-o  back  to  the  question  of 
representation  which  I  was  discussing".     I  was  speaking*  of 
the  unfairness  of  the  plan  of  electing*  presidential  electors  in 
a  sing-le  cong-ressional  or  electoral  district.     There  is  hardly 
a  State  in  the  Union  which  elects  four  or  more  representa- 
tives to  Cong-ress  in  which  the  minority  party  could  not,  if 
they  had  a  majority  in  their  State  leg-islatures  (as  the  Demo- 
cratic party  have  to-day  in  Ohio,  and  the  Republican  party 
in  New  York),  so  gerrymander  the  State  into  electoral  dis- 
tricts as  to  secure  a  majority  of  presidential  electors  in  the 
State  to  the  candidate  of  their  party.     If  electors  should  be 
appointed  as  I  propose  Representatives  in  Congress  shall  be 
elected,  a  proportional  representation  would  be  secured  to  the 
minority  in  each  State  in  exact  proportion  to  the  number  of 
votes  cast  by  each  party,  and  all  motive  for  gerrymandering 
would  be  removed.     If  the  single  district  system  should  pre- 
vail, the  Republican  party,  having  a  majority  in  the  legisla- 
ture of  New  York,  could,  and  probably  would,  so  district  the 
State  as  to  secure  a  majority  of  the  electors  of  President  and 
Vice-President  to  their  party  candidates,  although  the  State 
should   go  largely   Democratic.     The  Democratic   party  in 
Ohio  could  so  district  the  State  as  to  secure  a  majority  of  the 
presidential  electors  to  the  candidate  of  their  party,  although 
the  State  might  be  carried  largely  by  the  Republican  party. 
Of  course,  such  a  plan  is  entirely  indefensible.     The  fact 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  and  General  Grant  received  a  larger  number 
of  electoral  votes  than  the  Republican  party  carried  congres- 
sional districts,  including  the  senatorial  electors,  is  no  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  the  district  system.     No  system  is  defensible 
which  defeats  the  will  of  the  majority,  or  which  fails  to  se- 
cure to  the  electors  of  the  entire  nation  proportional  repre- 
sentation.    No  man  who  has  given  this  subject  proper  reflec- 
tion will  claim  that  the  electors  of  the  nation  have  ever  had 
their  proportional  representation  in  the  Electoral  College  for 
the  choice  of  President  and  Vice-President  from  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Government  to  this  hour.    The  Republican  represen- 


—  553-- 

tation  in  this  House  for  the  past  eig-ht  years  has  been  out  of 
all  proportion  to  the  vote  cast  for  that  party,  as  everybody 
admits.  In  the  Senate  the  inequality  and  injustice  to  the 
minority  has  been  far  g-reater.  In  1824  Jackson  had  a  larg-er 
popular  vote  than  both  Adams  and  Crawford  combined,  yet 
they  secured  26  more  electoral  votes  than  Jackson,  which  car- 
ried the  election  into  the  House  of  Representatives,  where 
Jackson  was  defeated.  At  that  election  Jackson  had  99  votes, 
Adams  84,  and  Crawford  41.  Of  course  all  remember  that 
Mr.  Adams  was  elected  by  the  House  of  Representatives. 

In  1832  Jackson  was  elected  over  Clay,  having-  a  majority 
of  the  popular  vote,  as  also  a  majority  of  the  Electoral  Col- 
lege. But  if  any  one  will  divide  the  total  vote  by  the  num- 
ber of  electors,  he  will  find  that  Clay,  who  only  secured  49 
electors,  ought  to  have  had  119,  making*  a  difference  of  70 
votes,  and  double  that  number  as  between  Jackson  and  Clay, 
as  the  70  were  taken  from  Clay  and  g-iven  to  Jackson.  In 
1852,  the  candidates  were  Pierce,  Scott  and  Hale,  and  the 
popular  vote  and  the  number  of  electors  which  each  received 
was  as  follows  (this  statement  also  shows  the  ratio  for  each 
elector  chosen): 

PRESIDKNTIAI.  EI.KCTION,  1852. 

Popular  Vote. 

Pierce 1,585,545 

Scott 1,383,537 

Hale 157,296 


Electors. 

Ratios. 

254 

6,242 

42 

32,846 

3,126,378  296 

Pierce  had  254  votes,  Scott  42  votes  and  Hale  none.  The 
injustice  of  this  must  be  very  apparent  to  every  one.  Divide 
the  whole  vote,  3,126,378,  by  296,  the  whole  number  of  elec- 
tors, and  the  ratio  necessary  to  elect  one  elector  at  that  elec- 
tion was  10,562  votes,  and  yet  the  Pierce  electors  were  elected 
by  a  ratio  not  exceeding-  6,242,  while  the  ratio  for  the  Scott 
electors  was  32,846,  or  more  than  five  times  the  number  required 
to  elect  the  Pierce  electors,  while  Hale,  with  157,296  votes,. 
did  not  secure  one  electoral  vote.     If  the  vote  had  been  equi- 


—  554-- 

tably  divided,  as  I  propose,  Pierce  would  have  had  150  votes, 
Scott  131,  and  Hale  15  votes.  Pierce-  having"  a  majority  of 
the  popular  vote  over  both  Scott  and  Hale  would,  of  course, 
liave  a  majority  over  both  of  the  electoral  votes,  and  would 
have  been  the  President.  The  inequality  and  injustice  to  the 
electors  in  1860  is  so  glaring-  that  I  desire  to  call  special  at- 
tention to  it: 

PRESIDENTIAI.  BISECTION,  1860. 

Popular  Vote.  Electors.     Ratios. 

Lincoln 1,866,452  180  10,369 

Doug-1  as 1, 375, 157  12  114, 596 

Breckinridg-e...       847,953  72  11,777 

Bell 590,631  39  15,144 


4,680,193  303 

Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  receive  a  majority  of  the  popular 
vote,  yet  he  had  a  larg-e  majority  of  the  electoral  vote.  Doug"- 
las  had  but  12  electoral  votes,  with  1,375,157  votes,  while 
Breckinridg-e  and  Bell  tog-ether  had  111  electoral  votes,  al- 
thoug-h  their  combined  popular  vote  was  less  than  64,000 
more  than  the  popular  vote  for  Doug-las.  Each  of  Doug-las's 
electors  had  114,596  votes,  while  each  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  elec- 
tors had  but  10,369  votes.  If  the  electors  had  been  appor- 
tioned according-  to  the  popular  vote,  Lincoln  would  have  had 
121  electors,  Doug-las  89,  Breckinridg-e  55,  and  Bell  38. 

At  the  election  for  1864  the  vote  was  for  — 

Popular  Vote.     Electors.     Ratios. 

Lincoln 2,223,035  213  10,436 

McClellan 1,811,754  21  86,274 

The  mean  ratio  is  17,224  for  an  elector;  Lincoln  there- 
fore ought  to  have  had  but  129  electoral  votes,  and  General 
McClellan  should  have  had  105  electoral  votes. 

ELECTION  FOR  PRESIDENT  IN  1868. 


Grant 3,016,353 

Seymour 2,706,631 


Electors. 

Ratios. 

214 

14,090 

80 

33,832 

—  555  — 

The  mean  ratio  at  this  election  is  10,499.  This  would 
have  given  General  Grant  155  electors,  Seymour  139  electors. 

With  these  facts  before  us,  the  injustice  and  danger  of 
our  present  system  must  be  apparent  to  all.  Under  it  the 
minority  have  and  may  again  elect  the  President.  The  same 
inequality  and  injustice  will  be  seen  if  the  returns  for  the 
election  of  members  of  this  House  are  examined.  If  the  elec- 
tors who  voted  for  Grant  and  Seymour  were  equitably  repre- 
sented in  the  next  House,  the  Republican  majorit}^  would  be 
far  less  than  it  will  be.  For  these  reasons  I  oppose  the 
proposition  to  elect  the  President  by  appointing  presidential 
electors  in  each  State  by  single  districts.  If  this  system 
should  prevail  the  motive'for  gerrymandering  would  increase, 
and  the  legislatures  of  the  several  States  might  provide,  as 
was  done  in  Maryland,  I  believe,  in  1824,  when  they  provided 
that  the  senatorial  electors  for  that  State  should  be  elected 
in  the  third  and  fourth  congressional  districts.  The  legisla- 
ture of  Ohio,  if  Democratic  as  now,  could  provide  that  the 
two  senatorial  electors  should  be  elected  in  the  two  strongest 
Democratic  districts  in  the  State;  and  the  Republican  legis- 
lature of  New  York  could  provide  that  her  senatorial  electors 
should  be  elected  in  the  congressional  districts  in  which  her 
Senators  actually  resided.  Any  system  which  encourages  the 
perpetration  of  such  frauds  upon  electors  must  be  met  with 
prompt  and  unyielding  opposition.  If,  as  I  have  said,  the 
Electoral  College  system  is  to  be  maintained,  then  I  feel  war- 
ranted in  saying  that  the  statesmen  of  the  country  will  prefer 
the  adoption  of  some  plan  which  will  secure  to  the 
electors  of  each  State  an  equitable  representation  in  the 
Electoral  College.  This  cannot  be  done  by  electing  them  in 
single  districts,  nor  as  now  by  the  State  at  large. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  repeat  what  I  have  hereto- 
fore said  in  this  House  and  elsewhere,  that  I  am  utterly  op- 
posed to  the  present  mode  of  electing  the  President,  either  by 
electoral  colleges  or  by  the  House  of  Representatives.  The 
honest  and  fair  way  is  the  one  which  is  easiest  and*  freest 
from  complications,  and  that  is  to  nominate  the  several  can. 
■didates  for  President  under  the  safeguards  and  protection  o? 
law,  and  elect  by  a  direct  vote  of  the  qualified  electors  of  the 
entire  nation  by  ballot. 


—  556  — 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  desire  to  see  Mr.  Hare's  system  adopted 
in  this  country,  because  I  believe  it  to  be  the  most  philosoph- 
ical ever  presented  for  securing-  an  equitable  division  of  polit- 
ical power  in  a  republican  commonwealth.  John  Stuart  Mill> 
in  his  work  on  representative  government,  says: 

"Of  all  modes  in  which  the  national  representation  can 
possibly  be  constituted,  this  one  affords  the  best  security  for 
the  intellectual  qualifications  desirable  in  a  representative. 
At  present,  by  universal  admission,  it  is  becoming-  more  and 
more  difficult  for  any  one  who  has  only  talents  and  character 
to  gain  admission  to  the  House  of  Commons.  The  only  per- 
sons who  can  get  elected  are  those  who  possess  local  influence 
or  make  their  way  by  lavish  expenditure. 

"In  no  other  way  which  it  seems  possible  to  suggest 
would  Parliament  be  so  certain  of  containing  the  very  elit:^ 
of  the  country.  Not  solely  through  the  votes  of  minorities, 
would  this  system  raise  the  intellectual  standard  of  the  House 
of  Commons.  Majorities  would  be  compelled  to  look  out  for 
members  of  much  higher  calibre.  When  the  individuals  com- 
posing the  majorities  would  no  longer  be  reduced  to  Hobson's. 
choice  of  either  voting  for  the  person  brought  forward  by  the 
local  leaders  or  not  voting  at  all,  when  the  nominee  of  the 
leaders  would  have  to  encounter  not  only  the  candidate  of  the 
minority,  but  of  all  the  men  of  established  reputations  in  the 
country  who  were  willing  to  ^erve,  it  would  be  impossible 
any  longer  to  foist  upon  the  electors  the  first  person  who  pre- 
sents himself  with  the  catchwords  of  the  party  in  his  mouth, 
and  ^3,000  or  ;^4,000  in  his  pockets." 

Mr.  Chairman,  nothing  has  been  more  successfully  used 
in  this  country  by  small  demagogues  to  defeat  able  represen- 
tative men  than  the  clamor  of  the  spoils-hunter  for  "  available 
candidates  "  and  for  "rotation  in  office."  These  men  demand 
party  success  at  whatever  cost  of  manhood  or  consistency. 
With  this  cry,  party  discipline  has  been  successfully  invoked, 
and  constituencies  have  voted  to  place  men  in  office  who  were 
known  by  them  to  be  intellectually  and  morally  unfit  for  any 
honorable  public  position. 

Is  the  candidate  "available?  "  asks  the  time-server.  If  so, 
that  is  enough.  No  spoils-hunter  is  so  indiscreet  as  to  in- 
quire about  the  character  or  ability  of  his  candidate.  Every 
person  of  experience  knows  that  as  a  rule  the  "  available 
man  "  has  no  individuality,  and  that  political  availability  is 
everywhere   a  synonym  for   political   mediocrity,    and   that 


-557  — 

nothing"  so  delights  the  heart  of  respectable  conservatism  as 
stupid  mediocrity. 

Let  any  man  make  careful  inquiry  into  the  character  of 
all  the  men  who  for  the  past  quarter  of  a  century  have  been 
members  of  this  House,  and  he  will  find,  to  speak  within 
bounds,  that  more  than  one-third  of  the  entire  number  have 
been,  as  Mr.  Benton  says,  *'mere  birds  of  passage,"  whose 
entrance  here-  was  often  as  great  an  astonishment  to  them- 
selves as  it  was  to  the  statesmen  of  the  nation.  He  will  also 
find  that  a  large  proportion  of  these  '*  birds  of  passage  "  came 
here  by  the  force  and  power  of  party  machinery  and  the  co- 
operation of  the  Executive,  who  desired  the  presence  of  such 
men  that  they  might  do  his  bidding,  after  which,  by  common 
consent  they  were  to  be  '*  rotated  out,"  and  receive  as  a  reward 
for  their  fidelity  to  the  **  powers  that  be  "  some  petty  ofiB.ce;  or 
lie  will  find  that  they  were  nominated  and  elected  because 
they  were  the  representatives  of  money-bags  rather  than  the 
representatives  of  ideas,  or  that  they  were  political  nonde- 
scripts, without  intellectual  ability  enough  to  form  or  express 
one  distinct  political  idea,  but  with  low  cunning  enough  to 
follow  the  programme  prescribed  for  them  by  wily  party 
managers. 

I  am  sure  no  man  who  has  looked  into  our  political  his- 
tory will  say  that  I  overdraw  the  picture.  Of  course  all 
know  that  as  a  class  these  are  the  men  who  have  always 
deceived  or  betrayed  constituencies;  and  yet  in  every  con- 
gressional district  in  the  United  States  where  the  party 
majority  is  small  and  the  district  doubtful,  stupidity  with 
money  can  win  the  day  at  the  next  election,  against  brains 
with  ideas.  In  Great  Britain,  at  the  late  election,  John  Stuart 
Mill,  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  philosophical  statesmen  of 
that  country,  was  defeated  by  a  mere  popinjay,  whose  only 
recommendation  for  a  seat  in  Parliament  was  his  money- 
bags. Mill  was  known  and  respected  in  all  parts  of  the  civil- 
ized world,  while  the  man  who  defeated  him  was  not  known 
beyond  the  circle  of  the  clique  which  nominated  him,  and 
undoubtedly  never  would  have  been  but  for  his  money. 

In  this  country  money  is  being  successfully  employed 
more  and  more  every  year  to  elect  'Apolitical  nondescripts" 
to  Congress.     The  system  I  propose  will,  if  adopted,  secure 


—  558  — 

the  election  of  the  ablest  men  in  the  nation  and  banish  the 
baneful  spirit  of  partisan  big-otry. 

Mr.  Chairman,  defective  as  our  representative  system  is- 
admitted  to  be,  and  faithless  as  have  been  many  of  the 
people's  chosen  servants,  I  can  testify  to  the  fact  that, 
thoug-h  this  is  called  a  money-loving-  and  a  money-worship* 
ping"  ag-e,  I  have  been  associated  here  in  the  past  ten  years 
with  men  in  the  administration  of  the  g-overnment,  wha 
believed  in  something-  hig-her  than  the  g-od  of  Mammon. 

Since  the  war  of  the  rebellion  I  have  been  associated 
with  a  party  a  majority  of  whose  members  have  been  free 
from  all  schemes  of  public  plunder  or  peculation;  a  majority 
of  whom  have  also  been  as  true  as  the  needle  to  the  pole  in. 
their  defense  of  human  rig-hts.  Beset  as  they  were  on  every 
hand  by  apostasy  and  treason,  by  temptation  and  the  allure- 
ments of  power,  they  have  kept  the  faith  and  maide  a  record 
which  will  g-row  brig-ht  with  time. 

A  great  battle  has  been  foug-ht  and  a  complete  victory 
won  for  the  establishment  of  a  real  republic.  In  this  g-rand 
battle  soldier  and  civilian  alike  have  participated,  and  are 
entitled  to  equal  honor.  The  one  was  a  necessity  to  the 
other.  Without  the  unselfish  heroism  of  the  soldier,  and  the 
fidelity  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  his  faithful  co-workers  in 
the  national  Cong-ress,  defeat  would  have  been  inevitable. 

During-  these  memorable  years  I  count  it  a  g-reat  honor 
to  have  been  intimately  associated  with  some  of  the  g-randest 
men  who  ever  represented  any  people.  To  their  fidelity  and 
to  the  heroism  of  the  soldier  we  owe  our  redemption  as  a 
nation.  To  this  same  class  of  men  we  shall  owe  in  the 
future  our  prog-ressive  development  as  a  people  in  moral 
power  and  material  g-randeur.  Much  has  been  accomplished; 
much  also  remains  to  be  accomplished.  The  history  of  the 
past  is  not  without  its  encourag-ements.  There  is  a  place  for 
all,  and  labor  for  all.  Let  no  eifort  be  relaxed,  and  let  no 
man  g-row  weary  or  turn  back  in  despair.  He  who  battles 
unselfishly  for  the  rig-ht,  ever  and  always  g-rows  strong-er  and 
strong-er.  To-day  the  nation  beg-ins  to  realize  that  the 
divine  command  embodied  in  the  **  golden  rule,"  and  coming- 
to  us  down  the  centuries,  is  breathing-  its  spirit  into  the 
hearts  of  millions,  quickening-  the  faith  and  strengthening- 


—  559  — 

the  heroic  purpose  of  every  noble  man  and  woman.  With 
this  quickening"  faith  the  old  anti-slavery  guard  went  forth 
strong  in  heart  and  brave  in  purpose,  to  battle  for  the  rights 
of  mankind.  In  that  great  conflict  they  were  as  true  as  the 
law  of  gravitation,  and  labored  long  and  faithfully  for  the 
reorganization  of  the  government  on  the  basis  of  complete 
justice.  Free  from  selfishness,  without  concealment,  and 
without  compromise,  inspired  with  this  great  purpose,  they 
patiently  endured  mob  violence  and  the  persecutions  of  mad- 
dened men.  Though  often  assailed  they  assailed  not  again. 
In  their  lives  they  were  as  beautiful  as  the  morning,  tolerant 
as  charity,  and  gentle  as  the  spirit  of  peace.  I  can  never 
tire  in  my  praises  of  these  grand  men  and  women.  In  our 
anti-slavery  triumph  and  national  regeneration  behold  the 
fruits  of  their  labor,  which  transcend  even  the  hopes  and 
expectations  of  enthusiastic  poets  and  philosophers.  To 
them  we  owe  a  country  redeemed,  regenerated,  and  disen- 
thralled from  the  despotism  of  slavery,  a  country  which  to- 
day is  presided  over  by  the  genius  of  universal  liberty  and 
universal  peace. 

I«etter  from  Hon.  C.  L.  MaxweU,  Xenia,  Ohio,  U.  S.  Consul  to  San 
Domingfo. 
Through  this  volume,  in  every  one  of  Mr.  Ashley's  speeches* 
there  is  a  philosophy  as  liberal  as  it  is  broad  and  sincere.  In  all  he 
says,  there  is  a  calm  hopefulness  and  a  quiet  dignity,  eloquent  for 
its  simplicity.  No  effort  is  anywhere  apparent  at  sensational  ora- 
tory, but  there  is  always  a  clearness  and  strength  of  statement 
which  commands  attention  and  carries  conviction.  His  appeals  for 
C.  L.  MAXWELL.  ^1^  rights  of  labor  are  earnest  and  hopeful,  and  appear  in  many 
speeches  in  this  volume.  Every  one  who  reads  them  will  learn  how  persistently  Mr. 
Ashley  has  for  years  been  pleading  for  the  rights  of  all  races  of  men,  and  for  the  uj)- 
lifting  of  the  human  race.  In  one  of  his  poetic  quotations,  he  says,  that  "In  the 
Majesty  of  Nature,  he  would  teach  the  Majesty  of  Man."  C.  L.  Maxwell. 


HON.  JAMES  M.  ASHLEY 

ON 

Grebi<ey  and  Grant. 


THE  GREELEY  CAMPAIGN  OF  1872. 


The  Liberal  Republicans  of  Toledo  held  a  larg-e  meeting- 
last  nig-ht  at  White's  Hall,  to  ratify  the  nomination  of  Horace 
Greeley,  their  foremost  anti-slavery  leader. 

At  an  early  hour,  the  hall  was  filled  to  overfiowing"  with 
enthusiastic  old-time  Republicans. 

William  E.  Parmelee,  one  of  the  early  abolitionists,  was 
made  chairman. 

After  a  few  pertinent  remarks  he  introduced  the  orator 
of  the  occasion,  who  was  received  with  hearty  and  prolonged 
cheers,  and  spoke  as  follows. 

ADDRESS  OF  HON.  J.  M.  ASHLEY. 

Fellow-Citizens:  A  remembrance  of  the  many  cordial 
greetings  which  I  have  received  in  the  past,  when  standing- 
before  you  on  this  platform,  and  the  enthusiastic  and  cordial 
welcome  which  you  have  extended  to  me  to-night,  fills  my 
heart  with  emotions  which  I  will  not  undertake  to  express. 
I  can  only  say  that  I  thank  you  most  sincerely  for  this  gener- 
ous and  flattering  welcome.     [Applause.] 

If,  in  what  I  shall  say  to  you  to-night,  in  discussing  the 
questions  of  the  hour,  I  shall  deal  with  them  dispassionately, 
I  hope  I  shall  not  disappoint  you. 

Twenty  years  ago,  this  coming  fall,  I  left  the  party  of 
my  choice  and  voluntarily  went  into  the  minority,  casting  my 
first  presidential  vote  in  this  city  for  Hale  and  Julian,  the 

—  560  -  - 


—  561  — 

Abolition  candidates  of  that  year,  for  President  and  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States.  I  need  not  say  to  you  that  I 
then  knew,  as  everybody  knew,  that  the  gentlemen  for  whom 
I  cast  my  vote  could  not  be  elected.  I  intended  that  my  vote 
should  be  counted  with  other  votes  as  a  silent,  but  earnest 
protest  ag-ainst  the  crime  of  slavery  and  the  attempted  sub- 
ordination of  the  National  Government  to  the  imperious  de- 
mand of  the  slave  barons.  [Loud  cheers.]  At  that  time  the 
old  Democratic  party  to  which  I  belong-ed  had  possession  of 
the  National  and  more  than  three-fourths  of  all  the  State 
Governments,  including*  Ohio,  and  every  county  in  this  Con- 
g-ressional  District.  In  g'oing"  into  that  apparently  hopeless 
minority  I  simply  followed  my  hig"hest  convictions  of  duty, 
not  stopping-  to  count  the  cost  to  me  politically  or  personally. 
I  was  content  then,  as  I  am  now,  to  leave  the  consequences 
to  Him  who  has  promised  to  overturn  and  overturn  until  every 
wrong*  shall  be  put  under  His  feet.     [Loud  applause.] 

It  was  then  said,  by  those  who  believed  themselves  to  be 
my  best  friends,  that  I  had  very  foolishly  thrown  away  the 
brightest  political  prospect  of  any  young-  man  in  Ohio.  ,1  had 
been  schooled  in  the  old  Democratic  party,  and  substantially 
ag-reed  with  it  on  all  political  questions  of  statesmanship,  ex- 
cept that  of  state-rig-hts  and  slavery.  I  believed  then,  as  I  do 
now,  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  people  of  the  Northern 
States  jvere  as  true  to  freedom  as  I  was,  but  I  believed,  as 
they  did  not,  that  the  national  Democratic  organization  had 
proven  untrue  to  the  fundamental  idea  of  a  true  democracy; 
that  it  had  been  taken  possession  of  by  the  slave  barons,  who 
had  perverted  it  and  made  it  the  foe  of  the  laboring  man  and 
the  enemy  of  the  human  race.  [Cheers.]  Believing  this 
with  all  my  heart,  I  could  not  stay  with  it.  The  allurements 
of  office,  and  the  brilliant  vista  which  ambition  pictured,  did 
not  blind  me,  and  I  could  not  be  induced  to  be  either  indiffer- 
ent or  silent.     [Applause.] 

THE  FIGHT  WITH  SLAVERY. 

For  twenty  years,  as  you  all  know,  I  fought  this  great 
crime  of  the  centuries  with  a  vigilance  which  never  tired 
36 


—  562  — 

and  a  perseverance  that  never  faltered  until  victory  perched 
upon  our  banner.  That  victory  having  been  won,  as  history 
has  recorded,  I  say,  as  you  can,  all  honor  to  the  memory  of 
the  true  and  great-hearted  men  who  never  failed  in  that 
matchless  strug-gle,  whether  they  were  in  the  halls  of  Congress 
or  on  the  tented  field;  all  honor  to  them,  wherever  at  the 
present  hour  their  interests  or  convictions  may  carry  them, 
they  shall  ever  have  my  grateful  remembrance.  In  this  great 
battle  which  is  now  upon  us,  many  of  the  men  with  whom  we 
were  then  associated  will  necessarily  be  divided,  but  neither  am- 
bition nor  disappointment  ought  ever  to  be  permitted  to  make 
us  unmindful  of  the  great  victories  which,  by  their  joint  ef- 
forts with  ours,  have  been  achieved  in  the  past. 

With  this  hope  I  am  prepared  to  go  into  the  minority 
again,  if  so  be  when  the  votes  are  counted  out  we  are  once 
more  in  a  minority.  As  I  gave  twenty  j-ears  of  my  life  to 
battle  with  the  capital  and  oppression  that  owned  its  laborers, 
so  am  I  prepared  to  give  twenty  years  of  my  maturer  man- 
hood to  battling  for  the  rights  of  the  working-man,  convinced 
that  in  so  doing  I  am  maintaining  the  true  democratic  idea  of 
government  against  centralization  and  military  despotism. 
[Loud  applause.] 

th:^  grkat  issuks  of  Tun  campaign. 

• 

Gentlemen,  you  will  see  by  these  preliminary  remarks 
that  I  have  not  come  here  to-night  to  ask  you  to  abandon  any 
one  of  the  great  ideas  for  which  we  have  fought,  nor  have  I 
come  here  to  retract  any  of  the  principles  for  which  I  have 
battled,  but  rather  to  ask  you  to  join  hands  in  making  our  fight 
for  the  success  of  these  principles  on  the  Cincinnati  platform. 
[Applause.] 

Now,  gentlemen,  I  desire,  first,  to  call  your  attention  to 
the  two  parties  which  are  in  the  field  and  to  the  two  plat- 
forms announcing  their  ideas.  And  I  ask  every  man  here 
who  has  been  a  Republican  as  long  as  have,  and  would 
like  to  ask  and  require  of  those  who  have  been  Republicans 
as  long  as  I  have,  and  who  have  voted  unflinchingly  as  long  as  I 
have,  to  at  least  deal  honorably  with  their  brethren  who  now 
differ  with  them  in  opinion.     I  ask  you,  gentlemen,  to  take 


^563  — 

these  two  platforms,  and  in  a  thoughtful  mood  analyze  them, 
and  tell  me  as  honest  men,  divested  of  party  spirit,  which  of 
the  two  commends  itself  to  you  and  most  deserves  your  votes. 
As  independent  thinkers  I  venture  to  say  that  four-fifths  of 
you  will  determine  that  the  Cincinnati  platform  is  far  in  ad- 
vance of  any  platform  previously  adopted  by  any  party 
in  this  country  !     [Cheers.] 

I  take  it  that  nine-tenths  of  the  thinking"  men  of  the 
land,  when  they  come  to  give  these  two  platforms  their  honest, 
thoughtful  consideration,  will  say  that  of  the  two,  this  Cin- 
cinnati platform  best  represents  the  old  ideas  of  the  Republi- 
can party. 

I«OOK  ON  THIS  PICTURE  AND  ON  THIS  I 

Then  as  to  the  men!  And  here  I  am  compelled  to  depart 
from  the  course  which  I  have  always  followed  in  discussing 
political  questions,  to  wit;  to  omit  all  mention  of  names.  I 
am  compelled  to  be  more  personal,  as  there  are  two  Republi- 
can candidates,  and  I  must  present  to  you  the  points  in  the 
character  of  one  candidate  at  least  —  if  I  say  nothing  of  the 
other  —  so  that  you  may  form  some  judgment  as  to  the  rela- 
tive merits  of  the  men  and  the  ideas  which  underlie  this  con- 
flict. 

Among  the  silly  campaign  charges  brotight  against  us, 
is  that  every  man  who  is  supporting  Greeley  is  a  sorehead 
and  a  disappointed  man.  [Laughter.]  Now  it  would  have 
been  a  very  easy  thing  for  me  not  to  have  been  a  sorehead,  if 
I  had  chosen  to  accept  the  positions  tendered  me  by  President 
Grant.  But  as  I  had  made  up  my  mind  to  oppose  his  re- 
election, I  could  not  honorably  accept  office  at  his  hands.  I 
said  this  to  him  kindly  but  frankly  during  the  last  interview 
I  had  with  him  at  the  White  House.  And  this  interview,  I 
may  say,  was  on  his  own  invitation,  through  Secretary 
Delano.  I  do  not  believe  that  General  Grant  is  a  corrupt  or 
bad  meaning  man,  as  many  of  our  blind  partisans  charge, 
but  I  do  believe  that  the  corrupt  rings,  which  now  dominate 
and  control  his  administration,  must  be  driven  from  power — 
and  I  do  not  believe  that  General  Grant  can  or  will  do  it,  sc 
long  as  he  is  President. 


-564  — 

The  whisky  ring,  the  post-office  ring,  the  Indian  ring, 
the  Washington  City  ring,  and  last  though  not  least,  the 
army  ring,  make  a  formidable  combination  of  plunderers, 
which  General  Grant  seems  powerless  to  resist. 

These  rings  have  made  open  or  secret  war  upon  all  the 
old  anti-slavery  guard,  from  Sumner  and  Greeley  down. 

I  have  often,  when  speaking  to  Sumner  and  others  of 
General  Grant's  administration,  quoted,  more  than  half  ap- 
provingly, the  declaration  of  Henry  Clay  against  Jackson 
when  in  his  wrath  he  exclaimed,  *' War,  pestilence  and  fam- 
ine, in  preference  to  a  military  chieftain  for  the  Presidency." 
[Applause.] 


Fellow-citizens,  you  will  bear  me  witness,  I  know, 
that  I  have  never  failed  either  in  Congress  or  out  of  it,  to 
denounce  and  to  vote  against  all  measures  which  I  regarded 
as  dangerous  to  the  country,  or  unjust  to  the  black  man! 
And  I  have  never  hesitated  to  antagonize  men,  however  able, 
whatever  their  official  positions,  if  I  believed  them  wrong,  or 
intending  wrong.     [Applause.] 

When  I  introduced  the  resolutions  for  the  impeachment 
of  Andrew  Johnson,  I  did  it  as  a  public  duty.  Personally, 
I  had  no  cause  of  quarrel  with  Mr.  Johnson,  as  his  bullet- 
headed  claqueurs  and  the  chickadee  statesmen  have  ig- 
norantly  assumed,  and  with  brazen  tongue,  charged.  What 
I  then  did,  was  done  without  undertaking  to  count  the  cost 
to  myself  personally,  or  to  determine  what  its  effect  might  be 
upon  me  politically.  You  who  know  me,  understand  that  I 
have  never  been  governed  in  my  public  acts  or  utterances,  by 
that  rascally  virtue,  called  "discretion."  [Applause.]  The 
record  I  then  made  will  stand,  and  I  do  not  believe  that  the 
loyal  men  of  the  nation  will  ever  be  ashamed  of  my  actions 
in  connection  with  the  impeachment  struggle.     [Applause.] 

When  General  Grant  surrounded  himself  with  unworthy 
and  objectionable  men,  who  both  openly  and  secretly  made 
war  upon  Sumner  and  Chase,  Greeley  and  Trumbull,  Schurz 
and  Julian,  and  nearly  all  the  old  anti-slavery  guard,  and 
permitted  his  administration  to  be  dominated  in  all  its  depart- 
ments by  ring  rule,  they  were  forced,  and  the  old  anti-slavery 


—  565  — 

guard  all  over  the  country,  in  self-defense,  were  forced  to 
protest,  and  oppose  his  re-election.  [Applause.]  We  may 
not  be  able  to  defeat  General  Grant  in  this  contest,  and  prob- 
ably shall  not.  But  it  is  none  the  less  our  duty  to  protest* 
and  to  protest  in  earnest,  by  voting-  for  Greeley.  [Applause!] 
And  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  tell  you  to-night,  that  in  this 
** Liberal  Republican"  movement,  we  have  protesting-  with 
us,  nearly  all  the  old  anti-slavery  guard.     [Applause.] 

We  have  not  only  such  men  as  our  friend  on  my  right, 
who  is  presiding  over  this  great  meeting,  but  we  have  with 
us  such  recognized  and  manly  leaders  as  Chief  Justice  Chase 
and  Senators  Sumner,  of  Massachusetts,  Doolittle,  of  Wis- 
consin, Trumbull,  of  Illinois,  and  Carl  Schurz,  of  Missouri, 
who  never  bowed  the  knee  to  the  Moloch  of  slavery.  [Ap- 
plause.] We  also  have  with  us,  Whitelaw  Reid,  of  the 
**New  York  Tribune,"  Chauncey  M.  Depew,  Governor  Fen- 
ton,  Frederick  A.  Conkling,and  many  other  able  and  eminent 
Republicans  in  the  great  State  of  New  York.  Then,  there  is 
Julian,  of  Indiana,  Abolition  candidate  for  Vice-President  on 
the  ticket  with  John  P.  Hale,  in  1852,  and  for  whom  I  then 
voted;  and  so  on,  in  all  the  Northern  States,  you  will  find  that 
the  old  anti-slavery  guard  are,  as  if  by  intuition,  with  us,  for 
that  safe,  wise,  clear-headed,  great-hearted,  matchless  anti- 
slavery  leader,  Horace  Greeley!  [Great  applause.]  And 
here  let  me  ask,  why  should  an  old  anti-slavery  man  vote  for 
General  Grant,  and  against  Horace  Greeley?  All  his  life 
Greeley  has  been  one  of  the  ablest  and  truest  leaders,  in  our 
great  anti-slavery  struggle,  never  hesitating,  never  doubting, 
never  faltering;  a  forerunner,  as  it  were,  like  John  the  Baptist 
in  the  wilderness;  a  man  of  pure  life,  unselfish  purpose,  a 
faithful  friend  and  manly  enemy;  a  man  without  guile  and 
without  hypocrisy.     [Applause.] 

General  Grant,  during  all  his  early  life,  was  a  pro-slavery 
Democrat. 

In  talking  to  me  one  day,  soon  after  his  election  in  1868, 
he  told  me,  that  in  1856  he  voted  for  that  recognized  Northern 
representative  of  the  slave  barons,  James  Buchanan,  and  of 
course  against  John  C.  Fremont,  the  Republican  candidate  for 
President.  He  did  not  say,  in  so  many  words,  that  he  regretted 
that  vote,  but  I  inferred  from  what  he  did  say,  and  the  way 


^  566  — 

he  said  it,  that  he  did  regret  it,  and  we  all  hope  that  he  has 
alwaj^s  regretted  it  since.     [Applause.] 

In  1860,  I  am  credibly  informed  that  he  voted  against 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  for  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  and  it  is 
openly  stated  by  well-known  Illinois  Republicans  in  Wash- 
ington, that  not  until  after  General  Grant  was  nominated  for 
President  by  the  Republican  party  did  he  vote  the  Republican 
ticket,  or  support  the  Republican  party,  or  its  representative 
men, except  it  was  reported  that  he  favored  Mr.  Lincoln's  elec' 
tion  in  1864,  in  preference  to  McClellan.  And  I  have  no  doubt 
that  is  true. 

Fellow-citizens,  this  presidential  canvass  is  unlike  any 
in  our  history.  Greeley,  who  was  nominated  at  Cincin- 
nati by  the  old  Abolitionists,  and  in  fact  by  a  new  party, 
which  in  their  national  convention,  they  called  the  "Liberal 
Republican  Party,"  has  been  nominated  as  you  know,  by  the 
regular  national  Democratic  convention  at  Baltimore,  and 
thus  Greeley,  who  never  was  a  Democrat,  is  made  the  Demo- 
cratic candidate,  and  General  Grant,  who  was  all  his  life  a 
regular  Bourbon  Democrat,  and  never  a  Republican,  until  af- 
ter he  was  nominated  by  that  party  for  President,  is  a  can- 
didate of  the  machine  Republicans.  From  a  philosophical 
standpoint,  and  as  I  look  at  the  situation,  this  unprecedented 
condition  of  national  affairs,  is  not  bad  for  the  nation,  nor 
for  the  people,  however  undesirable  it  may  be  for  the  machine 
politician,  or  for  the  office-holder  and  office-seeker.  [Ap- 
plause.] . 

The  old  anti-slavery  g-uard  believe  that  the  negfro,  in  all 
his  rights  and  interests,  will  be  in  far  safer  hands  if  Greeley 
is  elected  President,  than  he  would  be  under  General  Grant. 
If  I  thought  otherwise,  I  would  not  vote  for  Mr.  Greeley, 
much  as  I  admire  him.  [Applause.]  And  when  I  tell  you, 
that  from  my  first  introduction  to  him,  before  I  was  twenty 
years  old,  to  this  hour,  he  has  been  my  loyal,  steadfast  friend, 
you  will  not  wonder  at  my  confidence  in  him,  nor  at  my  active 
enthusiastic  support  of  him  now.  [Applause.]  I  would  vote 
for  him  if  I  knew  that  he  would  not  receive  a  single  electoral 
vote.  I  intend  to  do  just  as  I  did  in  1852,  when  I  protested 
against  the  slave  barons,  by  voting-  for  Hale  and  Julian.    My 


56: 


vote  this  year  will  be  a  protest  ag-ainst  ring-  rule  and  military 
domination.     [Applause.] 


Fellow-citizens,  however  hig-hly  I  may  have  esteemed 
General  Grant  as  a  military  man,  I  did  not  desire  to  see  him 
made  Chief  Magistrate  of  this  nation  four  years  ago,  nor  do 
I  now.  I  did  not  want  him  nominated  -in  1868,  and  was  only 
compelled  by  circumstances  to  vote  for  him  then.  The  ma- 
jority of  the  men  in  this  Liberal  Republican  movement  are 
not  only  not  soreheads,  but  are  men  who  never  asked  for  nor 
held  office  under  this  Administration,  either  by  election  or 
appointment.  [Cheers.] 

I  aver,  further,  that  the  majority  of  the  men  in  power 
who  are  now  denouncing-  us,  from  the  highest  down  to  the 
lowest  tide-waiter,  were  the  most  unscrupulous  pro-slavery 
men  in  the  nation,  some  of  them  even  stabbing  us  in  the 
dark,  until  the  triumph  of  the  anti-slavery  cause  made  their 
attacks  useless.     [Loud  cheers.] 

WHO   ARK  THE  SOREHEADS? 

I  claim,  gentlemen,  that  we  come  to  you  and  present  you 
with  a  platform,  framed  and  upheld  by  as  disinterested  a  set 
of  men  as  can  be  called  together  for  the  discussion  of  national 
affairs.  Whyj  sir,  if  no  man  were  permitted  to  speak  whom 
the  Executive  of  the  nation  had  assailed  or  stricken  down, 
then,  all  that  the  Executive  would  be  called  upon  to  do, 
would  be  to  assail  and  strike  down  a  man  in  order  that  he  should 
be  made  dumb.  So  should  Sumner  be  dumb;  so  should  Trum- 
bull and  Schurz,  ex-Governor  Cox  and  every  independent 
thinker  in  the  land.  Why,  sir,  the  cabals  and  rings  charge 
every  man  that  goes  out  of  their  ranks  and  fights  the  battle 
on  his  own  hook,  with  being  a  sorehead.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
Pharaoh  said  Moses  was  a  miserable  sorehead  when  he  under- 
took to  lead  the  children  of  Israel  out  of  Egyptian  bondage. 
[Laughter.]  So  with  all  the  grand  men  that  have  battled 
for  ideas  all  along  down  the  whole  line. 

The  men  in  power  are  disturbed  by  it,  and  they  say, 
*'What  does  that   fellow  want  now?"     [Laughter.]     When 


—  568  — 

a  man  attempts  to  org-anize  a  Greeley  club,  the  charge  is  ai 
once  made  that  he  is  seeking*  some  of&ce,  and  the  worst  of  it 
is,  that  in  partisan  newspapers  the  best  and  purest  men  are 
basely  assailed,  and  the  most  unprincipled  men  are  often 
lauded  the  hig-hest. 

MORTON,  THB  MANY-SIDED. 

Let  me  look  at  some  objections  made  to  Mr.  Greeley* 
And  first,  the  charg-e  made  by  Senator  Morton  at  Indianapolis 
the  other  day,  in  a  speech  of  which  I  have,  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
only  a  synopsis,  that  if  Greeley  is  elected,  financial  ruin  and 
all  kinds  of  disaster  will  come  upon  the  country.  What  Mr. 
Morton  thinks  and  says  may  not  be  of  any  very  g'ree^t  weig"ht, 
and  if  I  had  his  political  history,  I  am  certain  I  would  not  be  up- 
on this  stand  to-night.  He  is  a  man  who  held  back  during 
the  struggles  of  the  anti-slavery  party,  and  denounced  us  in 
the  vilest  manner.  He  defended  Johnson  till  he  saw  we  were 
going  to  bring  him  to  the  bar  of  the  United  States,  and  then 
he  became  one  of  his  bitterest  accusers!  He  was  the  man 
who  at  first  advocated  Pendleton's  greenback  theory,  and 
abandoned  it  as  soon  as  he  saw  the  wave  was  receding  and 
would  leave  him  on  the  strand!  This  is  the  man  who  comes 
unblushingly  forward  before  the  citizens  of  Indianapolis  and 
says  if  Greeley  is  elected  the  country  will  come  to  financial 
ruin. 

Let  us  show  a  little  common-sense  in  this  matter.  Let 
us  see  of  those  who  have  been  President  for  the  last  twenty 
years  how  many  have  been  remarkable  for  financial  ability. 
Can  you  tell  me,  if  you  were  a  member  of  any  great  commer- 
cial corporation,  if  you  would  invite  any  one  of  them  to  be 
head  of  it? 


GREKLKY   AND    GREENBACKS. 

What  does  the  present  head  of  the  government  know 
about  finances?  [Laughter.]  The  assumption  that  he 
knows  anything  about  it  is  preposterous. 

Let  us  look  at  what  Greeley  has  said.  He  has  said  no 
more  about  a  return  to  specie  payment  than  has  Chief  Justice 


—  569  — 

Chase  —  and  you  will  all  admit  that  he  has  some  financial 
brains.  Mr.  Chase  said,  "that  the  way  to  resume  specie  pay- 
ment was  to  resume;"  Mr.  Greeley  said  the  same  thing-  in  his- 
paper,  by  which  he  meant  that  all  means  should  be  em- 
ployed, consistent  with  the  law  and  the  safety  of  the  finan- 
cial relations  of  the  country,  which  would  lead  to  that  result. 
It  is  an  easy  matter  for  me,  or  any  man,  to  say  that  the  rig-ht 
way  to  do  such  a  thing*  is  to  do  it;  but  when  you  come  to 
doing"  it,  there  may  be  some  mechanical  or  physical  difficulty 
to  be  encountered,  which  only  discussion  and  mature  judg-- 
ment  may  enable  us  to  overcome.  The  duty  of  every  officer 
of  the  government  is  to  execute  the  laws. 

Neither  the  Executive  of  the  nation  (unless  he  entirely 
disreg-ards  law)  nor  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  can  da 
aught  in  the  matter  of  administering*  the  financial  affairs  of 
the  country,  except  in  strict  accordance  with  the  law.  So  if 
Mr.  Greeley  goes  into  the  White  House,  and  selects  a  new 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  financial  ripple  will  not  make 
a  half-cent  difference,  except  in  favor  of  the  people.  [Ap- 
plause.] 


BOUTWEI.I*   AND   BUI.I«ION. 

Now  I  undertake  to  say  that  the  policy  pursued  by  the 
present  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  disastrous  to  the  best 
interests  of  our  country;  it  is  disastrous  to  the  West;  and 
Greeley  has  insisted  from  the  first,  that  this  disastrous 
policy  should  not  be  pursued.  What  is  that  policy?  To 
keep  locked  up  in  the  Treasury  $112,000,000  in  gold,  when, 
every  man  understands,  who  knows  anything  about  finance^ 
that  the  country  can  go  along  safely  with  $40,000,000  in  the 
Treasury.  I  have  repeatedly  said  to  Governor  Boutwell^ 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  that  I  could  sleep  very  soundly 
as  Treasurer,  if  I  had  locked  up  .$112,000,000  of  gold  all  the 
time,  and  knew  that  under  no  possibility  could  I  be  called  on 
for  half  of  it.  Not  only  Chief  Justice  Chase,  with  whom  I 
have  talked  repeatedly,  but  Mr.  Greeley,  and  every  man  whcK 
has  given  the  subject  careful  thought,  knows  that  there  are 
$70,000,000  which  could   be  safely  used   in  taking  up  the 


—  570  — 

bonds,  on  which  we   pay  interest,    and   burn  them.     [Ap- 
plause.] 

In  taking-  up  that  $70,000,000  of  six  per  cent,  bonds,  you 
would  save  over  $4,000,000  a  year  in  interest  and  not  only  so, 
but  in  distributing-  the  mone}^  over  the  country  it  is  worth  six 
per  cent.,  and  the  people  would  gain  $4,000,000  more,  to  say 
nothing-  of  the  immense  advantag-es  which  these  $70,000,000 
would  be  annually  to  commerce  and  to  the  people.  This  taking- 
up  the  bonds  and  burning-  them,  instead  of  g-reenbacks,  on 
which  no  interest  is  paid,  and  thus  reducing-  the  price  of  g"rain, 
leather,  etc. ,  would  be  very  g-ratifying-  to  me  if  I  was  a  bond- 
holder and  indifferent  to  the  rights  of  others.  Greeley  de- 
mands that  the  policy  of  the  government  shall  be  so  far  modi- 
fied as  to  take  in  the  bonds  on  which  we  pay  interest,  and  thus 
reduce  the  necessity  of  buying  gold  every  j^ear  to  pay  the 
interest.  If  Horace  Greeley  goes  into  the  White  House,  he 
will  see  to  it  that  no  such  vast  amount  of  the  people's  treas- 
ure is  locked  up  there  as  is  now  in  the  vaults,  to  the  detri- 
ment of  commerce,  to  the  injury  of  business,  and  from  which 
the  West  is  suffering,  as  a  consequence.     [Applause.] 

GREEI<EY,  PEACE  AND  PROSPERITY. 

What  objection  is  there  to  Horace  Greeley?  Why,  these 
men  say  that  Greeley  is  going  to  be  elected  by  the  Democrats! 
[Laughter  and  cheers.]  And,  therefore,  all  the  anti-slavery 
men  are  compelled  to  be  Democrats  in  order  to  have  him 
elected.  I  saw  a  letter  the  other  day  fro  m  an  old  Quaker  lady, 
in  reply  to  one  written  to  her  about  the  Cincinnati  movement, 
and  telling  her  that  the  charge  was  made  of  coalition  and  sell- 
ing out  on  the  part  of  the  Liberal  Republicans,  and  she  wrote 
back  to  this  effect:  ' '  The  charge  of  selling  out  and  coalition  is 
preposterous;  the  old  issues  which  kept  the  Democratic  party 
alive  are  dead,  and  new  issues  must  be  adopted.  If  they  take 
our  ideas,  I  am  not  ashamedto  take  their  name."  [Applause.] 

Now,  gentlemen,  I  do  not  fear  the  Democrats,  and  if 
Greeley  can  unite  all  the  people  of  this  country  who  have 
been  in  antagonism  to  each  other,  and  they  can  go  upon  that 
Cincinnati  platform  and  strike  hands,  it  will  be  one  of  the 
grandest  moral  revolutions  that  this  nation,  or  the  world, 


—  571  — 

has  ever  witnessed!  [Cheers.]  And  that  is  to  be  the  result. 
Therefore,  I  say  to  you,  that  nothing- could  happen  in  this 
country  more  calculated  to  give  it  quiet  and  peace,  order,  se- 
curity and  prosperity,  than  for  those  who  have  been  in  an- 
lag-onism  to  these  great  ideas,  to  come  up  and  adopt  them, 
and  elect  a  man  to  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States  who, 
for  thirty  years,  has  marched  to  the  tune  of  liberty  and  the 
rights  of  mani     [Cheers.] 

grant's  shortcomings  and  usurpations. 

Now,  gentlemen,  for  a  moment  let  us  see  what  we  shall 
gain.  There  will  no  longer  be  that  centralization  of  power 
which  you  now  see  in  the  hands  of  the  National  Executive, 
the  Executive  becoming,  as  it  were,  the  law-making  as  well 
as  the  appointing  power.  If  Greeley  goes  into  the  presiden- 
tial office,  he  goes  there  pledged  not  to  use  the  veto  power 
he  goes  there  pledged  not  to  use  the  appointing  power  for 
personal  ends.  And,  gentlemen,  we  shall  have  civil  service, 
reform;  we  shall  have  that  kind  of  reform  which  is  demo- 
cratic in  truth  and  in  fact,  that  the  Executive  shall  no  longer 
be  any  part  of  the  law-making  power.  This  Government  of 
ours  is  to-day  in  its  executive  department  a  government 
of  materialization  and  force.  Under  this  administration  they 
believe  that  force  and  office  can  do  anything,  and  therefore, 
they  do  not  hesitate  to  stalk  into  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,  and  dismiss  Charles  Sumner  from  its  highest  and 
most  important  committee,  the  oldest,  and  most  honored  and 
distinguished  Senator,  and  put  in  his  place  a  man  whose 
name  I  need  not  mention.  [Applause.]  So  of  all  their 
movements. 

THE  MIWTARY  VS.  THE  DEMOCRATIC  IDEA, 

Mr.  Chairman.  The  spirit  of  war,  and  the  spirt  of  demo- 
cratic institutions,  must  forever  remain  in  antagonism.  Force, 
when  skillfully  directed  by  a  single  military  chief,  gives  suc- 
cess in  war.  In  peace  reason  must  rule.  In  the  councils  of 
the  people,  under  a  true  democracy,  free  discussion,  manly 
criticism,  and  a  strict  adherence  to  the  Constitution,  are  the 


—  572  — 

truest  safeguards  for  the  preservation  of  a  democratic  gov» 
ernment.  Discipline  and  unquestioned  obedience  on  the 
part  of  the  soldier,  gives  strength  and  efficiency  to  armies,, 
but  when  this  nation  yields  its  civil  administration  to  the 
spirit  of  war,  it  surrenders  the  lawful  rights  of  its  citizens 
and  imperils  constitutional  liberty.  Whenever  the  military 
power  shall  have  complete  dominion  of  this  country,  its  au- 
thority will  become  absolute,  and  the  Chief  Executive  of  the 
nation  will  be  a  dictator.     [Applause.] 

OUR  INDIAN  NO-POWCY. 

The  Indian  policy  on  which  the  Grant  Administration 
seems  disposed  to  plume  itself  is  also  a  failure.  According 
to  its  own  reports  the  expenditures  are  over  seven  millions  of 
dollars  annually,  whereas,  in  Buchanan's  time,  it  was  only  a 
little  over  two  millions,  and  this,  too,  in  face  of  the  fact  that 
the  Indians  have  been  constantly  decreasing  in  numbers  and 
strength.  While  we  have  been  spending  these  vast  sums  of 
money,  we  have  failed  to  secure  safety  to  life  and  property,  and 
large  numbers  of  our  people  have  been  cruelly  massacred  since 
the  inauguration  of  this  stupid  policy,  which  assumes  to  treat 
savages  as  civilized  men,  and  recognizes  their  right  to  make 
treaties,  to  make  war,  and  to  hold  our  citizens  as  prisoners  of 
war  on  our  own  territory.     [Cheers.] 

In  addition  to  this  expenditure,  large  sums  really  ex- 
pended upon  the  Indians  are  charged  to  the  War  Department,, 
the  amount  of  which  I  have  no  means  of  estimating.  Our 
troops  are  moved  over  the  plains,  marched  and  counter- 
marched to  distant  points,  where  transportation  for  every 
scrap  of  supplies  for  man  and  beast  costs  from  ten  to  twenty- 
five  cents  per  pound,  and  all  of  which  goes  into  the  item  of  ex- 
penditures for  the  army,  and  can  not  be  ascertained  as  a  sepa- 
rate item,  which  ought  to  be  put  down  to  the  so-called  Indian 
policy. 

HOW   THE   BRITISH   LION    WEEPS. 

Talk  about  the  efficiency  of  the  present  Administration, 
indeed!     Look  at  our  foreign  policy,  and  say  if  it  is  not  so 


—  573  — 

muddled  that  no  man  who  was  not  muddled  could  have  landed 
us  in  such  a  labyrinth  of  stupidity.  Think  of  the  humiliation 
to  which  we  have  been  subjected!  The  organs  of  the  Ad- 
ministration have  treated  us  to  some  caricatures  in  which 
Secretary  Fish  looks  big-  and  stands  on  the  tail  of  the  British 
lion,  and  the  poor  lion  is  shedding  tears  in  its  humiliation 
and  distress.  Now,  it  would  be  vastly  more  true  to  history 
if  Grant  and  Fish  were  down  and  the  lion,  having  ceased 
weeping,  had  its  paw  upon  them.  [Loud  laughter  and  cheers.] 
In  most  of  the  caricatures  that  I  have  seen  of  late  there  is 
about  as  much  truth  as  in  this  one. 

So  long  as  we  shall  adhere  to  the  present  two-term  policy 
instead  of  adopting  the  one-term  —  so  long  as  the  President 
is  eligible  to  re-election — just  so  long  shall  we  witness  such 
a  convention  as  assembled  at  Philadelphia,  and  just  so  long 
will  such  men  be  nominated  for  the  highest  offices  in  the  gift 
of  a  free  people.  [Cheers.]  Gentlemen,  look  over  the  acts 
of  this  Administration,  commencing  with  the  appointment 
of  the  first  Cabinet,  and  you  will  see  abundant  reason  why 
this  great  Republican  party  to  which  you  and  I  belong  has 
been  divided  and  broken. 

GRANT  AND  HIS  CABINET. 

In  an  unfortunate  hour,  to  prevent  our  opponents  from 
taking  this  man,  who  never  belonged  to  our  party,  we  took 
Grant  and  elected  him;  and  one  of  his  first  acts  was  the  selec- 
tion of  a  Cabinet  that  was  a  surprise  and  an  offense  to  the 
American  people.  With  an  exception  or  two  he  has  con- 
tinued in  the  same  course  until  he  has  surrounded  himself 
with  men  who  have  been  a  trouble  and  a  disgrace  to  the 
nation.  Not  one  of  the  Cabinet  ministers  —  save  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interior,  and  his  affairs  have  not  been  examined 
into — but  has  been  convicted  of  a  violation  of  the  law. 
[Cries  of  *' That's  so."]  And  the  paltry  excuse  which  they 
give  for  violating  the  law  is  that  they  thought  it  was  for  the 
best  interests  of  the  country  that  the  law  should  be  violated. 
[Great  laughter.]  That  was  the  excuse  which  Secretary 
Boutwell  gave  when  he  negotiated  our  bonds  in  Europe,  and 
spent  more  money  than  he  was  authorized  to  spend  by  law. 


—  574  — 

That  was  the  excuse  Secretary  Robeson  g-ave  when  he  took 
ninety-three  thousand  dollars  out  of  the  Treasury,  which  he 
was  not  authorized  to  take,  and  so  much  more  than  Congress, 
by  special  resolution,  provided.  So  with  the  Post-of&ce  De- 
partment and  so  with  the  War  Department.  But,  g-entlemen, 
this  is  inevitable  when  men  without  character,  without 
ability,  without  antecedents,  are  called  in  to  administer  the 
affairs  of  the  nation.  Under  such  a  regime  ring's  will  be 
formed,  incapacity  dictate,  and  corruption  rule  the  hour* 
[Cheers.] 

.      TIME  FOR  A  CHANGE. 

Now,  g-entlemen,  we  propose  to  chang"e  all  this  by  put- 
ting- a  man  at  the  head  whose  integ-rity  has  never  been  ques- 
tioned. A  man  who  as  a  poor  boy  went  to  New  York,  and 
had  the  brains,  the  ability  and  character  to  build  up  a  paper 
that  is  worth  a  million  of  dollars  to-day.  A  man,  too,  wha 
has  had  the  good  luck  or  sense  to  call  around  him  other  men 
of  character  and  ability,  and  that  which  a  man  does  in  his 
private  life  you  may,  as  a  rule,  expect  he  will  adhere  to  when 
he  is  called  upon  to  perform  public  and  official  acts.  May  we 
not  therefore  expect  that  if  Greeley  comes  to  the  presidential 
chair  he  will  call  around  him  men  who  will  be  of  like  quality 
with  himself,  men  of  culture  and  experience,  and  that  he  will 
scrupulously  eschew  your  mousing-  politicians  whose  notions 
of  public  duty  are  confined  to  their  own  ag-g-randizement, 
unless  they  are  cowardly  as  well  as  base,  in  which  case  they 
form  a  ring.     [Loud  laug-hter  and  cheers.] 

A  Cabinet  officer  lately  said  to  me,  "  If  Greeley  is  elected 
he  will  be  compelled  to  select  some  rebel  for  his  Cabinet."  I 
replied,  *'  If  he  does  he  will  select  a  rebel  of  brains  whom  he 
will  not  be  compelled  to  kick  out  in  six  weeks."     [Laughter.] 

If  he  does  select  one  who  has  been  a  rebel,  it  will  be 
because  he  has  brains  for  the  position,  and  such  an  act  would 
show  a  disposition  to  strike  hands  over  the  past  — to  forget 
the  past  —  and  over  the  memories  of  the  fallen  dead  to  pledge 
ourselves  to  the  future  weal  and  glory  of  our  common  coun- 
try. [Loud  cheers.]  And  do  we  not  want  peace,  and  union, 
and  forgiveness  of  the  past?     [Applause.]     I  repeat  what  I 


—  575  — 

said  in  Congress,  in  1865,  that  we  would  g-ladly  welcome  the 
returning-  prodig-al,  and  kill  the  fatted  calf,  if  he  would  only 
return  to  the  Union,  and  swear  fidelity  to  the  flag. 

GRBKI<KY  THK  MAN   OF  TH^   PKOPI.E. 

Is  not  this  the  feeling-  that  inspires  the  great  body  of  the 
people?  This  is  the  spirit  which,  throughout  all  this  coun- 
try, demands  that  Mr.  Greeley  should  be  elected.  Has  he  not 
always  been  on  the  side  of  the  poor  man,  and  on  the  side  of 
the  oppressed,  trying-  to  lift  them  up  to  better  possibilities? 
The  people  feel  that  if  we  elect  Horace  Greeley  we  shall  have 
an  era  of  good  feeling"  in  this  nation,  which  we  shall  not,  and 
can  not  have  under  an  Administration  that  is  indifferent  to 
every  sentiment  of  justice  and  right. 

THS  UNHAPPY  SOUTH. 

"When  you  lt>ok  over  the  South  to-day,  and  witness  the 
terrible  condition  of  her  people,  you  see  how  they  were  im-, 
poverished,  not  only  by  our  armies,  but  you  see  how  they  are 
robbed  by  a  swarm  of  carpet-bag  thieves,  retained  by  the  Ad- 
ministration, or  who  have  at  least  been  permitted  to  sail  un-i 
der  the  banner  of  the  Administration,  until  almost  every; 
State,  except  Mississippi  [which  had  a  Southern  man  for  gov- 
ernor] ,  has  been  impoverished  and  bankrupted  by  these  men. , 

So,  also,  in  the  custom-houses  in  New  Orleans  and  New 
York;  indeed,  all  over  the  country  you  find  this  same  irre- 
sponsible class  of  men  called  into  the  service  of  the  Govern- 
ment, to  administer  its  affairs  and  to  maintain  and  stand  by 
the  Government. 

If  you  and  I  had  been  Southern  men  should  we  have  sub-' 
mitted  to  be  treated  as  they  have  been?  Take  South  Caroli- 
na, for  instance.  Without  a  call  from  the  governor,  without 
a  call  from  the  legislature,  in  a  State  where  they  have  a  color- 
ed majority  of  from  twenty  to  thirty  thousand,  the  President, . 
at  somebody's  beck,  issues  a  proclamation  proclaiming  mar- 
tial law  and  suspending  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  so 
eager  was  he  to  issue  this  proclamation  that  he  included  sev- 
eral counties  in  which  no  disorder  existed.      Thus  was  the 


—  576  — 

bayonet  put  to  the  throat  of  these  people,  who  could  be  car-, 
ried  off  from  their  families  at  night,  or  at  any  time,  and 
thrust  into  prison,  where  no  process  of  any  court  could  reach 
them,  and  where  they  could  be  dealt  with  only  by  the 
army,  and  not  by  the  law,  which  should  be  their  protec- 
tion and  support.  The  idea  of  a  free  Government  like  this, 
with  an  executive  at  its  head  reaching-  out  into  every  local- 
ity, undertaking-  to  control  it,  when  a  majority  of  the  people 
belong-  to  its  own  party  and  can  control  it  as  well,  if  they 
choose! 

THK  COI.ORED   RACE. 

Now  a  word  to  the  black  man.     No  man  can  put  his 

HAND  UPON  A  WORD  EVER  DROPPED,  OR  WRITTEN  BY  ME,  OR  A 
VOTE  EVER   GIVEN   BY  ME,    THAT  WAS   NOT   FOR   HIM;    if  he  can 

let  him  speak,  and  let  the  blatant  demagog-ues  who  foug-ht 
ag-ainst  his  rig-hts,  and  struck  him  in  the  back  when  I  was 
fig-hting-  for  him,  hold  their  peace. 

I  appeal  to  every  black  man,  not  only  here,  but  every- 
where in  America.  This  ticket  that  has  been  nominated  is 
composed  of  old  anti-slavery  men,  who  were  g-uardians  of 
that  thoug-ht  at  a  time  when  it  required  pluck  and  faith  and 
fidelity  to  be  so.  "Where  is  the  black  man  who  would  be 
afraid  to  follow  the  benig-n  face  and  benevolent  heart  of  Hor- 
ace Greeley?  Where  is  the  man  who  would  hesitate  to  follow 
that  gallant  Kentuckian  who,  when  I  was  a  boy,  was  as 
strong  an  anti-slavery  man  as  Cassius  M.  Clay?  Where  is 
the  man  who  would  be  afraid  to  follow  the  distinguished  and 
able  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  Charles  Su'mner,  the  fore- 
most man  of  this  people?  [Applause.]  Of  the  grand' army 
of  men  who  compose  this- Liberal  Republican  movement,  you 
find  four-fifths  of  all  the  men  who,  in  the  early  struggle  in 
forming  the  Republican  party,  constituted  its  advance  guard, 
while  the  camp-followers  and  thieves,  who  came  in  afterward 
and  took  possession  of  it,  were  fighting  us  till  victory  was 
achieved.     [Cheers.] 

CONCLUSION. 

And  now,  gentlemen,  I  would  say  that  in  coming  to  this 


—  577  — 

conclusion,  I  have  not  done  so  without  careful  thoug^ht  and 
long-  and  anxious  study.  It  is  not  an  easy  matter  for  a  man 
with  the  strong-  personal  attachments  that  I  have,  to  sever  his 
political  connection  from  a  majority  of  those  with  whom  he 
has  been  acting  for  twenty  of  the  most  eventful  years  of  his 
life;  but  I  do  it  from  the  highest  convictions  of  duty,  and 
though  I  went  out  alone,  I  should  be  compelled  to  go,  as  I  did 
in  '52.  But  I  thank  Heaven  that  instead  of  having  the  small 
number,  as  then,  we  have  had  a  kind  of  Pentecost  all  over 
the  land. 

Recently  I  was  in  Illinois,  and  there,  as  in  Ohio,  I  saw 
men  come  up  and  stretch  hands  towards  each  other  who  had 
been  parted  for  years.  [Cheers.]  They  are  going  to  bury 
the  past;  they  are  going  to  forget  and  forgive  the  past,  and 
to  say  that  in  the  future,  come  what  may,  intervention,  for- 
eign war,  never  again  shall  fraternal  blood  be  shed  in  our  land; 
never  again  shall  the  dark  shadows  of  civil  war  overhang 
our  homes;  but  this  country  shall  be  one  in  sentiment,  one  in 
fraternal  faith,  one  in  nationality,  one  in  promise  of  unlim- 
ited grandeur;  that  we  shall  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder,  and 
swear  by  Him  who  liveth  forever  that  come  what  may,  no 
other  flag  shall  ever  float  above  our  homes  or  graves.  [Great 
cheering.] 

The  organization  of  a  campaign  Greeley  Club  and  the 
appointment  of  of5.cers  terminated  the  proceeding's. 


37  • 


CENTENNIAL  ORATION. 


"Wood  County  Centennial  Cki^ebration,  Jxti^y  4,  1876. 


At  a  meeting"  of  the  'Wood  County  Board  of  Agriculture, 
held  in  Tontogany  on  Friday,  February  18,  1876,  it  was 
resolved  to  adopt  the  suggestion  of  the  Ohio  State  Board  of 
Agriculture  in  relation  to  holding  a  centennial  celebration  on 
the  county  fair  g-rounds,  at  Tontogany,  on  the  4th  of  July 
next,  and  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions  were  unani- 
mously adopted: 

Whereas,  The  Centennial  authorities  at  Philadelphia 
have  recommended  the  celebration  of  the  coming  4th  day  of 
July  in  each  organized  county  in  the  United  States,  and  that 
a  competent  person  be  selected  to  prepare  an  historical 
address  to  be  delivered  on  that  occasion,  etc. 


E.  TUI.I.ER,  President. 
W.  H.  ■Wood,  Secretary. 

Honorable  James  M.  Ashley  was  selected,  and  the  fol- 
lowing is  his  oration: 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  Fellow-citizens, 

all: 

On  this,  the  one-hundredth  birthday  of  our  national 
independence,  we  meet  to  commemorate  the  heroism  and 
matchless  deeds  of  those  who  lived,  strugg-led  and  died  that  a 
free  and  beneficent  government  might  be  established,  and 
liberty  have  a  secure  resting--place  on  earth.  We  meet  to  call 
up  the  memory  of  the  great  and  the  g^ood,  whose  hearts  con- 
ceived and  whose  brains  molded  the  ideal  republic  of  the 
world,  a  symmetrical,  beautiful  temple  of  human  wisdom, 
and  of   human   brotherhood,  within   whose   sacred   -cortals, 

—  578— 


—  579-- 

every  race,  and  kindred,    and  tong-ue,   and  people,   may  at^ 
I.AST,  enjoy  life  and  liberty,  security  and  peace.     [Applause.] 

NORTHWEST   OHIO. 

I  cannot  repeat  to  you  the  names  of  all  the  heroes  of  the 
Revolution,  nor  need  I  attempt  to  recount  to  you  the  toils, 
the  privations  and  the  sacrifices,  of  the  noble  men  by  whom 
this  Government  was  founded.  It  is  a  story  familiar  to  you 
all.  Neither  need  I  speak  of  our  second  war  of  indepen- 
dence, nor  do  more  than  refer  to  the  fact  that  we  whose 
homes  are  in  Northwestern  Ohio,  and  in  the  adjacent  terri- 
tory of  Michig-an  and  Indiana,  live  in  a  locality  made  classic 
by  the  splendid  military  achievements  of  the  early  frontier 
settlers,  under  the  leadership  of  Anthony  Wayne  in  1794  and 
of  General  Harrison,  Colonel  Dick  Johnson  and  the  g-allant 
Croghan  in  fighting  the  British  and  their  Indian  allies  in 
1813  and  '14.  At  that  time  all  this  beautiful  reg-ion  of  coun- 
try was  a  vast  wilderness,  and  the  spot  on  which  we  are 
celebrating"  to-day,  was  then  an  unbroken  solitude,  undis- 
turbed as  yet  by  the  hardy  pioneer,  the  stillness  of  the 
prairie  and  forest  being-  broken  only  by  the  howl  of  the 
wolf,  and  the  terrific  yell  of  the  wild  man.     [Applause.] 

OUR   NATIONAL  GROWTH. 

As  a  nation,  our  material  growth,  in  the  first  century  of 

our  existence,  is  unparalleled  in  history.     Beg-inning"  with 

THIRTEEN  States,  we  to-dav  number  thirty-eight,  and  our 
..."  .  * 

territorial  jurisdiction  spans   the   continent  from  ocean   to 

ocean,  and  extends  from  the  tropics  to  the  frozen  reg-ions. 

Within  one  hundred  years,  the  mightiest  republic   the 

world  ever  saw  has  g-rown  to  manhood,  and  numbers  at  least 

40,000,000  of  freemen  who  are  at  peace  with  themselves  and 

with  all  the  world.     Over  this  vast  expanse  of  territory  the 

benign  power  of  the  best  government  ever  devised  by  man,  is 

fully  recognized,  and  a  nation  comprising  a  sisterhood  of 

commonwealths,  is  presided  over  by  a  National  Government, 

organized  for  the  special  protection  and  defense  of  all.     It 

is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  blessings  of  sUch  a  govern- 


—  580  — 

ment  and  the  value  of  the  public  and  private  institutions 
which  are  the  legitimate  outg-rowth  of  it.  It  is  only  a  com- 
parison with  other  nations  that  the  priceless  value  of  our 
inheritance  becomes  apparent. 

Only  when  we  compare  our  condition,  material  and 
social,  with  that  of  other  nations,  can  we  beg-in  to  estimate  its 
value.  Nowhere  else  can  be  found  such  a  combination  of 
soil  and  climate;  nowhere  productions  so  abundant  for  the 
same  labor;  nowhere  human  industry  so  richly  rewarded; 
nowhere  such  liberty  and  independence  for  the  citizens.  He 
who,  having-  been  born  beneath  that  flag-,  does  not  love 
his  country  and  g-overnment,  is  an  unnatural  monster,  who  is 
UNFIT  TO  LIVE,  and  unfit  to  die,  and  ought  to  be  cast  out  to 
join  Victor  Hugo's  **  Wandering  Jew,"  or  to  become  a  com- 
panion of  the  "  Man  without  a  country."     [Applause.] 

OUR   FATAI.  BI^UNDKRS. 

Wonderful  as  were  our  military  triumphs  m  the  war  of 
the  Revolution,  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  in  the  Mexican  war, 
our  material  achievements  have  eclipsed  them  all.  Only  in 
our  political  administration,  have  we  fallen  short  of  the  ideal 
grandeur  of  which  the  young  republic  gave  bright  promise. 
Notwithstanding  the  earnest  warnings  of  Washington  and 
Jefferson,  of  Franklin,  Payne  and  others,  the  fatal  blunders 
in  our  civil  administration  finally  culminated  in  the  late  ter- 
rible war. 

Fellow-citizens:  The  judgment  of  history  has  already 
been  pronounced,  touching  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  and  I 
'  need  only  refer  here  and  now  to  the  verdict  which  the  world 
has  so  generally  accepted;  that  slavery  was  the  cause,  and 
that  the  North  was  right  and  the  South  was  wrong.  We 
all  know  now  that  but  for  slavery  no  such  rebellion  would 
have  been  possible.  But  for  the  mad  effort  of  the  minority 
to  make  might  right,  by  substituting  the  cartridge-box  for  the 
ballot-box,  and  the  bayonet  for  the  will  of  the  majority  as 
constitutionally  and  honestly  expressed  in  the  election  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  there  could  have  been  no  war  of  the  rebel- 
lion. At  this  distance  from  the  scenes  of  that  great  conflict,  we 
can  see  when  and  where  we  blundered,  and  see  also  clearly 


—  581  — 

enougfh  the  great  mistakes  which  we  made  all  through  our 
national  history.  We  now  see  that  had  unselfish  and  able 
statesmen  enacted  our  laws  and  administered  our  g-overnment, 
instead  of  mere  politicians,  who  beg-an  by  apologizing  for 
slavery,  and  ended  by  unblushingly  justifying  it  as  a  divine 
institution,  slavery  by  the  mere  force  of  the  Constitution 
would  have  peaceably  ceased  to  exist  on  the  North  American 
continent.  After  the  org-anization  of  the  National  Govern- 
ment, slavery  could  not  long-  have  endured  with  an  honest  and 
unperverted  interpretation  of  that  great  charter  of  human 
liberty.  Only  because  the  national  Constitution  was  grossly 
misinterpreted  by  courts  and  by  all  national  and  State  officials 
who  were  personally  and  pecuniarily  interested  in  holding 
slaves  as  property,  would  it  have  been  possible  to  pervert  the 
Government  from  the  fundamental  purpose  of  its  founders, 
to  one  justifying  and  affirming  the  legality  and  rightfulness 
of  human  slavery.  Time,  which  exposes  the  weak  points  in 
every  man's  life,  exposes  also  the  weak  points  in  a  nation's 
life.  It  is  now  easy  enough  to  see  that  slavery  was  our  fatal 
sin.  Around  the  neck  of  the  new-born  nation,  the  men  of 
policy  permitted  to  be  forged  the  chains  of  human  slavery, 
and  thus  inoculated  it  with  a  virus  which  in  time  was  sure  to 
have  eaten  out  all  national  life  unless  entirely  extirpated. 
[Applause.] 

A  FATAL  COMPROMISE. 

In  laying  the  foundation  of  this  Government  we  had 
Kgypt,  Greece  and  Rome  and  all  history,  for  our  guidance, 
yet  how  little  did  we  profit  by  their  fate  and  their  warning! 
Jefferson  and  other  clear-brained  statesmen  of  the  Revolution 
with  prophetic  vision  saw  and  declared  that  slavery  was  the 
tempter  in  our  political  paradise,  and  sought  to  teach  us  that 
freedom  and  slavery  could  not  be  chained  together  and  be 
made  to  walk  forever,  hand  in  hand,  on  this  continent  in 
peace.  All  thoughtful  men  knew  that  if  as  a  nation  we  sowed 
to  the  wind  we  should  reap  the  whirlwind;  they  knew  that  if 
we  stultified  the  national  conscience  and  sold  our  birthright, 
we  should  ultimately  pay  the  penalty,  and  yet  the  lust  of  am- 
bition and  the  selfish  greed  of  gain  combined,  and  for  a  long 


—  582  — 

time  made  slavery  the  nation's  master.  Hoping-  that  the  daj 
of  retribution  mig"ht  somehow  be  avoided  and  the  nation  es- 
cape the  penalty  fixed  by  the  hig-her  law,  they  consented  for 
the  promise  of  temporary  peace  to  all  the  exacting-  and  mon- 
strous demands  of  the  slave  barons;  and  thus  handed  us  over 
as  a  nation  to  the  impartial  judgment  of  history,  and  to  the 
aveng-ing-  hand  of  justice  to  be  scourg-ed  by  fire  and  sword  as 
we  were  in  the  late  war  of  the  rebellion.     [Applause.] 

From  the  day  the  Government  was  established  to  the  be- 
g-inning-  of  the  war,  compromise  succeeded  compromise  and 
surrender  followed  surrender,  until  the  serpent  of  slavery  had 
at  last  coiled  itself  around  the  very  vitals  of  the  nation,  and 
the  time  had  come  when  our  ** policy"  statesmen  could  no 
long-er  yield  to  the  *' tempter"  with  a  new  compromise,  and 
the  nation  escape  the  consequences,  by  some  new  scheme  of 
evasion,  devised  to  circumvent  the  plainly  written  decrees  of 
Omnipotence,  and  so  at  last  we  came  to  realize  that  as  our 
fathers  had  '*  sown  to  the  wind  we  must  reap  the  whirlwind." 

This  is  the  history  of  men  and  of  nations  in  all  the  cen- 
turies. If  as  a  nation  or  as  individuals  we  postpo.ne  from  day 
to  day  and  from  year  to  year  the  correction  of  abuses  and  the 
rectification  of  errors;  if  we  stifle  conscience,  and  compromise 
with  wrong-;  if  we  are  false  to  truth  and  evade  our  present 
duty,  hoping-  for  a  more  convenient  time  in  which  to  dis- 
charg-e  that  duty,  that  time  will  never  come,  until  we  are 
overtaken  by  the  avenger,  justice,  and  all  the  world  are  be- 
wildered with  amazement  at  our  criminal  folly,  as  they  were 
when  the  war  of  the  rebellion  burst  with  such  fury  upon  us. 
[Applause.] 

THE  IvESSON  TAUGHT. 

But  our  great  struggle  shall  not  have  been  in  vain  if  out 
of  the  sorrow  and  suffering  which  the  war  brought  upon  the 
North  and  South  alike,  we  shall  all  come  to  learn,  that  in  the 
cause  of  injustice  and  oppression,  "they  who  take  the  sword 
shall  perish  by  the  sword,"  and  the  additional  lesson,  that  in 
this  nation,  so  long  as  speech  is  free,  and  the  press  is  free, 
and  the  ballot  is  free,  *'  no  revolution  is  worth  the  shedding 
of  one  drop  of  human  blood,"  but  that  a  rebellion  of  forck 


—  583- 

against  the  honestly  expressed  will  of  a  majority  at  the  ballot- 
box  as  provided  for  in  the  Constitution — is  treason  ag-ainst 
the  democratic  idea  of  government  and  a  crime  ag-ainst  the 
human  race.     [Applause.] 

Fellow-citizens,  do  not  imagine  because  I  thus  speak  of 
the  late  war  of  the  rebellion  that  I  propose  on  such  an  occa- 
sion as  this  to  open  afresh  the  terrible  wounds  which  are  now 
being  so  gratefully  healed.  I  refer  to  it  only  to  show  our 
blunders  which  are  now  historic,  and  as  a  lesson  and  a  warn- 
ing, and  also  to  show  before  I  shall  have  concluded,  that  the 
class  legislation  in  favor  of  human  slavery  was  the  beginning 
and  strength  in  America  of  all  monopoly  legislation,  and 
grants  by  the  Government  of  special  privileges  to  the  few  at 
the  expense  of  the  many.     [Applause.] 

OUR  FIRST  DUTY. 

To-day  I  feel  that  our  first  duty  is,  to  make  our  peace 
an  enduring  peace.  To  do  that  the  reconciliation  between 
North  and  South  must  be  open  and  magnanimous  and  with- 
out any  mental  reservation  or  evasion  in  us  whatever.  In 
this  centennial  year  let  us  remember  that  **  Justice  and  mercy 
are  the  eternal  habitations,"  and  that  we  want  no  war  cries  to 
disturb  the  national  pacification;  we  want  no  tauAts  to  the 
vanquished;  we  want  no  shouts  of  victory  over  fellow-citizens; 
we  want  no  inscription  on  our  flag  of  stars  to  be  flaunted  in  the 
faces  of  our  brethren  as  a  reminder  of  defeat.  The  great 
Senator  from  Massachusetts,  was  early  inspired  with  the  true 
spirit  when  he  declared  that  *' Victory  over  fellow-citizens 
should  be  known  only  in  the  rights  it  secures  and  assures." 
Neither  on  our  flags  nor  on  pictures  at  the  national  capitol,  do 
we  want  to  recall  our  victories  over  the  members  of  our  now 
reunited  family.  What  we  want  is  unquestioned  reconcilia_ 
tion,  concord  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name;  forgiveness  and  gen- 
erosity and  not  animosity  and  hate.  The  rule  that  is  best 
for  the  family  is  best  for  the  state.  Friendship  does  not 
grow  by  force,  nor  confidence  by  acts  of  distrust.  The  Bible 
says  that  **He  who  would  have  friends  must  first  show  him- 
self friendly."  We  must  learn  that  this  is  as  true  of  nations 
as  of  individuals.      Good-will  comes  with  good-will,  friend- 


—  584  — 

ship  for  friendship,  and  hate  for  hate.  I  know  of  no  better 
way  to  maintain  our  free  institutions  unimpaired  and  pre- 
serve our  territorial  integ-rity  forever,  than  by  recog-nizing- 
the-fact  that  behind  our  Constitution  and  beyond  the  compact 
of  written  law,  there  is  the  necessity  of  union  in  sentiment 
and  sympathy  between  the  North  and  the  South,  if  we  would 
have  this  nation  g-reat  and  permanent,  and  prosperous  and 
free.     [Applause.] 

Acting  upon  this  sentiment,  so  soon  as  the  war  was  over 
I  joined  with  Sumner,  and  Chase,  and  Greeley,  and  nearly  all 
the  leading-  abolitionists  of  the  North,  in  demanding-  amnesty 
and  conciliation  for  the  South.  I  was  for  "  killing-  the  fatted 
calf,"  and  welcoming-  back  to  the  old  mansion  every  erring- 
brother,  and  for  rehabilitating-  at  the  earliest  moment  consist- 
ent with  national  safety,  every  sister  commonwealth  with  all 
the  rig-hts,  dig-nities  and  privileg-es  which  had  been  forfeited 
by  mad  rebellion.  I  felt  it  to  be  a  necessity  that  we  do  this 
if  we  did  not  want  an  Ireland  or  a  Poland  in  America.  [Ap- 
plause.] But  if  it  was  a  necessity  I  felt  that  it  was  right,  also^ 
By  doing  it  we  elevated  our  free  republic  to  new  heights  of 
moral  grandeur,  and  thus  taug-ht  the  world,  that  while  we 
could  conquer  the  most  formidable  rebellion  of  all  the  ag-es, 
we  could  also  in  the  hour  of  victory  restrain  and  control  our- 
selves. K  this  wise  rule  of  statesmanship  can  be  inaug-urat- 
ed  and  continued  for  one  administration  we  shall  have  a  com- 
pletely restored  Union,  with  the  rights  of  all  persons  sacred- 
ly secured,  and  our  national  name  untarnished  by  a  single  act 
of  vindictive  punishment,  so  that  above  the  din  of  battle  and 
above  the  shouts  of  victors  will  shine  out  forever  in  history 
this  glorious  conquest,  a  conquest  in  which  during  the  very 
hour  of  our  triumph  we  go  forth  with  the  words  of  the  im- 
mortal Lincoln  upon  our  lips,  and  exclaim  in  our  welcome,. 
"  With  charity  for  all  and  malice  toward  none."  [Applause.] 
These  broad  and  liberal  views  would,  ere  this,  have  been  ac- 
cepted by  the  North  and  the  South  but  for  a  class  of  men  who 
insist  on  maintaining  peace  by  force.  Need  I  say  that  if  the 
ring  masters,  the  selfish  party  managers  and  ignorant  parti- 
sans did  not  dominate  so  generally  in  each  party,  there  would 
be  less  injustice  and  less  corruption  in  tbe  administration  of 
the  Government?     So  long  as  *' rings"  control  all  nomina' 


—  585  — 

tions,  you  know  that  just  so  long-  we  shall  have  blind  parti- 
sans, ig-norant  pretenders,  and  sharp  schemers  in  charge  of 
the  Government.  So  offensive  has  this  ring-  system  of  man- 
ag^ement  become,  and  so  general  the  disgust  at  its  working,, 
that  on  an  average  not  one  voter  in  ten,  especially  in  cities^ 
attends  his  party  caucus.  The  rings  therefore  manage  with 
but  little  opposition.  Hundreds  of  good-meaning  citizens  do 
not  even  vote,  while  a  still  larger  number  will  have  nothing 
to  do  with  men  whom  they  call  politicians,  regarding  all  as- 
schemers,  tricksters  and  dishonest.     [Applause.] 

MKN  WANTED. 

Fellow-citizens,  it  is  a  great  misfortune  for  the  na- 
tion that  this  feeling  is  so  general,  and  that  so  many  have 
come  to  think  that  the  mere  fact  of  a  man  giving  his  time  and 
attention  to  political  questions,  is  dishonorable  and  disrep- 
utable. Political  men  we  must  have;  men  tried  and  trained 
in  statesmanship  are  to-day  one  of  our  greatest  needs;  cul- 
tured men,  pure  men,  practical  men;  men  whose  lives,  public 
and  private,  will  stand  the  test  of  any  crucible,  and  from 
whose  presence  thieves  and  knaves  will  shrink  as  vice  will  flee 
from  the  presence  of  virtue.  In  this  centennial  year,  we 
ought  to  be  able  to  join  with  one  heart  and  one  mind  in  the 
aspirations  of  the  poet  who  exclaims: 

God  give  us  men!  a  time  like  this  demands 

Strong  minds,  great  hearts,  true  faith  and  ready  hands; 

Men  whom  the  4ust  of  office  does  not  kill; 

Men  whom  the  spoils  of  office  can  not  buy. 

Men  who  possess  opinions  and  a  will; 

Men  who  have  honor;  men  who  will  not  lie; 

Men  who  can  stand  before  a  demagogue. 

And  damn  his  treacherous  flatteries  without  winking; 

Tall  men,  sun-crowned,  who  live  above  the  fog 

In  public  duty  and  in  private  thinking; 

For,  while  the  ringleaders  with  thumb-worn  creeds, 

Their  large  professions  and  their  little  deeds, 
Mingle  in  selfish  strife,  lo!  Freedom  weeps, 
Wrong  rules  the  land,  and  waiting  Justice  sleeps. 

[Applause.J 


—  586  — 

ONLY  THE   CAPABLE   FOR  POSITIONS   OF  TRUST. 

And  here  may  I  not  ask  you  why  a  man  cannot  be  as 
pure,  as  heroic,  and  unselfish  in  political  life  as  in  any  of  the 
learned  professions?    Why  should  there  not  be  arts  that  are 
as  honest  in  politics  as  in  law,  or  medicine,  or  in  colleg-e  pro- 
fessorships, or  even  in  the  pulpit?     A  true  statesman  never 
despises  the  honest  arts  of  politics.     Those  who  affect  a  dis- 
like of  honorable  political  men,  and  sneer  at  politicians,  are 
either  very  innocent  and  thoughtless  persons  or  weak  and 
silly  demagogues*     Would   any  sane   person   select   for  his 
lawyer,  in  a  critical  case,  which  if  lost,  would  sweep  away 
all  he  possessed,   a  man  who  had  never  looked  into  a  law 
book?     Would  he  select  for  his  physician  a  man  who  knew 
nothing  of  anatomy  or  medicine?    Would  he  vote  to  call  a 
minister  to  take  charge  of  his  church  who  could  not  read  the 
Bible?     Would  he  intrust  the  education  of  his  child  to  an  ig- 
norant pretender?     To  ask  these  questions  is  to  answer  them. 
Who  would  put  an  unknown  and  untried  man  in  charge  of  a 
steamer  or  a  train  of  cars  freighted  with  human  life?     Who 
so  reckless  or  so  blind  as  to  wish  to  put  a  man  in  charge  of 
the  ship  of  state,  even  in  a  time  of  peace  and  dull  routine, 
who  was  ignorant  of  the  arts  of  statesmanship?     I  do  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  to  call  such  a  man  to  pilot  the  ship  of 
state,  whether  in  a  calm  or  in  a  storm,  would  be  an  act  of 
indefensible  folly;  and  as  you  would  not  voluntarily,  if  left 
to  your  individual  judgment,    intrust   the  Chief  Executive 
office  of  the  nation  to  an  ignorant,  inconlpetent  or  corrupt 
man,  so  you  would  not  deliberately  fill  any  less  responsible 
position  in  the  Government  with  a  man  unfitted  by  character 
or  education  for  the  trust.     Why  then  is   this   outrage   on 
decency  and  on  the  public  honor,  repeated  year  after  year  in 
every  State  and  county?     Why  have  thousands  of  good  men 
everywhere,  voted  to  put  men  into  the  most  honorable  and 
important  offices,  whom  they  would  not  intrust  with  any 
matter  of  business,  however  unimportant,  for  themselves?     Is 
it  not,  fellow-citizens,  because  they  are  slaves  to  the  caucus 
and  convention  system,  or  because  they  are  blinded  by  parti- 
san zeal?     Has  not  our  experience  taught  us  that  the  nation 
ought  to  be  so  educated  on  this  subject,  that  it  would  smite 


—  587- 

the  ring"  politician  and  the  ignorant  or  corrupt  official  as  it 
would  brand  an  infamous  malefactor?  A  man  who  accepts  a 
public  trust  for  which  he  is  in  no  way  qualified  by  natural 
ability,  or  education,  inflicts  a  wrong-  upon  a  community 
which  may  be  more  detrimental  to  the  public  welfare  than 
the  commission  of  a  revolting-  crime.  If  he  is  ig-norant  or  cor- 
rupt he  may  do  acts  more  dang-erous  to  the  safety  and  sta- 
bility of  the  state,  than  any  one  individual  criminal  can  com- 
mit, however  bold  or  bad.  The  criminal  act  of  one  man  in 
private  life  can  affect  but  one,  or  at  most  but  a  few  citizens, 
-while  the  criminal  is  always  in  dang-er  of  arrest,  conviction 
and  punishment.  But  the  acts  of  an  incompetent  or  dis- 
honest official  may  often  affect  disastrously,  and  for  many 
years,  whole  communities,  an'd  yet,  as  a  rule,  such  a  criminal 
•cannot  be  punished  except  by  dismissal  from  office  at  the  end 
of  his  term,  and  even  this  cannot  always  be  done,  so  long-  as 
the  caucus  and  convention  system  remains  to  dictate  for 
whom  the  members  of  each  party  shall  vote.  Therefore  I 
believe  such  a  public  sentiment  oug-ht  to  be  created,  that  any 
man  who  either  thrusts  himself  forward,  or  who  permits  his 
friends  to  present  him  for  nomination  to  an  important  public 
trust,  for  which  he  has  no  qualifications,  either  natural  or 
acquired,  should  be  everywhere  branded  by  public  sentiment 
as  more  dang-erous  and  dishonorable  than  a  public  malefactor. 
[Applause.] 

Fellow-citizens,  our  g-reatest  achievement  in  political 
reform  during-  the  century  just  closed,  and  the  one  which  to 
me  overshadows  all  others  in  its  benign  influence  upon  gov- 
-ernment  and  people,  is  the  overthrow  of  slavery  and  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  privileged  class  which  it  created.     Fortunately 

^HIS  ACT  WILIy  UIvTlMATEIvY  ADVANCE  THE  INTEREST  AND  BENE- 
FIT THE  South  more  largely  than  the  North.  It  is  of  in- 
estimable value  to  the  people  of  the  entire  Union,  but  its 
economical  and  moral  worth  is  underestimated  even  here  and 
now.  We  have  not  all  yet  learned  that  a  "privileged  class," 
created  or  maintained  by   act  of  government,  is  A  three- 

]fOLD  WRONG,  IN  THAT  IT  ENDANGERS  THE  STABILITY  OF  THE 
STATE,  VIOLATES  THE  DEMOCRATIC  IDEA,  AND  ENCROACHES  UP- 
ON THE  RIGHTS  OF  LABOR.  A  moment's  reflection  would 
teach  that  one  privileged  class  soon  begets  another;  and  nat- 


—  588  — 

tirally  enoug-h,  during-  the  continuance  of  slavery,  men  said 
if  the  government  can  authorize  a  few  thousand  persons  to 
own  and  appropriate  to  themselves  the  labor  of  four  millions 
of  men,  why  may  it  not  g-rant  special  privileges  to  us,  so  that 
by  securing  a  monopoly  or  with  organized  wealth  protected 
by  law,  we  can  also  live  upon  the  half-paid  labor  of  the  toiler. 
And  so  the  governments,  national,  state  and  municipal,  be-^ 
ginning  with  "class"  legislation,  have  gone  on  making  new 
grants  of  power  and  authorizing  the  most  gigantic  monopo- 
lies, until  to-day  the  national,  state  and  municipal  govern- 
ments of  the  entire  Union,  are  administered  specially  in  the 
interests  of  corporations,  "rings,"  political  partisans  and  per- 
sonal favorites;  and  these  governments  are  in  turn  manipulated 
and  controlled  by  the  very  orgahized  power  which  they  have 
created.  Turn  which  way  you  will,  in  all  this  broad  land 
to-day,  and  you  will  find  that  organized  wealth  with  its. 
special  grants  of  power  is  master  of  government  and  people.. 
[Applause.] 

This  formidable  power  favors  from  interest  and  of  neces- 
sity, A   CONSOI.IDATED  GOVERNMKNT   AND   AN   ADMINISTRATION 

OF  FORCE.  It  controls  the  National  and  State  Executives, 
when  elected,  and  nominates  their  successors;  it  fills  Con- 
gress and  State  legislatures  with  its  paid  agents  and  Cabinets, 
and  Courts  with  its  retained  attorneys.  It  works  in  secret,, 
and  by  the  aid  of  a  subsidized  and  venal  press,  strikes  down 
all  public  men  who  oppose  its  grasping  power  and  schemes, 
of  plunder.  It  manages  in  turn  by  bribery  and  corruption,  a 
majority  of  the  caucuses  and  conventions  of  each  party,  and 
nominates  the  candidates  for  whom  the  elector  is  forced  to 
vote  or  subject  himself  to  ostracism  by  his  party  and  thus  the 
people  whose  interest  and  purpose  is  to  fight  these  monopo- 
lies, are  oftener  than  otherwise  co-operating  with  them,  and 
in  the  name  of  party  and  at  the  dictation  of  "  King  caucus,''' 
vote  for  and  elect  the  retained  agents  or  attorneys  of  these 
very  monopolies.  I  need  hardly  add  that  the  tendency  ta 
foster  all  kinds  of  monopolies,  strengthen  privilege  and  con- 
solidate the  National  Government  into  an  overshadowing 
central  power,  in  which  the  Executive  shall  be  supreme,  was 
never  so  strong  nor  so  dangerous  as  now,  since  the  govern- 
ment was  organized.    You  all  know  that  monopoly  in  the  shape 


-589  — 

of  class  leg-islation,  or  special  grants  of  power  to  the  few,  has 
preyed  like  a  hungry  vulture  upon  the  labor  of  every  age, 
that  it  has  eaten  out  the  substance  of  every  people  and  de- 
stroys the  life  of  every  free  government,  and  that  it  will  eat 
out  our  life  and  destroy  our  free  institutions  unless  the  sys- 
tem is  squarely  confronted  and  made  subordinate  to  the  in- 
terest of  the  people  by  the  restraining  power  of  the  Govern- 
ment.    [Applause.] 

CORRUPTION. 

The  growth  and  corruption  of  cities,  the  increased  power 
of  corporate  wealth  and  the  continued  monopoly  of  land,  in 
my  opinion  is  seriously  endangering  our  democratic  theory  of 
government,  and  menacing  the  solution  of  the  labor  problem 
in  this  country  as  never  before. 

As  a  necessity  of  self-preservation  the  laborers  and  toil- 
ers of  all  countries  are  considering  and  adopting  methods  of 
industrial  organization,  and  co-operation.  This  is  a  healthy 
and  encouraging  sign.     [Applause.] 

I  have  given  more  thought  to  this  industrial  question 
than  any  other  social  problem,  and  watched  with  interest  and 
sympathy  every  movement  favorable  to  co-operation  and  the 
organization  of  labor,  not  only  in  this  country,  but  in  Europe, 
and  I  am  constrained  to  admit  that  in  Germany  they  are  far 
in  advance  of  us  in  the  practical  working  of  their  unions  and 
co-operative  associations.  But  our  labor  unions,  and  co-op- 
erative societies,  the  **  self-assurance  associations,"  the 
Patrons  of  Husbandry  and  Grange  organization,  have  each 
in  them  much  to  commend  them  to  the  hearty  approval  of  all 
thoughtful  men,  who  see  and  comprehend  the  formidable 
power  which  day  by  day  and  year  by  year,  increases  in 
-strength,  and  on  every  hand  imperils  the  rights  and  interests  of 
labor.  To  you,  who  are  members  of  the  agricultural  society 
of  the  county,  and  on  whose  invitation  I  am  here  to-day,  and 
to  all  who  make  up  the  farming  and  laboring  population  be- 
fore me,  I  may  with  propriety  speak  of  the  rights  of  labor 
and  the  interests  of  agriculture. 

Agriculture  is  the  natural  employment  of  man.  "  In  the 
sweat  of  thy  face,"  spake  the  voice  in  the  garden.     The  oc- 


—  590  — 

cupation  which  feeds  the  human  race, and  g-ives  vitality  to  all 
commerce  and  to  all  other  industrial  pursuits,  ought  to  be  es- 
steemed  the  most  honorable  among  men.  Human  life  and 
human  progress  draw  their  sustenance  from  it.  When  the 
agriculturist  fails,  all  other  industries  languish.  Our  farm- 
ing population  outnumber  all  other  classes  combined.  If 
united,  their  vote  would  be  a  majority  in  nearly  every  State. 
I  see  a  harbinger  or  prophecy  of  better  things  in  the  various, 
movements  of  the  farmers  for  co-operation  and  organization. 
If  they  can  also  draw  into  a  common  union  with  themselves 
the  working-men  of  the  country,  whose  interests  are  identical 
with  their  own,  they  will  be  invincible,  and,  under  the  lead- 
ership of  sober,  intelligent,  faithful  men,  they  can  accomplish 
whatever  may  be  their  deliberate  and  well-settled  purpose. 
Demagogues  may  mislead;  unwise  methods  may  for  a  time 
hinder;  blind  zeal  may  postpone,  but  an  honest  and  persistent 
endeavor  will,  in  the  end,  enable  them  to  triumph.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

DANGEROUS  TENDKNCIKS. 

Of  late  the  unmistakable  tendency  of  many  public  men  is 
to  favor  capital  and  pervert  the  National  Government  from 
the  purpose  of  its  founders,  into  a  government  representing^ 
an  aristocracy  of  wealth,  instead  of  maintaining  a  real  dem- 
ocracy and  fostering  economy  and  republican  simplicity  in  an 
honest  civil  service.  If  we  would  preserve  our  government 
free  and  pure  we  must  see  that  every  department — national, 
state  and  municipal — is  administed  as  a  wise  and  prudent  man 
would  manage  his  personal  affairs.  We  must  see  to  it  that 
the  people  administer  it  instead  of  rings  or  privileged  classes. 
We  must  no  longer  act  upon  the  assumption  that  the  govern- 
ment will  maintain  and  perpetuate  itself.  We  must  abandon 
the  insane  delusion  that  a  dishonest  man  or  an  ignorant  pre- 
tender may  safely  be  entrusted  with  the  duties  of  an  honor- 
able and  responsible  public  of&ce.  In  short,  we  must  see  to 
it  that  candidates  for  all  positions  are  qualified  by  natural 
ability,  or  by  special  training,  to  fit  them  for  the  office  for 
which  they  may  be  candidates. 

In  order  that  the  dangerous  tendencies  of  which  I  have 


—  591  — 

spoken  may  be  arrested,  there  oug-ht  to  be  a  free  and  untram- 
meled  movement  of  the  people  to  rescue  the  government 
from  the  g-reed  of  spoilsmen  and  from  the  g-rip  of  the  corpor- 
ate ag-encies  which  modern  legislation  has  created.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

OUR   REMEDY. 

Organization,  free  discussion,  then  intelligent  action  at 
the  ballot-box,  must  be  our  weapons  of  protection  and  defense. 
In  addition  to  this  our  Constitution  ought  to  be  so  amended 
as  to  restrain  the  executive,  legislative  and  judicial  functions 
of  the  government,  and  more  clearly  define  their  delegated 
powers.  If  three-fifths  of  all  the  functions  now  claimed  by 
law  and  custom,  and  Constitution  for  our  national,  state  and 
municipal  governments  were  denied  them  in  our  organic  law, 
and  all  special  legislation  prohibited  by  express  provision  of 
the^Constitution,  as  also  all  authority  to  incur  an  indebted- 
ness —  bonded  or  otherwise  —  in  any  one  year  for  any  pur- 
pose (except  defensive  war)  beyond  a  limited  percentage  up- 
on commerce  and  value  of  taxable  property  in  any  state  or 
county  or  municipality,  we  might  congratulate  ourselves  up- 
on having  a  government  approaching  more  nearly  the  demo- 
cratic idea.  Denying,  as  I  do,  the  moral  right  of  an  acci- 
dental majority,  either  in  our  National  Congress  or  State 
Legislatures  or  county  and  municipal  government,  to  mort- 
gage the  toil  and  labor  of  future  generations  to  enrich  or 
benefit  the  present,  I  can  confidently  appeal  to  all  who  hear 
me,  to  unite  in  demanding  of  their  respective  parties  such 
promises  of  reform  in  this  respect  as  will  give  assurance  of 
better  things  in  the  future.  For  if  indebtedness  without 
limit  can  be  incurred  and  special  legislation  is  to  continue, 
with  all  the  assumed  and  conceded  functions  of  government, 
the  time  is  not  far  distant  in  which  this  will  be  a  happy  coun- 
try only  TO  THOSE  whose  who  have  large  incomes,  and  a 

COUNTRY  OF  SORROW  FOR  ALL  WHO  LABOR.       [ApplaUSe.] 
NATIONAL   REFORMS  SUGGESTED. 

In  addition  to  the  constitutional  limitations  already  sug- 


—  592  — 

g-ested,  tlie  new  century  upon  which  we  are  about  to  enter 
will  demand  new  and  important  reforms  in  every  department 
of  the  public  service.  We  must  have  a  better  administration 
in  all  the  executive,  legislative  and  judicial  departments  of 
national,  state  and  municipal  g-overnments. 

And  first  and  most  important  of  ai^i,,  wk  must  nomin- 
natk  and  ei.ect  ths  president  by  a  direct  vote  of  the 
people  by  ballot,  without  the  intervention  op  caucuses, 
conventions,  presidential  electors,  or  the  house  of 
Representatives.     [Applause.] 

Second — The  veto  power  of  the  President  must  be  modi- 
fied so  that  the  Executive  shall  form  no  part  of  the  law-mak- 
ing* power,  and  a  majority  of  all  the  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives elected  to  Congress,  and  at  the  time  qualified,  shall 
have  authority  to  pass  a  bill  over  the  Executive  veto.  This 
modification  of  the  veto  would  g-ive  the  President  an  oppor- 
tunity to  secure  a  reconsideration  of  any  bill  hastily  passed 
by  Cong-ress,  and  thus  secure  all  the  check  which  it  is  sa:fie  or 
prudent  to  give  an  Executive,  as  a  restraint  upon  improper 
or  inconsiderate  legislation. 

Third — We  must  have  an  honest  civil  service  reform, 
but  this  cannot  be  had,  so  long  as  caucuses  and  conventions 
dictate  for  whom  the  people  shall  vote  for  President  and  all 
officials  to  be  elected  in  the  National  or  State  Governments. 

Fourth  —  We  must  have  reform  in  the  mode  and  manner 
of  conducting  all  popular  elections  so  as  to  secure  more  per- 
fectly the  purity  of  the  ballot-box,  but  so  long  as  the  caucus 
system  (where  ballot-box  stuffing  was  invented)  is  maintained, 
such  reforms  are  impossible. 

Fifth  —  We  must  haye  reform  in  National  and  State  leg- 
islation, but  this  cannot  be  obtained  without  constitutional 
restraints,  substantially  such  as  I  have  named,  together  with 
the  right  of  the  minority  to  an  equitable  representation  in 
all  law-making  bodies. 

Fifth  —  We  must  have  reform  in  the  government  of  all 
cities,  so  as  to  defeat  ring  management  and  ring  plunderers, 
but  this  cannot  be  without  radical  changes  in  our  municipal 
codes. 

Seventh  —  We  want  and  we  must  have  local  self-govern- 
ment for  local  purposes,  in  every  State  or  municipality,  free 


—  593  — 

from  the  intermeddling-  of  the  National  Government,  either 
throug-h  its  civil  or  military  departments,  recog-nizing-  only 
the  authority  of  the  courts  for  revision,  and  that  of  the  Ex- 
utive  for  repelling"  or  suppressing-  force  as  provided  in  the 
Constitution. 

When  these  reforms  are  secured,  as  I  am  hopeful  they 
will  be,  early  in  this  new  century,  we  shall  have  a  g-overn- 
ment  free  from  the  obvious  and  g-laring-  defects  of  the  present; 
a  government  embodying-  more  nearly  than  any  other  known 
in  history,  the  perfection  of  the  democratic  idea — a  g-overn- 
ment  that  shall  make  liberty,  equity  and  peace  a  living-  fact. 
[Applause.] 

THK  DUTY  OF  EVERY  CITIZEN. 

If  democracy  is  to  come  during-  this  century  in  its  full- 
ness and  completeness,  as  the  fathers  of  the  Constitution  con- 
templated it  would  come  ere  this,  we  must  have  these  re- 
forms, for  the  nation  cannot  endure  forever  the  corruption 
and  conspiracies  of  corporate  wealth,  and  the  monopolies  of 
the  present.  If  we  would  faithfully  follow  in  the  pathway 
which  the  men  of  the  Revolution  '*  blazed  out  "throug-h  our 
political  wilderness  for  us,  we  cannot  afford  to  fold  our  arms 
with  indifference,  and  say  that  the  g-overnment  may  take  care 
of  itself.  Nor  should  any  citizen  attempt  to  escape  his  fair 
share  of  the  responsibility,  but  all  must  dedicate  themselves 
to  the  noble  task  of  vindicating-  the  memory  and  purposes  of 
the  men  who  made  the  Constitution  and  soug-ht  to  establish 
the  truest  and  best  government  on  earth,  a  real  ideal  demo- 
cratic republic.     [Applause.] 

WASHINGTON  AND  I^INCOLN. 

While  the  century  just  closed  has  given  our  country 
many  extraordinary  men,  men  who  have  been  recognized 
leaders  and  benefactors  of  the  human  race,  there  are  two 
names  which  stand  out  with  clearer  distinctness  than  all  the 
rest  and  around  which  there  will  be  forever  a  brighter  halo, 
names  that  will  live  as  long  as  human  liberty  is  prized  and 
38 


—  594  — 

human  history  is  preserved.     No  other  nation   can  present 
within  a  century  two  such  illustrious  names  as  Washing-ton 
and  Lincoln.     One  was  the  child  of  fortune  and  privileg-e, 
the  other  the  child  of  poverty  and  toil.     One  is  recognized 
by  all  the  world  as  the  Father  of  his  Country,  the  other  will 
yet  be  recoe^nized  by  all  as  its  Savior.     One  led  us  triumphantly 
through  the  stormy  struggle  of  our  Revolution  to  independ- 
ence,   the   other  brought   us   safely   through   the  dark  and 
troubled   night   of  our  Civil  Strife  to  the  haven  of  union, 
liberty   and   peace.      [Applause.]      Never  before   in  human 
history  did  two  men  employ  their  great  opportunities  with 
more  unselfish  heroism  or  consecrate  their  lives  to  a  higher 
or  nobler  purpose.     If  the  true   greatness  of   a  nation  con- 
sists   in   the   noble   types  of    manhood   which   it   produces, 
America  may,  without  undue  boasting,  present  the  names  of 
Washington  and  Lincoln  as  types  of  men  pre-eminently  en- 
titled  to   mention   among   those  who  honor  and  adorn  the 
world's  history.     To   honor   such   men  and   the  cause  they 
served,  and  to  commend  their  example  to  the  present  and 
future  generations,  patriotic  rejoicing  and  public  demonstra- 
tions, corresponding  to  our  own,  are  taking  place  to-day,  not 
only  in   all  parts  of  our  own  country,  but  wherever  around 
the  globe  an  American  citizen  may  be  wandering  and  two  or 
three  can  be  gathered  together  beneath  our  radiant  flag  of 
stripes  and   stars.     [Applause.]     But  naturally  enough   to- 
day the  great  heart  of  the  nation,  all  who  are  at  home  and 
all  who  are  abroad,  turn  to  Philadelphia  and  to  old  Independ- 
ence Hall,  where  more  than  a  million  of  her  children  from 
all  parts  of  the  republic,  from  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas, 
from   Massachusetts   and  New  England,    from   the   golden 
shores  of  the  Pacific  and   from  every  State  and  Territory, 
with  uncovered  head  are  now  gathered  around  the  old  home- 
stead to  offer  up  with  reverence  and  gratitude  their  thanks- 
giving for  the  restored  Union,  and  to  exchange  pledges  of 
fidelity  for  its  enduring  unity,  prosperity  and  peace.      [Ap- 
plause.]    Of  the  material   grandeur  of   the   nations  which 
have  risen  and  fallen  much  might  be  said  had  I  the  time  and 
you  the  patience.     Their  material  and  martial  glory,  which 
for  a  time  dazzled  the  world  with  its  splendor,  might  to-day 
be  contrasted  with  the  true  glory  of  America. 


—  595  — 

Greece  and  Rome,  in  succession  mistress  on  the  land  and 
on  the  sea,  each  rich,  powerful  and  luxurious,  into  whose  laps 
the  Orient  poured  its  exhaustless  treasures  and  built  their 
palaces  and  monuments  which  even  now,  while  crumbling*  to 
deca}^  tell  the  story  of  their  greatness  and  g-randeur  more 
eloquently  than  human  words  when  clothed  in  the  golden 
thoughts  of  a  master.  But  each  in  turn  neglected  or  reject- 
ed the  highest  and  best  interest  of  the  state.  They  made 
monopoly  and  privilege  the  rule,  and  disregarded  the  rights 
and  liberties  of  the  citizen  by  degrading  and  enslaving  their 
working-men.  They  thus  exalted  the  material  above  the 
ideal,  and  attempted  to  make  '* might"  more  than  ** right," 
and  in  so  doing  built  up  a  materialistic  civilization  which 
finally  wrought  their  decay  and  death.  How  closely  we  as  a 
nation  followed  in  the  paths  which  they  had  trodden  in  wrong 
and  in  blood,  you  and  I,  alas!  know,  to  our  shame  and  sorrow. 
[Applause.] 

OUR   REPUBI^IC'S   FUTURE. 

With  us,  as  with  all  nations,  history  has  been  repeating 
itself,  and  so  we  have  learned  that  only 

**  Through  weary  march  and  blinding  tears, 
And  passion  heats  and  battle's  din. 
The  hoped-for  boon,  for  coming  years. 
So  long  delayed,  is  ushered  in." 

And  now,  as  we  enter  upon  the  new  century,  charged 
with  new  obligations  and  higher  responsibilities,  let  us  each 
for  himself,  resolve  to  consecrate  some  portion  of  his  life  to 
the  noble  work  of 'preserving  the  unity  and  perpetuity  and 
glory  of  his  country.  With  heart  and  soul  let  everyone  write 
upon  the  tablets  of  his  memory  the  aspiration  and  the  invo- 
cation of  Whittier's  immortal  Centennial  Hymn,  and  make  its 
peaceful,  patriotic  prayer,  his  living  and  his  dying  faith: 

*'Oh,  make  Thou  us  through  centuries  long. 
In  peace  secure,  in  justice  strong; 
Around  our  gift  of  freedom  draw 


—  596  — 

The  saf eg-uards  of  Thy  rig-hteous  law, 
And  cast  in  some  diviner  mold, 
Let  the  new  cycle  shame  the  old! " 

And  thus  shall  the  new  century  of  the  Republic  tran- 
scend in  g"lory  and  grandeur  the  splendid  achievements  of  the 
past.      [Long-  continued  applause.] 

Letter  from  Rev.  T.  W.  Stringer,  D.  D.,  Vicksburg-,  Miss. 
When  reading-  Mr.  Ashley's  speeches,  it  is  easy  to  determine 
from  whence  he  drew  his  poetic  inspiration.  In  writing-  of  Whittier, 
Mr.  Ashley  says,  "that  he  touched  my  heart  and  quickened  my  life  as 
no  other  man  evef  did,"  and  then  adds,  "  Whittier,  as  I  saw  him,  ap- 
proached nearer  my  conception  of  the  Divine  Teacher  of  Galilee  than 
any  man  I  ever  knew."  This  is  hig-h  praise  to  give  in  behalf  of  any 
man.  and  tells  us  why  he  quotes  Whittier  in  his  speeches  oftener 
than  all  others.  That  there  should  be  profound  thought  and  a 
wealth  of  simple  pathos  in  any  man's  orations  or  stump  speeches, 
T.  W.  STRINGER,  who  Walked  in  the  moral  and  political  sunshine  and  shadow  ;  of 
Whittier's  pure  life,  is  but  natural.  Mr.  Ashley's  speeches  all  bear  internal  testimony-, 
that  like  Whittier  and  the  men  who  made  up  the  advance  guard  of  the  abolition  army, 
his  aspirations  were,  "  to  break  up  the  surfdom  of  the  world."  For  pure  Americanism, 
for  broad  and  liberal  statesmanship  and  historic  accuracy,  we  are  confident  the 
speeches  and  orations  in  this  book  will  stand  the  test  of  time,  and  prove  a  valuable 
text-book  for  students  who  seek  ideal  manhood  in  moral  and  political  philosophy. 

T.  W.  Stringer. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


ViCKSBURG,  Miss.,  December  9,  1892 
Hon.  J.  M.  Ashlky,  Toledo,  Ohio. 

Dear  Sir:  Reference  is  made  in  some  of  the  speeches 
already  stereotyped,  to  resolutions  adopted  and  addresses 
delivered  by  you  on  the  Slavery  Question,  of  an  earlier  date 
than  we  find  in  the  papers  and  speech>ss  now  before  us. 

As  our  purpose  is  to  make  a  complete  historical  compila- 
tion of  your  early  and  more  important  anti-slavery  campaign 
and  cong-ressional  speeches,  we  request  you  to  have  sent  to 
us,  as  soon  as  possible,  such  addresses  as  you  may  be  able  to 
find,  of  a  date  prior  to  those  we  now  have  in  type. 

We  also  request  copy  of  pamphlet  containing*  your  plan 
of  "Co-operation  and  Profit-Sharing-,"  of  which  we  have 
read  something  in  railroad  papers.  Please  send  with  it  such 
of  your  papers  and  addresses  as  may  have  been  published,  on 
the  relation  of  Capital  and  Labor. 

Our  people  are  greatly  interested  in  that  and  kindred 
questions,  and  your  views  on  that  subject  would  be  eagerly 
read  by  them. 

Trusting  that  you  may  find  it  convenient  to  comply  with 
our  request,  I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

Very  respectfully  yours,  for  God  and  the  Race, 


(597) 


—  598— 

Toledo,  Ohio,  December  19,  1892. 

My  Dear  Sir:  In  answer  to  your  favor  of  the  9th  inst., 
I  have  to  say:  That  after  the  destruction  of  all  my  books 
and  papers  by  fire,  I  gathered  up  from  friends  a  number  of 
my  early  anti-slavery  campaign  speeches,  intending-  to  use  the 
facts  in  them,  should  I  write  a  book,  as  I  then  proposed 
doing,  on  *'The  ri^e  and  fall  of  the  slave  barons." 

I  abandoned  the  idea  of  writing  that  book  for  the  reason 
that  a  second  fire  destroyed  nearly  all  the  papers  then  col- 
lected, together  with  the  notes  I  had  prepared,  and  damaged 
by  water  ^as  you  will  see  on  examining  them)  the  greater 
portion  of  the  remaining  papers  and  newspaper  clippings, 
which  I  now  send  you.  I  did  not  send  these  with  the  first  in- 
stallment of  pamphlets  ^nd  papers,  because  I  did  not  want  to 
trouble  you  with  the  task  of  assorting  them.  Personally,  I 
had  no  time  to  put  them  in  shape  for  the  printer,  nor  did  I 
think  them  of  importance  enough  to  reprint  and  preserve. 
If,  however,  you  find  anything  in  them  which  you  may 
regard  as  worthy  of  preservation,  do  so,  and  consign  the  re- 
mainder to  the  waste-basket,  as  do  I  not  now  propose  to  use 
them  myself. 

These  speeches  and  fragments  of  speeches,  are  all  old- 
fashioned  anti-slavery  appeals,  such  as  in  those  days  were 
everywhere  made  by  our  anti-slavery  leaders  against  the 
crime  of  slavery.  The  speeches  now  sent  you  were  made 
during  the  Freemont  and  Lincoln  campaigns  in  New  York, 
Michigan,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  and  as  you  will  ob- 
serve, they  are  educational  speeches,  and  deal  with  historic 
facts  and  the  opinions  of  eminent  men.  They  were  intended 
to  answer  the  vulgar  and  blind  partisan  charges  made  against 
us,  and  for  the  purpose  of  making  proselytes  to  the  Republi- 
can faith. 

I  also  send  you  as  requested  a  pamphlet,  which  contains 
my  plan  of  *' Co-operation  and  Profit-Sharing,"  and  an  ad- 
dress prepared  by  me  on  the  invitation  of  the  Train  Dis- 
patchers' Association  of  America,  which  was  read  at  their 
International  Convention  in  Toledo,  June  10,  1891. 

I  also  enclose  two  other  papers  of  mine  on  the  same 
subject.  You  will  see  by  reading  these  papers,  that  for  many 
years  I  have  favored  the  organization  and  co-operation  of  alj 


—  599  — 

kinds  and  conditions  of  working'-men.  But  I  never  have  and 
am  certain  that  I  never  shall,  favor  such  combinations  as  make 
war  upon  any  class  of  wag-e-earners,  who,  for  any  reason,  do 
not  see  fit  to  voluntarily  become  members  of  any  of  our 
present  labor  org-anizations.  I  favor  a  co-operation  that 
shall  not  be  secret  and  oath-boaind,  or  be  dominated  by  one  or 
more  selfish  leaders,  but  an  org-anization  that  shall  be  open 
and  manly,  and  just  enoug-h  to  recog-nize  the  brotherhood  of 
the  human  race.  I  favor  this  broad  and  liberal  co-operation 
of  labor,  because  I  recognize  the  fact  that  the  law  of  our  life 
provides,  as  it  is  written:  **  In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt 
thou  eat  thy  bread,  till  thou  return  unto  the  g-round."  From 
the  beg-inning"  this  has  been  the  law  g-overning-  the  conditions 
of  human  life,  and  so  far  as  I  can  ser,  that  condition  must 
continue  for  all,  unto-  the  end.  Those  who  eat  the  bread  of 
idleness,  are  the  only  exception  to  this  law.  Of  necessity, 
therefore,  everyone  who  eats  the  bread  of  idleness  becomes  a 
burden  to  honest  industry,  and  are  either  imbeciles,  drones, 
parasites  or  criminals,  of  whose  existence  g-overnment  must 
take  cognizance,  and  so  guard  and  restrain  them  as  to  protect 
society  individually  and  collectively  from  the  danger  and 
crime  inseparable  from  the  existence  of  the  classes  named. 

I  therefore  want  to  see  all  labor  so  organized  that  there 
shall  be  fewer  criminals,  and  fewer  men  who  eat  the  bread  of 
idleness,  so  that  capital  will  everywhere  be  glad  to  co-operate 
w^ith,  and  to  secure  the  aid  of  all  manly  wage-workers  of  abil- 
ity and  character,  and  be  ready  to  divide  with  all  such  work- 
ers an  equitable  proportion  of  the  net  profits  produced  by  the 

SKILL  and  TOIL  of  EACH. 

In  this  age  of  labor-saving  inventions  and  industrial 
machinery,  with  steam  and  electricity  for  motive  power,  near- 
ly all  of  which  is  owned  by  associated  capital,  it  becomes  a 
necessity  for  the  wage-workers  of  the  world  to  co-operate 
with  capital  on  a  stipulated  agreement  for  a  portion  of  the 
net  profits,  and  thus  secure  beyond  question  an  equitable  di- 
vision of  the  wealth  produced  by  the  united  efforts  of  labor 
and  capital. 

As  I  see  it,  **  co-operation  and  arbitration  "  is  the  sign  in 
which  the  wage-worker  of  the  world  is  certain  ultimately  to 
win. 


—  600  — 

In  any  business  requiring-  the  joint  labor  of  ten  or  more 
men,  the  result  outlined  can  with  certainty  be  secured,  and 
with  mathematical  accuracy,  to  every  worker  without  his  in- 
vesting- a  dollar  of  cash  capital.  He  can  do  this  by  joining- 
others  in  organizing"  the  business  in  which  he  desires  to  en- 
gage,  on  the  plan  of  profit-sharing  which  I  propose  in  the 
pamphlet  I  now  send  you. 

The  adoption  of  any  of  the  recog-nized  plans  of  profit- 
sharing*  will  make  strikes  inexcusable  and  practically  im- 
possible among-  intelligent,  honest  men. 

With  intellig-ent  co-operation  on  the  lines  indicated,  to- 
g-ether with  the  use  of  reliable  savings  banks  and  the  aid 
which  properly  org-anized  building  and  loan  associations  can 
give,  there  is  no  danger  in  this  country  of  any  sober,  indus- 
trious wage-worker  becoming-  poorer,  while  everywhere  a 
prudent  man  may  with  reasonable  certainty  earn  and  own 
his  own  home.  Let  every  colored  man  live  within  his  in- 
come, and  in  a  short  time  he  can  own  his  own  home. 

In  all  my  speeches,  beginning  with  our  early  anti-slavery 
struggle,  you  will  find  that  I  uniformly  made  my  appeals  for 
the  rights  of  all  labor,  black  and  white,  and  demanded  for 
each  an  equitable  share  in  the  property  which  his  toil  created. 
You  will  also  find  that  all  the  speeches  of  our  early  anti-slavery 
leaders  were  logical  and  unanswerable  appeals  for  the  rights 
of  labor,  without  regard  to  nativity,  nationality  or  race. 

Yours  truly, 

J.  M.  ASHI.KY» 

Rkv.  Benjamin  W.  Arnett,  D.  D., 

Chairman  Publication  Committee. 


EXTRACTS. 


Closing  Portion  of  Stump  Speech  Dei^ivered  in  the  Grove 

NEAR  M0NTPE1.1ER,  W11.1.1AMS  County,  Ohio, 

September,  1856,  by  James  M.  Ashley. 


And  now,  fellow- citizens,  I  know  you  will  agree  that 
I  have  said  all  that  need  be  said  at  this  time,  in  condemna- 
tion of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  infamy  and  its  authors,  and  in 
denunciation  of  the  efforts  of  the  slave  baron  conspirators  to 
nationalize  slavery,  and  to  make  it  constitutional  and  per- 
petual in  the  land  of  Washing-ton. 

Nor  need  I  say  more  than  I  have  said,  in  behalf  of  the 
election  of  General  Fremont,  our  candidate  for  President,  or 
for  the  re-election  of  our  worthy  candidate  for  Cong-ress,  Hon. 
Richard  Mott.  And  I  have  sai.d  all  that  is  necessary  in  de- 
fense of  Governor  Chase  and  his  administration. 

But  for  the  fact  that  each  of  the  gentlemen  named  have 
been  so  coarsely  and  offensively  assailed  during-  the  canvass 
all  over  the  State,  and  especially  in  this  cong-ressional  dis- 

Letter  from  Hon.  Charles  S.  Morris,  New  York  City. 

This  is  by  far  the  boldest  and  ablest  of  all  the  anti-slavery  stump  speeches  of  the 
Fremont  campaign  which  we  have  read.  It  was  delivered  when  M  r.  Ashley  was  not  yet 
thirty  years  old.  At  the  time  of  its  delivery,  the  pro-slavery  hatred  of  the  negro  in  the 
North  raged  with  fanatical  madness.  Slave  pirate-ships  were  then  fitted  out  in  the- 
city  of  New  York,  and  under  our  flag-  plied  their  man-slavery  trade  with  comparative 
safety,  and  sometimes  landed  their  cargoes  of  human  chattels,  direct  from  Africa,  at 
our  Southern  ports  in  broad  daylight,  in  defiance  of  law  and  government. 

To  deliver  such  a  speech,  at  such  a  time,  required  a  high  order  of  both  moral  and 
physical  courage. 

We  have  never  read  an  argument,  so  clear  and  strong,  against  the  right  of  Cone 
ccress  to  pass  a  fugitive  slave  law.  Charles  S.  Morris. 

(601) 


—  602  — 

trict,  by  the  opposition  newspapers  and  stump,  speakers,  I 
should  not  be  warranted  in  taking-  up  your  time  and  mine  to- 
day, in  answering-  them,  as  I  have  felt  constrained  to  do. 

[At  this  point,  some  one  in  the  audience  shouted  out, 
*'You  have  not  explained  the  corrupt  barg-ain  and  sale  by 
which  Chase  was  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate  over 
Tom  Ewing-.     Suppose  you  try  your  hand  at  that."] 

Mr.  Ashley  stopped,  and  turning-  to  the  Chairman  of  the 
meeting-,  said,  *'Do  you  wish  me  to  answer  such  questions?" 
The  Chairman  nodding-  assent,  said,  *'  As  we  have  nothing- 
to  withhold  or  conceal,  I  think  the  people  would  be  glad  to 
have  you  answer." 

*'Well,  Mr.  Chairman,"  continued  Mr.  Ashley,  *'if  you 
and  this  audience  desire  me  to  answer  the  challeng-e  just  made, 
or  to  answer  any  other  questions,  even  thoug-h  they  are  not 
pertinent  to  this  campaig-n  (as  the  one  in  hand  is  not)  I  shall 
do  so.  As  our  Chairman  has  very  properly  remarked,  *  we 
have  nothing-  to  withhold  or  conceal.' 

Mr.  Chairman,  without  reserve  and  without  qualification 
I  deny  that  there  was  a  corrupt  bargain  and  sale  when  Mr. 
Chase  was  elected  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  [Ap- 
plause.] I  was  present  in  Columbus  and  participated  in  the 
conferences  which  were  held  by  the  anti-slavery  Democrats 
and  the  Free-soilers  prior  to  the  election  of  Mr.  Chase,  and  I 
can  say  to  you  that  so  far  from  there  having  been  a  corrupt 
bargain  between  the  Democrats  and  the  Free-soilers,  that  it 
was  one. of  the  fairest  and  most  honorable  political  agree- 
ments ever  made  in  this  State  or  in  any  State.     [Applause.] 

You  all  remember  that  the  "Free-soilers"  held  the  bal- 
ance of  power.  It  is  no  secret  that  these  Free-soilers  were 
willing  to  make  an  alliance  with  the  Whigs  and  elect  Hon. 
Joshua  R.  Giddings,  an  anti-slavery  Whig,  or  with  the  Dem- 
ocrats and  elect  Mr.  Chase. 

Dr.  Townsend,  of  Lorain,  and  Mr.  Morse,  of  Ashtabula, 
held  the  balance  of  power.  One  of  these  gentlemen  was  a 
"  Whig-Free-Soiler  "  and  resided  in  Mr.  Giddings's  district, 
and  the  other  a  *' Democratic-Free-Soiler"  from  Lorain 
County,  and  each  stood  ready  to  vote  for  any  reliable  anti- 
slavery  man  of  character  and  ability,  who  could  be  elected 
Senator,  whether  he  was  of  Whig  or  Democratic  antecedents. 


—  603  — 

The  Whigs  would  not  vote  for  Mr.  Gidding-s,  and  the 
Democrats  agreed  to  vote  for  Mr.  Chase,  who  was  a  well- 
known  anti-slavery  Democrat.  And  that  was  all  there  was  of 
that  so-called  "bargain  and  sale."     [Applause.] 

The  Democrats  did  the  same  thing  in  Massachusetts,  and 
elected  Charles  Sumner,  an  anti-slavery  Democrat,  to  the 
United  States  Senate,  and  John  P.  Hale,  of  New  Hampshire^ 
and  other  well-known  anti-slavery  Democrats  in  other  States. 

I  know  all  about  the  so-called  "bargain  and  sale '^  which 
was  made  at  the  time  Mr.  Chase  was  elected  Senator,  and  I 
declare  to  you  that  it  was  as  manly  and  unselfish  a  political 
agreement  as  was  ever  entered  into  by  the  leaders  of  any 
party.  And  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  say,  that  the  agreement 
then  made  was  honorably  and  in  good  faith  carried  out  by  th^ 
Democrats.  [Applause.]  At  that  time,  I  was  in  full  fellow- 
ship with  the  Democratic  party,  and  it  was  then  well  known 
that  I  was  an  anti-slavery  Democrat,  and  as  hostile  to  slavery 
as  I  am  now.  And  there  were,  in  those  days,  thousands  of 
Democrats  of  my  way  of  thinking.  A  majority  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  in  Ohio,  and  in  all  the  free  States,  wene  out- 
spoken anti-slavery  men,  as  witness  the  platforms  adopted  by 
all  the  regular  Democratic  State  conventions  in  every  Northern 
State,  except  Iowa,  denouncing  slavery  as  a  crime,  and 
demanding,  as  we  did  here  in  Ohio,  that  the  evil  be  "eradi- 
cated." 

But  for  Democratic  votes,  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  which 
prohibits  slavery  in  all  our  national  Territories,  could  not  have 
been  passed  by  the  lower  house  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States.     [Applause.] 

And  but  for  the  passage  of  the  infamous  compromise 
measure  of  1850,  into  which  the  North  was  betrayed  by  her 
faithless  representatives  of  both  parties,  I  believe  that  the 
Democratic  party  of  the  free  States  would  to-day  have  been 
the  great  anti-slavery  JefPersonian  party  of  this  country,  as 
it  ought  to  have  been,  and  in  my  opinion  would  have  been, 
but  for  our  betrayal  at  the  hands  of  professed  Democrats. 
The  humiliation  of  both  the  old  parties  to-day  is  awfui.  and 
their  abasement  appalling.  But  to  go  back  to  the  Chase 
election. 

The  Free-soilers  agreed  to  vote  with,  and  secure  to  the 


—  604  — 

Democrats,  substantially,  all  the  offices  which  the  leg-islature 
under  the  old  Constitution  was  authorized  to  appoint  or 
ele-ct^  on  the  sing-le  condition  that  the  Democrats  would  vote 
with  the  Free-soilers  for  the  repeal  of  the  infamous  black 
laws  of  this  State.  [Applause.]  Perhaps  the  person  who 
interrupted  me,  would  like  to  have  those  villainous  statutes, 
which  were  then  repealed,  ag-ain  re-enacted  into  laws.  But 
whether  he  would  or  not,  I  brand  him,  or  any  man  who  makes 
the  charge  of  corrupt  barg-ain  and  sale  in  connection  with 
the,  election  of  Mr.  Chase  to  the  United  States  Senate,  as 
either  an  ignorant  or  vicious  calumniator. 

I  put  this  plaster  on  the  foul  lips  of  every  such  calumnia- 
tor, confident  that  when  removed,  it  will  take  the  skin  off 
with  it.      [Laughter  and  applause.] 

Fellow-citizens,  jon  know  that  I  am  not  a  candidate  for 
any  office,  and  I  do  not  propose  to  be  a  candidate  for  some 
years  to  come,  if  ever.  I  certainly  shall  not  be  a  candidate 
until  I  am  older  and  have  more  experience  than  I  have  to-day.. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  I  am  not  a  candidate,  and  not 
likely  to  be,  I  should  perhaps  be  justified,  if  I  passed  by  in 
silent  contempt,  the  unscrupulous  and  persistent  assaults^ 
which  have  been  made  upon  me  personally,  wherever  I  have 
spoken  in  the  district.  Indeed,  I  should  have  passed  them 
by  without  a  word,  but  for  what  occurred  yesterday  and  to- 
day. A  number  of  vicious  and  ig-norant  brag-g-arts,  who  with 
an  assumption  of  knowledge  which  they  have  not,  and  a 
cheek  as  brazen  as  that  of  a  professed  saint  when  assuming- 
the  livery  of  heaven,  have  here  on  the  g-round  to-day,  in  my 
hearing-  and  in  lang-uag-e  most  foul,  charg-ed  our  candidates 
and  all  our  leading-  public  men  with  being-  disunionists,  and 
men  who  as  often  as  they  took  an  oath  to  support  the  Constitu- 
tion committed  the  crime  of  perjury. 

I  have  also  been  charg-ed  since  I  came  upon  the  ground, 
with  being-  a  **  disunionist,  an  abolitionist,  an  ag-ent  of  the 
underg-round  railroad  and  an  amalgamationist,  who  loved  the 
black  race  better  than  I  did  my  own  race,  and  that  if  I  had 
the  power,  I  would  liberate  at  once  and  without  compensa- 
tion to  the  slave  barons,  all  the  slaves  of  the  South  and  turn 
them  loose,  so  that  they  mig-ht  come  up  here  into  Ohio,  if 
they  pleased,  and  into  other  Northern  States,  and  compete  with 


—  605  — 

and  displace  all  white  men  who  labor."  And  to  this  kind  of 
loud-mouthed  blustering-,  there  has  been  added  a  delug-e  of 
that  coarse  and  vulg-ar  vituperation  which  is  born  of  ig-norance 
and  hate,  and  a  brutality  so  gross  and  devilish  as  to  excuse,  if 
not  to  justify,  a  belief  in  the  doctrine  of  total  depravity.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

I  will  be  pardoned,  therefore,  if  when  stating*  the  position 
of  our  candidates,  I  also  state  clearly  and  distinctly  my  own 
position. 

First,  then,  as  to  our  candidate  for  President.  General 
Fremont  is  a  man  who  might  properly  be  classed  with  the 
most  conservative  Republicans.  He  states  frankly,  that  he 
does  not  propose  to  interfere  with  slavery  in  the  States  where 
it  now  exists,  but  simply  pledg-es  himself  to  resist  its  spread 
into  new  Territories,  nothing-  more,  nothing-  less.  [Applause.] 

Mr.  Mott,  as  you  all  know,  is  a  Quaker,  and  his  relig-ion 
makes  it  imperative  that  he  be  an  anti-slavery  man,  and  with- 
out concealment  and  without  compromise  to  stand  firmly  in 
opposition  to  slavery  the  world  over.     [Applause.] 

As  for  myself,  I  am  free  to  say  to  you  and  to  all  who  care 
to  know  my  opinions,  that  I  am  opposed  to  the  enslavement* 
in  any  country  on  God's  g-reen  earth,  of  any  man  or  any  race  of 
men,  however  friendless  or  poor,  whatever  their  race  or  color, 
and  I  do  not  admit  that  the  Constitution  of  my  country  recog-- 
nizes  property  in  man.     [Applause.] 

When  John  Wesley  denounced  slavery  **  as  the  sum  of  all 
Tillainies,"  it  was  to  me  a  living-  truth,  uttered  in  as  few  and 
fitting"  words  as  a  clerg-yman  could  employ,  and  I  who  am  but 
a  layman,  brand  it  as  the  blackest  of  crimes  and  denounce  it 
as  the  most  revolting*  infamy  that  ever  afflicted  mankind  or 
cursed  the  earth.  [Applause.]  It  has  filled  the  world  with 
injustice  and  indescribable  suffering*  and  sorrow,  and  its  crimes 
are  now  moving  all  unperverted  human  hearts  to  a  united 
and  determined  effort  for  its  destruction  and  the  banishment 
from  our  country  of  this  execrable  commerce  in  the  bodies 
and  souls  of  men.     [Applause.] 

Often  and  often  when  a  boy  in  Kentucky,  it  has  moved 
my  heart  to  rebel  against  it;  and  when  involuntarily  forced 
to  witness  its  frightful  punishments  and  shocking  brutality, 
there  has  come  up  from  my  heart  to  my  lips  the  pathetic 


—  606  — 

couplet  of  Burns,  and  in  my  helplessness  I  have  cried  out» 
**0  Lord,  how  true  it  is  that 


*  Man's  inhumanity  to  man 
Makes  countless  thousands  mourn.'  " 

[Applause.] 

During  my  speech  at  Hicksville,  over  in  Defiance  County^ 
yesterday,  when  presenting-  an  abstract  proposition  of  inter- 
est, as  I  believed,  to  all  Americans  (and  to  the  negro  if  he  is- 
a  man),  a  cross-roads  statesman  impudently  cried  out,  "  I  see 
wool  in  that  fellow's  teeth,"  althoug-h  up  to  that  moment  I 
had  not  uttered  one  word  about  the  neg-ro. 

The  northern  sleuth-hound  of  the  slave  baron  was  on  the 
watch,  and  true  to  his  blind  partisanship  and  brutal  instincts, 
gave  the  recognized  3'elp.  [Applause.]  So  here  to-day,  the 
babbling  cross-roads  statesman  is  on  guard,  ready  blindl}^  to 
defend  the  supposed  interests  of  the  slave  barojis  of  the  South 
who  are  his  political  masters.  [Applause.]  And  I  affirm, 
and  do  so  slowly  and  deliberately  so  that  there  shall  be  no  mis- 
understanding what  I  say  or  mean,  that  all  such  men,  whether 
they  know  it  or  not,  are  allies  of  the  conspirators  whose  crimes- 
against  humanity  and  our  democratic  government  are  at  this 
very  hour  laying  broad  and  deep  the  conditions  which  are  cer- 
tain to  ultimate  in  a  revolution  of  fire  and  blood  that  must 
end,  either  in  the  destruction  of  this  Union  and  Government, 
or  in  the  abolition  of  the  institution  of  slavery  which  the 
slave  barons  are  to-day  madly  attempting  to  fasten  upon  the 
nation  for  all  time.  [Applause.]  Morally  and  logically*, 
there  is  no  escape  from  this  result.  As  I  see  it,  submission 
to  the  slave  barons  or  revolution  is  as  inevitable  as  death.  I 
pray  that  it  may  be  a  peaceful  revolution,  with  ballots  instead 
of  bullets.     [Applause.] 

Let  us  not  deceive  ourselves,  nor  attempt  to  deceive  others. 
"God  is  not  mocked,  and  his  judgment  will  not  sleep  for- 
ever."    [Applause.] 

I  often  wonder  how  your  northern-born  men  can  show 
such  hostility  to  the  black  man.     Singularly  enough,  I  find 

here  in  the  North,  as  in  the  South,  that  the  hatred  of  the 

i 


—  607  — 

negro  is  not  that  he  is  blackor  of  mixed  blood,  but  because  he 
is  a  slave.  It  is  the  hatred  born  of  the  spirit  of  caste,  and  not 
the  hatred  of  color.  Wherever  the  negro  is  free  and  is.  edu- 
cated and  owns  property,  you  will  find  him  respected  and 
treated  with  consideration  by  the  slave  barons  of  the  South, 
and  by  Northern  men  as  well;  especially  is  this  so  in  the  Souths 
if  the  black  man  is  himself  the  owner  of  slaves. 

When  a  boy,  I  knew  two  free  negro  planters  in  Louisiana 
who  owned  a  number  of  slaves.  One  of  them,  I  was  informed 
owned  over  a  hundred,  some  of  whom  would  easily  pass  for 
white  men  as  readily,  certainly,  as  some  of  the  Bourbon  leaders 
whom  I  know  in  this  county.  [Laug-hter.]  When  these 
black  planters  came  to  New  Orleans  they  were  g-reeted  by  the 
wholesale  merchants,  with  whom  they  dealt,  as  cordially  as 
if  they  had  been  white  men.  A  well-filled  decanter  of  old 
Kentucky  bourbon  (with  a  show  of  tansy  in  it)  was  as  in- 
variably set  out  for  them  as  for  the  white  planters,  and  there 
was  no  pretext  of  being"  shocked  because  they  were  black. 
One  of  these  neg-ro  planters  was  said  to  be  the  owner  of  a  man 
who  was  known  to  all  the  surrounding-  planters  to  be  a  pure 
white  man,  without  a  drop  of  negro  or  mixed  blood  in  his 
veins;  yet  no  white  slave  baron  interfered  to  question  this 
black  planter's  right  to  hold  this  white  man  as  a  slave,  for 
the  simple  reason  that  the  raising  of  such  a  question  might 
bring"  up  in  court,  where  the  common  law  prevailed,  the  ticklish 
and  technical  legal  question,  as  to  the  *  *  title  "  by  which  other 
human  being's  of  all  colors  and  shades  were  held  as  slaves  in 
the  State. 

An  examination  of  the  trials  in  cases  where  white  per- 
sons, throug-h  friends,  had  brought  suit  in  the  courts  of 
Southern  States,  to  obtain  their  freedom  from  slavery,  and  the 
judicial  decisions  reported, will  disclose  the  startling-  fact  that 
many  white  persons,  without  a  taint  of  mixed  blood,  have 
been  seized  by  the  slave  trading*  land-pirates  and  branded  and 
sold  into  slavery,  and  that  when  once  in  the  hands  of  the 
slave  barons,  they  resisted  in  courts  and  everywhere  their 
surrender,  even  when  knowing-  them  to  be  white  and  free- 
born.     So  you  see,  that  as  Hosea  Bigelow  has  it 


-608— 


**  Slavery  aint  o'  nary  color, 

'Taint  the  hide  that  makes  it  wus, 
All  it  kers  for  in  a  feller, 

'S  just  to  make  him  fill  its  pus." 

Northern  mercenaries,  especially  Northern  slave  owners 
(of  whom  there  are  more  in  our  g-reat  cities  than  we  know), 
do  not  act  differently. 

Not  long"  ag-o,  a  merchant  of  Bang-or,  in  the  State  of 
Maine,  walked  into  church  one  Sunday  morning-  with  his 
wife  and  daughter,  and  a  big-  six-foot  neg-ro,  as  black  as  the 
ace  of  spades,  whom  he  deferentially  passed  into  his  pew  and 
seated  next  to  his  wife.  A  sanctimonious  Bourbon  in  the 
seat  behind  him  was  greatly  shocke  d  at  this  defilement  of  the 
church,  and  reaching*  over  whispered  to  his  neig-hbor  and 
said,  "How  dare  you  bring-  a  damned  nig-ger  into  this  church 
and  seat  him  in  your  pew  next  to  your  wife  ?  "  His  friend, 
turning-  to  him,  quietly  whispered  in  his  ear,  and  said,  "  He 
is  not  a  nigg-er,  he  is  a  Haytian  and  worth  six  millions."  As 
soon  as  this  negro-hating-  Christian  could  recover  from  the 
surprise  of  this  unexpected  announcement,  he  whispered  back 
to  his  neig-hbor  and  said,  "After  the  services  are  over  please 
introduce  me."  [Laug-hter  and  applause.]  So  you  see,  that 
in  the  North  and  South  alike,  circumstances  alter  cases. 
]]Laughter.] 

The  flunky  Bourbons  in  this  country  would  do  just  as 
their  brother  Bourbon  in  Maine  did.  [Laug-hter  and  ap- 
plause.] So  long-  as  any  man  or  woman  can  be  held  as  a 
slave,  even  though  just  imported  from  Africa,  they  are  not 
offensive  to  the  closest  contact,  and  to  the  most  intimate  re- 
lations, as  is  evidenced  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  half- 
breeds  and  octoroons  in  the  Soith.  [Applause.]  And  then, 
nearly  all  the  slave  barons  were,  themselves,  nursed  and  cared 
for  while  children  by  black  slave  mothers.  "While  slaves,  the 
odor  arising  from  any  negro  —  on  the  hottest  day  in  August 
• — is  to  the  delicate  nostrils  of  the  slave  baron  like  the  perfume 
from  the  attar  of  roses;  but  if  these  same  black  persons  are 
free,  that  moment  the  odor  arising  from  them  congests  the 


—  609  — 

sensitive  olfactories  of  every  slave  baron,  and  paralyzes  his 
palpitating-  heart.     [Laughter  and  applause.] 

Mr.  Chairman,  when  any  one  quotes  the  Bible,  as  it  has 
been  quoted  to  me  here  to-day,  in  an  attempt  to  excuse,  or 
justify,  the  enslavement  and  chattelizing-  of  men,  for  whose 
salvation  the  Man  of  Sorrows  died,  I  simply  recog-nize  and 
treat  such  a  man  as  I  would  a  person  who  was  insane  or  a 
convicted  malefactor.     [Applause.] 

The  clergyman,  who,  in  Boston,  announced  **that  he 
would  send  his  own  mother  back  into  slavery  if  she  were  an 
escaped  fugitive,  and  the  Constitution  required  it,"  is  a  fit- 
ting representative  of  that  class  of  pious  parvenues,  who  thus 
quote  the  Bible,  and  '*  steal  the  livery  of  heaven  to  serve  the 
devil  in."     [Applause.] 

"With  shame  I  am  compelled  in  this  year  of  grace  1856  to 
confess  that  this  bastard  clergyman  has  his  disciples  in  Ohio. 
Can  you  conceive,  fellow-citizens,  of  a  blacker  villainy,  or  one 
more  brutal  and  vile,  than  the  sending  of  one's  own  mother 
•back  into  slavery,  law  or  no  law.  Constitution  or  no  Consti- 
tution? ["Wecan't."]  And  yet  I  have  seen  with  my  own  eyes, 
the  well-known  half-brothers  and  half-sisters  of  slaveholding 
families,  sold  on  the  auction  block  to  the  highest  bidders  by 
professedly  Christian  men.  ["  Shame  !"]  Do  you  wonder  that 
the  hearts  and  consciences  of  the  best  men  and  women  of  our 
country  are  outraged  and  shocked  at  such  infernal  crimes? 
['*  No."]  The  only  wonder  to  me  is,  that  the  nation  does  not 
rise  in  overwhelming  force  and  abolish  such  diabolical  vil- 
lainy, and  properly  punish  the  monsters  who  are  guilty  of 
such  fearful  wrongs.  [Applause.]  And  there  are  other 
crimes  inseparable  from  any  form  of  slavery,  quite  as  brutal- 
izing and  revolting  as  the  selling  of  half-brothers  and  half- 
sisters;  but  I  will  not  now  attempt  to  describe  them.  It  is 
enough  for  you  and  me  to  know  that  such  frightful  crimes  are 
but  part  and  parcel  of  a  system  which  demands  the  enactment 
of  such  inhuman  laws,  touching  the  ownership  and  govern- 
ment of  slaves,  as  you  will  find  in  the  statute-books  of  all  the 
Southern  States.  Let  me  read  from  a  book  which  I  hold  in 
my  hand,  a  few  paragraphs  (and  not  by  any  means  the  most 
offensive).  These  paragraphs  are  from  some  of  the  so-called 
39 


—  blu  — 

State  laws  and  judicial  decision*^  of  slave  States.  They  will 
give  you  a  partial  conception  at  least  of  the  venality  and 
brutality  of  slavery,  and  I  hope  a  clearer  insight  into  its 
moral  degradation.  Such  laws  and  their  interested  judicial 
interpretation,  by  judges  who  themselves  are  slave  owners, 
present,  as  I  see  it,  a  compilation  of  villainy  enacted  into  law, 
without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  any  civilized  people. 
Listen  to  this,  anl  you  will  not  wonder  at  what  Jefferson 
said,  when  he  declared  **that  he  trembled  for  his  country 
when  he  thought  of  the  negro,  and  remembered  that  God  was 
just."     [Applause.] 

Let  me  read  what  the  slave  barons  have  enacted  into 
law. 

**  Slaves  shall  be  deemed,  sold,  taken,  represented  and 
adjudged  in.  law,  to  be  chattels  personal,  in  the  hands  of 
their  owners  or  possessors,  and  their  executors,  administra- 
tors and  assigns,  to  all  intents,  constructions  and  purposes 
whatsoever." — Laws  of  South  Carolina,  2d  Brev.  Digest  229, 
Prince's  Digest  446. 

* '  Slaves  cannot  make  a  contract,  cannot  own  or  hold 
property,  cannot  even  contract  a  marriage." — Prince's  Di- 
gest, page  28. 

*'The  cardinal  principle  of  slavery  is,  that  the  slave  is 
not  to  be  ranked  among  sentient  beings,  but  among  things,  as 
an  article  of  property,  a  chattel  personal,  and  these  facts 
obtained  as  undoubted  law,  in  all  these  States." — Stroud, 
page  23. 

"It  is  plain,  that  the  dominion  of  the  master  is  as  un- 
limited as  that  which  is  tolerated  by  the  laws  of  any  civilized 
country,  in  relation  to  brute  animals  and  quadrupeds." — 
Stroud,  page  24. 

"  In  case  the  personal  property  of  a  ward  shall  consist 
in  specific  articles,  such  as  slaves,  working  beasts,  plate, 
books,  and  so  forth,  the  Court  may  at  any  time  pass  an  order 
of  sale." — Laws  of  Maryland. 

And,  as  if  this  diabolical  villainy,  in  the  form  of  law, 
were  not  enough,  there  was  added  to  it,  on  demand  of  the 
slave  barons,  enactment  after  enactment,  in  all  the  slave 
States  (and  I  blush  to  own  it,  here  in  Ohio  and  in  a  number 
of  the  so-called  free  States),  which  denied  to  the  negro,  or  to 


—  611  — 

any  persons  with  negro  blood  in  their  veins,  the  rig-ht  to 
testify  in  any  court  of  justice  against  the  most  brutal  and 
deg-raded  white  man  —  even  if  he  had  committed  the  most 
revolting-  offenses  against  life  or  property,  or  the  sanctity  of 
their  wives  and  daug-hters. 

We  had  just  such  barbarous  enactments  on  our  statute- 
books,  here  in  Ohio,  placed  there  on  demand  of  the  slave 
barons.  These  laws  were  very  properly  called  the  **  black 
laws"  of  Ohio,  and  these  accursed  laws  mig-ht  have  been  on 
our  statute-books  to-day,  but  for  the  demand  of  the  old  anti- 
slavery  g-uard  for  their  repeal,  and  the  honorable  agreement, 
of  which  I  have  spoken,  that  which  the  manly  Free-soilers 
made  with  the  anti-slavery  Democrats,  at  the  time  Chase  was 
elected  Senator,  and  thus  secured  their  repeal  and  removed 
forever  this  foul  blot  from  the  name  and  fair  fame  of  our 
State.  [Applause.]  And  I  do  not  believe  that  there  lives 
within  our  fair  borders  to-day,  a  creature,  claiming  to  be  a 
man,  however  brutal  and  brazen,  who  would  dare  to  rise  in 
the  legislature  and  propose  to  re-enact  into  law,  the  villainous 
black  statutes  which  we  then  repealed.  [Applause.]  Even 
the  cross-roads  statesmen,  whom  I  encountered  yesterday  and 
to-day,  would  not  have  the  unblushing  effrontery  to  do  such 
an  infamous  act —  although  they  have  had  the  hardihood  to 
say  to  me,  that  they  would  aid  in  hunting  down  and  captur- 
ing an  escaping  slave.     [Applause.] 

The  land-slave  pirate  knew,  that  he  could  not  safely  nor 
successfully  carry  on  his  infamous  kidnapping  trade  of  steal- 
ing free  persons  and  selling  them  into  slavery,  if  the  persons 
he  was  kidnapping  were  permitted  to  testify,  even  before  a 
slave  baron's  court  and  a  jury  on  which,  as  a  rule,  there 
would  be  secured  one  or  more  silent  partners  of  the  kidnapper. 

For  this  reason  the  land-slave  pirate  had  such  so-called 
laws  as  I  have  described  enacted  in  all  the  slave  States  and  in  a 
majority  of  the  free  States,  and  in  both  Northern  and  Southern 
States  he  had  these  infamous  laws  supplemented  with  others, 
such  as  would  facilitate  and  render  more  secure  his  execrable 
traffic  in  the  bodies  and  souls  of  men.  Thus  they  had  laws 
passed  in  all  the  slave  States,  which  invited  every  unhung 
villain,  to  arrest  any  person  of  so-called  African  descent  whom 
lie  might  decoy  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  right  kind  of  a 


—  612  — 

court  and  county  officials,  where  he  could  have  the  free  per- 
sons so  seized,  thrown  into  jail  without  a  hearing-,  under  the 
pretext  that  the  person  thus  arrested  was  an  escaped  slave. 
After  he  was  safely  landed  in  prison,  he  would  be  advertised 
as  the  law  directed  as  "a  runaway  slave  taken  up,"  as  you 
advertise  stray  cattle  in  here  Ohio,  in  which  advertisement  the 
owner  of  said  person  would  be  * '  officially  notified  "  to  come 
forward  within  the  time  named  in  the  advertisement,  claim 
such  person,  prove  property,  pay  charg-es  and  take  him  away. 
This  advertisement  was  often  no  more  than  a  written  notice 
posted  upon  the  prison  door,  because  in  many  counties  of  the 
Southern  States  there  are  no  newspapers  published. 

In  this  notice  the  so-called  "owner"  and  the  public 
would  be  bluntly  informed  that  the  person  so  taken  up  on 
suspicion,  would  be  sold  into  slavery  for  life  to  pay  his  "jail 
fees." 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  theory  on  which  this  blackest  oi 
crimes  is  sought  to  be  justified  is,  that  the  person  so  arrested 
is  the  slave,  or  ought  to  be  the  slave  of  some  one,  and  if  not, 
that  it  is  dangerous  to  slavery  as  an  institution,  to  permil 
such  a  free  person  to  be  at  large.  The  example  would  be  bad. 
and  might  result  in  other  slaves  escaping.  He  is,  therefore, 
taken  up  as  you  would  take  up  a  stray  horse,  with  this  differ- 
ence, that  the  horse  is  not  sent  to  the  county  jail,  while  in  al 
the  slave  States  the  human  being  is.  After  he  is  kept  in  jar 
the  length  of  time  prescribed  by  law,  he  is  publicly  sold  intc 
slavery  for  life  —  and  his  posterity  after  him  —  to  pay  his  in 
voluntary  indebtedness  to  the  State  in  the  shape  of  "jai 
fees  "  charged  for  keeping  him.  ["Horrible!  Infamous!"]  Jt 
majority  of  the  persons  thus  sold,  so  far  as  my  observatiot 
went,  were  free  persons  (and  I  have  seen  a  number  of  sucl 
cases),  and  they  were  sold,  as  a  rule,  to  the  very  land-slav( 
pirates  who  caused  their  arrest.  In  this  way,  thousands  o 
persons,  born  beneath  our  flag  and  as  free  as  you  or  I,  hav< 
been  seized  and  sold  into  slavery  for  life,  and  to-day  are  toil 
ing  for  slave  barons  in  the  rice-  and  cotton-fields  of  the  South 
and  if  you  or  anyone  for  you,  or  for  them,  should  go  dowi 
there  with  the  conclusive  proof  of  the  freedom  of  any  sue' 
person  held  as  a  slave,  under  color  of  a  sheriff's  title  such  a 
I  have  described,  and  attempt  by  legal  process  in  any  court  t 


—  613  — 

have  them  released,  you,  or  those  you  sent  down  there  on 
such  a  mission  of  justice,  would  be  fortunate  if  you  got  away 
with  3^our  lives.     [Cries  of  "  Horrible!     Infamous!"] 

True,  as  your  hearts  involuntarily  cry  out,  the  crime  of 
enslaving-  men  is  *'  horrible  and  infamous,"  for  slavery  is  the 
spirit  of  piracy,  the  spirit  of  avarice  and  the  spirit  of  despot- 
ism combined.  It  is  a  heartless  and  soulless  trinity,  and 
**the  sum  of  all  villainies,"  as  declared  by  the  great  and  good 
Wesley.     [Applause.] 

During  the  Revolution  and  in  the  early  days  of  the  re- 
public, a  majority  of  all  the  great  men  of  the  South,  who 
battled  on  the  field  and  in  the  forum  for  our  independence, 
especially  the  great  men  of  Virginia,  Maryland  and  North 
Carolina,  were  outspoken  in  their  opposition  to  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery.  [Applause.]  And  yet,  within  a  few  years, 
this  monster  wrong,  this  crime  of  the  centuries,  has  fastened 
its  fangs  into  our  national  life,  and  strengthened  and  grown, 
until  it  has  demoralized  and  debauched  a  large  part  of  the 
entire  nation,  north  and  south.  [Applause.]  In  truth,  we 
have  reached  such  a  depth  of  moral  degradation,  that  the 
Chief  Executive  and  our  highest  judicial  tribunals,  state  and 
national,  are  known  to  be  the  open  apologists  and  defenders  of 
this  revolting  villainy.  [Applause.]  In  the  eyes  of  all  civ- 
ilized peoples,  we  are,  to-day,  regarded  as  a  nation  of  liars 
and  hypocrites,  professing  devotion  to  the  principles  of  liberty 
and  justice,  while  pirating  on  the  land  and  on  the  sea  for 
men,  women  and  children,  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  reduc- 
ing to  slavery  all  the  weak  and  defenseless  who  can  labor, 
whether  Africans,  South  Sea  Islanders,  Chinese  Coolies,  In- 
dians or  white  men.     [Applause.] 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  must  not  forget  to  state  that  by  the 
laws  and  judicial  decisions  of  all  the  slave  States,  the  child 
follows  the  condition  of  the  mother.  It  would  have  been 
fatal  to  the  legal  ownership  of  half-brothers  and  sisters,  and 
ultimately  to  the  institution  of  slavery,  if  the  law  had  pro- 
vided that  the  child  of  a  slave  'mother  should  follow  the 
condition  of  the  father.  With  such  a  law,  in  a  hundred 
years  or  less  (as  the  amalgamation  of  the  races  now  going  on 
in  the  South  shows),  there  would  result  universal  emancipa- 
tion.     [Applaus>e.]      Let    me    read    one    more    paragraph : 


--614  — 

**Two  hundred  years  have  sanctioned  and  sanctified  negro 
slaves  as  property.  The  moment  the  incontestable  fact  is 
admitted  that  neg-ro  slaves  are  property,  the  law  g-overning" 
movable  property  attaches  itself  to  them,  and  secures  to  the 
owner  the  rig-ht  of  carrying-  them  from  one  State  to  another, 
where  they  are  recognized  as  property." 

Can  two  hundred  years,  or  any  number  of  years,  **'sanc- 
tion  and  sanctify "  oppression  and  wrong-,  so  as  to  make 
oppression  just,  and  wrong- rig-ht?     [Applause.] 

This  monstrous  and  indefensible  proposition  was  deliber- 
ately affirmed,  in  the  lang-uage  just  quoted,  by  a  no  less 
person  than  Henry  Clay,  of  Kentucky,  in  a  speech  delivered 
by  him  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  February  7,  1839. 

If  then,  a  slave  is  propertj^and  a  chattel,  and  not  a  man, 
he  cannot  make  a  contract,  and  so  cannot  at  law  be  in  default 
for  service.  If,  as  a  chattel,  he  can  be  leg-ally  in  default  for 
any  service  required,  then  the  slave  baron  may  leg-ally  g-o 
into  court  and  sue  his  mule  for  services,  whenever  his  mule 
balks  and  kicks,  or  runs  away  and  refuses  to  render  the  **  ser- 
vice" which  his  owner  claims.      [Laug-hter  and  applause.] 

The  confounding-  of  the  word  "person"  as  used  in  the 
Constitution,  with  the  word  "  slave,"  which  is  not  once  used 
in  the  Constitution,  has  from  the  first  given  the  slave  barons 
much  trouble.  And  but  for  the  fact  that  national  and  State 
judges,  claiming  to  own  "persons"  as  property,  were  care- 
fully and  craftily  selected  by  the  slave  barons  for  all  officials, 
and  especially  for  all  judicial  positions  —  State  and  national 
—  no  such  perverted  and  dishonest  construction  of  our 
national  Constitution  would  have  been  possible.  [Applause.] 
On  the  contrary,  I  affirm,  that  if  our  national  Constitution, 
together  with  the  preamble  and  the  debates  in  the  great  con- 
vention which  framed  it,  including  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, had  at  any  time,  within  the  first  half-century  of 
our  national  life,  been  submitted  for  judicial  interpretation 
to  a  commission,  impartially  selected  from  the  most  eminent 
jurists  and  lawyers  in  the  world,  say  one  or  two  each  from 
France,  Germany,  Australia,  Italy  and  Switzerland  (omitting 
England  if  j^ou  will),  no  such  perverted  and  rascally  inter- 
pretation as  we  have  had  from  our  courts,  affirming  the  right 


—  615  — 

of  property  in  man,  could  have  been  g-iven  by  such  a  court,  or 
judicial  commission.     [Applause.] 

Fellow-citizens,  having-  deliberately  perverted  and  judi- 
cially misinterpreted  our  national  Constitution,  the  slave  bar- 
ons next  proceed  to  debauch  and  deg-rade  the  Christian  church 
by  perverting-  and  misinterpreting-  the  Bible,  so  as  to  make 
the  church  the  bulwark  of  American  slavery,  and  the  Bible 
its  most  formidable  citadel. 

The  sig-ht  of  a  slave  pirate  captain  on  a  ship  in  mid  ocean 
crowded  with  slaves  just  captured  in  Africa,  calling-  his  pirate 
crew  together  on  his  quarter  deck  Sunday  morning-,  and  read- 
ing- and  expounding-  the  Bible  to  them,  and  proclaiming*  (be- 
tween drinks)  that  slavery  was  a  divine  institution,  would  be 
a  spectacle  less  revolting-  than  that  of  the  Boston  clerg-yman, 
of  whom  I  have  spoken,  and  not  a  whit  more  revolting-  than 
many  of  the  acts  which  may  be  witnessed  every  day  of  the 
year  in  all  the  Southern  States.  [Applause.]  But  I  deny  that 
the  Bible  anywhere  authorizes  or  justifies  the  crime  of  Amer- 
ican slavery.  Whatever  injustice  and  oppression  may  have 
been,  and  perhaps  was  authorized,  or  tolerated,  under  the 
Mosaic  dispensation,  it  was,  as  I  read  and  understand  the 
Bible,  abolished  and  prohibited  under  the  dispensation  and 
teaching-  of  Christ.  But  if  the  Mosaic  code  is  still  in  force, 
then  I  demand  that  **  cities  of  refug-e"  shall  be  established 
all  over  this  broad  land  of  ours,  as  numerous  and  as  near  each 
other,  as  the  cities  described  in  the  books  of  Numbers  and 
Deuteronomy,  and  that  when  an  escaped  slave  reaches  any  of 
such  cities,  he  shall  not  be  g-iven  up  to  anyone  who  may  claim 
to  own  him  as  he  must  now  be  g-iven  up  here  in  Ohio,  or  in  any 
free  State,  if  we  obey  the  infamous  fug-itive-slave  law;  a  law 
which  I  never  have  obeyed,  and  by  God's  help  I  never  shall. 
[Applause.]  And  then,  if  you  will  turn  to  Leviticus,  you 
will  find,  in  every  fiftieth  year,  under  the  Mosaic  code,  that 
there  was  a  year  of  jubilee,  in  which  year  every  slave  was 
free.  [Applause.]  If  the  Mosaic  code  is  to  be  maintained, 
then  I  demand  that  we  have  a  year  of  jubilee  in  this  country 
now.  [Applause.]  We  have  never  had  a  year  of  jubilee 
since  the  first  slaves  were  landed  at  Jamestown,  Virg-inia,  in 
1620,  more  than  two  hundred  years  ago,  in  which  time  we 
should  have  had  four  distinct  half-century  years  of  jubilee,  if 


—  616  — 

the  Mosaic  code  is  to  hold.     [Applause.]     I  need  hardly  tell 
you,  fellow-citizens,  that  if  I  had  the  power,  we  would  have  a 
g-eneral  jubilee  in  this  year  of  grace  1856.     [Applause.]     The 
g-entlemen  on  my  right,  who  good-naturedly  interrupts  me, 
says,,  "there  is  no  danger  of  such  a  jubilee  in  this  country 
during  his  or  my  lifetime."      That  is  more  than  probable,  I 
must  admit,  but  it  is  not  impossible,  and  it  is  no  less  his  duty 
and  mine  to  work  for  it,  though  it  may  not  be  probable.     [Ap- 
plause.]    I  am  an  optimist,  and  a  more  hopeful  man  than  my 
friend,     I  believe  that  the  right  is  certain  to  triumph,  and  I 
hope  to  live  to  see  the  day  when  my  country  shall  be  free 
from  the  blighting  curse  of  human  bondage.     I  know  not  how 
nor  when  the  time  will  come,  but  I  have  an  abiding  faith,  that 
somehow,  sometime,  the  end  will  be.     The  God-defying  judg- 
ments of  our  Supreme  Court  must  be  reversed,  and  the  declar- 
ation of  the  grand  men,  who  founded  this  Government,  that 
**the  national   Constitution  did  not  recognize   property   in 
man,"  must  be  made  universal  law.     [Applause.]     If  this  can 
be  done  in  no  other  way,  it  will  become  our  duty  to  amend 
our  national  Constitution  and  all  our  State  constitutions,  so 
as  to  secure  to  every  living  human  soul  within  our  gates, 
their  right  to  life,  liberty  and  property,  and  it  must  also  be 
amended  so  as  to  secure  to  all  States,  representatives  in  Con- 
gress, and  in  State  legislatures  —  in  proportion  to  the  votes 
cast  in  each,  to  the  end  that  all  the  people,  white  and  color- 
ed, shall  be  fairly  represented  in  State  legislative  assemblies 
and  in  the  national  Congress.     [Applause.]     If  this  proposi- 
tion is  now  a  recognized  duty,  touching  an  amendment  to  our 
national  Constitution,  it  must  also  become  a  duty  touching 
an  amendment  to  the  State  constitution  of  Ohio,  and  all  State 
constitutions,  South  as  well  as  North.       [Applause.]      The 
time  has  gone  by,  when  the  Government  of  the  nation,  or 
that  of  any  State,  can,  without  protest,  be  dominated  over  by 
the  minority,  and  be  administedby  organized  force  and  fraud, 
in  the  interest  of  a  privileged  class.     [Applause  and  cries  of 
"that's  so. "[ 

For  nearly  half  a  century,  less  than  three  hundred 
thousand  slave  barons  have  ruled  this  nation  morally  and 
politically,  including  a  majority  of  the  Northern  States,  with 
a  rod  of  iron.     They  have  rode,  and  to-day  are  riding  over 


—  617  — 

us  politically,  and,  as  it  were,  on  horseback  —  booted  and 
spurred  —  and  appropriately  armed,  as  the  recognized  cham- 
pions of  the  barbarism  which  they  so  fitting^ly  represent. 
Befor<^  the  advancing*  march  of  these  slave  barons,  with 
bloodhounds  and  shot-gun,  the  great  body  of  Northern  pub- 
lic men,  claiming  to  be  statesmen,  the  pulpit  and  the  press, 
lawyers  and  judges,  merchants  and  political  camp-followers 
— including  all  office-holders  and  office-seekers  — have  bowed 
down,  and  are  to-day  bowing  down,  with  their  hands  on 
their  mouths  and  their  mouths  in  the  dust,  with  an  abase- 
ment as  servile  as  that  of  a  vanquished,  spiritless  people,  to 
their  conquerors.  [Applause.]  This  domination  of  the 
slave  baron  is  to-day  so  demoralizing  and  so  servile,  that  I 
fear  we  are  doomed  to  see,  in  this  year  of  grace  1856,  the 
election  to  the  Presidency  of  that  prince  of  all  Northern 
Janus-faced  politicians,  James  Buchanan. 

[At  this  point  Mr.  Ashley  was  again  interrupted  arfd 
asked,  "  why  he  did  not,  as  a  delegate  to  the  Philadelphia  con- 
vention, vote  for  the  nomination  of  Judge  McLean,  if  lie 
had  any  doubt  of  Fremont's  election."  In  reply,  Mr.  Ashley 
said:]  I  answer  you  frankly,  that  I  do  not  believe  in  nomi- 
nating a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
for  the  Presidency,  nor  do  I  believe  in  nominating  the  judge 
of  any  court  of  record — national  or  State  —  for  a  political 
office.  I  know  Judge  McLean  personally,  and  regard  him  as 
among  our  ablest  and  purest  public  men,  but  I  did  not  want 
him  nominated  by  the  Republican  party  for  President.  [Ap- 
plause.] Had  Robert  Rantoul,  of  Massachusetts,  been  liv- 
ing, I  should  have  voted  for  his  nomination  as  soon  as 
Mr.  Chase's  name  was  withdrawn.  As  it  was,  after  it  became 
clear  that  Governor  Chase  could  not  be  nominated,  I  voted  for 
the  nomination  of  General  Fremont,  because  I  felt  confident 
that  he  would  best  unite  all  the  elements  of  opposition  to 
Buchanan.  [Applause.]  Here  Mr.  Ashley  was  again  ques- 
tioned and  asked,  "Is  not  Fillmore  abetter  representative  of 
the  South  than  Buchanan?"  Mr.  Ashley  said:  I  answer 
you  without  reservation  or  qualification,  that  he  is  not. 
Mr.  Fillmore  is  nothing  but  a  *' decoy  duck,"  and  is  simply 
being  used  by  the  slave  barons  to  catch  Northern  doughface 
suckers  and  political  eunuchs.     [Applause.]     His  abasement 


—  618— 

and  self-stultification  became  so  complete,  when,  as  the  act- 
ing- President,  he  approved  the  fugitive-slave  bill,  that  the 
slave  barons  know  he  can  no  longer  be  of  service  to  them, 
except  as  a  "  decoy  duck,"  and  they  are  now  working  Ijim  for 
all  he  is  worth,  just  as  they  used  and  worked  Daniel  Webster 
without  scruple  and  without  a  blush.  [Applause.]  From 
the  day  he  delivered  his  7th  of  March  speech,  the  slave 
barons  did  not  pretend  to  use  Webster  even  as  a  **  decoy 
duck,"  but  simply  treated  him  as  a** dead  duck,"  and  as  he 
deserved  to  be  treated  for  his  betrayal  of  Massachusetts  and 
the  North.  [Applause.]  No,  sir,  do  not  deceive  yourself, 
the  slave  barons  know  their  men;  they  know  that  Mr. 
Buchanan  is  the  safest,  most  compliant,  and  most  available 
Northern  man  for  their  purposes.  They  tested  him  as 
United  States  Senator,  as  chief  of  the  conspirators  who 
signed  the  Ostend  Manifesto,  when  he  was  minister  to  Eng- 
land, and  again  when  he  was  Secretary  of  State.  In  no  posi- 
tion ever  held  by  him  did  he  once  disappoint,  on  the  slavery 
question,  his  exacting  masters.  [Applause.]  All  his  life  he 
has  been  a  suave,  putty-man,  ready  and  willing  to  be  molded 
and  stamped  with  the  brand  of  the  slave  barons.  [Applause.] 
Shame  and  sorrow  must  come  to  us  as  a  people,  and  over- 
whelm us  with  disgrace  and  dishonor  as  a  nation,  if  such 
men  as  he  are  charged  with  the  administration  of  our 
Government.  [Applause.]  Let  no  man  be  deceived.  .  We 
cannot  escape  forever  the  doom  that  awaits  us,  if,  as  a  nation, 
we  deliberately  continue  in  our  present  guilt  and  infamy. 
[Applause.]  But,  thank  God,  I  know  that  we  shall  not  con- 
tinue in  our  present  guilty,  downward  course.  I  have  an 
abiding  faith  that  the  hour  of  our  deliverance  is  nearer  than 
the  world  knows,  or  dreams.  With  God  on  our  side,  I  have 
often  said,  that  one  is  a  majority.  [Applause.]  And  you  and 
I  know  that  to-day  we  have  millions  of  true  and  brave  men  on 
our  side,  such  as  old  Governor  Ritner,  of  Pennsylvania,  who 
officially  refused  to  deliver  up  a  fugitive  slave,  and  of  whom 
Whittier  sung  in  words  that  will  never  die: 

"Thank  God  for  the  token,  one  lip  is  still  free, 
One  spirit  untrammeled,  unbending  one  knee, 
Like  the  oak  of  the  mountain,  deep-rooted  and  firm. 


—  619  — 

Erect,  when  multitudes  bend  to  the  storm; 
When  traitors  to  freedom  and  honor  and  God 
Are  bowed  at  an  idol  polluted  with  blood; 
When  the  recreant  North  has  forgotten  her  trust, 
And  the  lip  of  her  honor  lies  low  in  the  dust, 
Thank  God,  that  one  man  from  the  shackles  has  broken, 
Thank  God,  that  one  man  as  a  freeman  has  spoken  I 
O'er  thy  crags,  Allegheny,  a  blast  has  been  blown, 
Down  thy  tide,  Susquehanna,  a  murmur  has  gone 
To  the  land  of  the  South,  of  the  charter  and  chain  — 
Of  liberty  sweetened  with  slavery's  pain; 
Where  the  cant  of  democracy  dwells  on  the  lips 
Of  the  forgers  of  fetters  and  wielders  of  whips! 
Where  *  chivalric  '  honor  means  really  no  more 
Than  scourging  of  women,  and  robbing  the  poor! 
Where  the  Moloch  of  Slavery  sitteth  on  high. 
And  the  words  which  he  utters,  are, 
'  Worship,  or  die  ! '" 

[Applause.] 

Fellow-citizens,  I  do  not  class  all  men  who  are  the  owners 
of  slaves,  as  '*  slave  barons,"  or  pro-slavery  conspirators,  hos- 
tile to  democratic  government.  Many  men  hold  slaves  who 
got  them  by  inheritance,  and  circumstances  beyond  their  con- 
trol compelled  them  to  remain  slave  owners. 

I  personally  know  a  number  of  slaveholders  who  are  bet- 
ter men  than  you  would  suppose  possible  under  the  slave  sys- 
tem which  environs  them.  Their  acts  told  me,  more  forcibly 
than  their  words,  that  their  hearts  were  not  in  accord  with 
the  accursed  system  under  which,  by  birth,  education  and 
surrounding  conditions,  they  were  compelled  to  live.  Such 
men  would  always  give  their  worthy  and  trusted  slaves  a  half 
day  to  themselves  on  Saturday,  and  sometimes  all  of  Satur- 
day, with  the  right  to  own  and  hold  such  personal  property 
as  they  might  earn  during  their  holidays.  Such  men  would 
permit  their  slaves  to  have  their  marriage  solemnized  by  a 
regularly  ordained  clergyman  of  any  church  they  might  se- 
lect. Of  course  such  men  could  not  be  induced  to  purchase 
newly  imported  African  slaves  from  a  slave  dealer,  nor  pur- 
chase a  person  whom  they  had  reason  to  suspect  was  a  free 


—  620  — 

man,  who  had  been  kidnapped,  either  in  a  free  or  in  a  slave 
State,  as  has  often  been  done  by  slave  dealers.  Such  a  slave 
master  would  no  more  be  guilty  of  buying-  and  holding-  as  a 
slave,  a  free  white  man,  or  Chinaman,  or  black  man,  than  he 
would  think  of  buying-  and  holding  a  stolen  horse.  So  I  say, that 
such  slavemasters  are  better  than  the  American  slave  system, 
under  which  thousands  of  men,  white  men,  mulattoes.  China- 
men and  foreig-ners,  as  free  born  as  you  or  I,  are  to-day  held 
as  chattel  slaves,  and  there  is,  practically,  no  escape  for  them 
or  their  children  but  in  the  g-rave.  ["  Horrible!  Infamous!"] 
But  the  men  whom  I  have  just  described,  are  no  more  believ- 
ers in  slavery  than  was  Thomas  Jefferson  and  thousands  of 
Southern  men,  who  were  born  to  this  dangerous  and  degrad- 
ing-inheritance. [Applause.]  Such  slave  masters  frequently 
permitted  their  slaves  to  buy  their  freedom  and  that  of  their 
wives  and  children.  I  have  known  personally  of  a  half  dozen 
instances  of  that  kind. 

Now  let  me  give  you  a  clear  view  of  a  fellow  who  is  a 
''  slave  baron"  at  heart,  and  I  regret  to  be  compelled  to  say 
that  I  have  known  of  more  than  one  such  "slave  baron."  I 
have  known  an  instance  where  slaves  bargained  for  their 
freedom  with  masters  who  at  heart  were  "  slave  barons,"  and 
after  the  price  had  been  nearly  all  paid,  the  poor  negro  with- 
out notice  was  seized  and  sold  South,  from  his  family  and  all 
the  home  he  had. 

Under  the  American  slave  system,  the  law  declares,  as  I 
have  read  you,  that  a  slave  cannot  own  property,  cannot  make 
a  contract,  cannot  even  enter  into  a  contract  of  marriage. 
He,  therefore,  can  be  seized  and  sold  at  any  time,  like  a  brute 
beast,  and  there  is  no  escape  in  any  slave  State  from  this  terri- 
ble conditiots.     f "  That's  so."] 

When  about  eleven  years  of  age,  I  was  greatly  shocked 
and  my  feelings  outraged  by  this  occurrence.  Two  slaves 
belonging  to  two  different  owners,  each  made  a  bargain  with 
his  master  to  purchase  his  freedom.  One  was  to  pay  a  thou- 
sand dollars,  and  be  free  as  soon  as  he  paid  it,  with  no  limit  as 
to  time.  The  other  was  to  pay  eight  hundred  dollars,  if  paid 
within  five  yearsx  If  the  time  went  beyond  five  years,  the 
price  was  to  be  eight  hundred  and  fifty  doiiars.  Many  of  the 
neighbors  knew  of  these  agreements.     Each  of  these  slaves 


—  621  — 

worked  in  season  and  out  of  season  to  earn  the  money  for  his 
ransom.  As  fast  as  each  g"ot  a  few  dollars  ahead,  they  paid 
it  over  to  their  master,  trusting-  to  him  to  keep  the  account 
honestly.  In  something-  over  three  years'  time,  one  had  paid 
his  master  nearly  nine  hundred  dollars,  and  the  other  over 
five  hundred  dollars,  when,  without  notice,  and  without  an 
attempt  on  the  part  of  the  masters  to  conceal  the  perfid}-  and 
the  infamy  of  their  acts,  both  slaves  were  sold,  and  uncere- 
moniously seized  by  the  slave  trader,  manacled  and  chained 
in  a  coffle-g-ang-  and  driven  off  South  and  were  never  more 
seen  or  heard  of  by  their  families  or  friends,  so  far  as  I  know. 
[Cries  of  *' Shocking-!  Shameful!"]  Do  you  wonder  that  I 
was  outraged  at  this  indescribable  villainy?  [Cries  of  "No, 
we  do  not."]  And  I  am  g-lad  to  be  able  to  tell  you  that  there 
were  many  honest,  pure-minded  men  and  women  in  that 
neig-hborhood,  some  of  whom  were  slaveholders,  who  looked 
upon  this  dishonoring-,  God-defying-  act,  as  simply  infamous. 
[Applause.] 

This  horrid  occurrence  so  worked  upon  me,  that  I  have 
never  forg-otten  it,  and  my  heart  has  never  ceased  to  rebel 
ag-ainst  a  system  which  tolerates  and  makes  possible  such  di- 
abolical crimes.     [Applause.] 

Before  I  was  twenty  years  of  ag-e,  I  had  drawn  up  a  plan 
to  aid  slaves  to  purchase  their  freedom,  and  to  provide  by 
statute  law  ag-ainst  a  repetition  of  such  villainy  as  I  have  de- 
scribed.    [Applause.] 

There  are  a  number  in  the  audience  who  have  heard  me 
more  than  once  explain  the  plan,  and  my  boyish  hopes  in  con- 
nection with  it,  and  how  those  hopes  were  defeated  and  blast- 
ed. So  I  will  not  repeat  it  now.  [Someone  spoke  up  and 
said,  "There  are  many  here  who  never  heard  it,  and  who  we 
know  would  like  to  hear  it,"] 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  Ashley,  "the  afternoon  is  slipping 
away  and  I  have  not  the  time.  It  will  give  me  pleasure  to 
tell  you  about  it,  the  next  titne  1  am  with  you  for  a  speech. 
[Applause.] 

Fellow-citizens,  in  what  I  have  said,  I  have  sought  to 
make  my  purpose  so  plain,  that  he  who  runs  may  read,  lam 
determined  that  no  honest  man  shaJi  misunderstand  my  arj- 
peal.     1  therefore  repeat,  that  I  am  unutterably  opposed    o 


622  — 


n 


the  ownership  of  labor  by  capital,  either  as  chattel-slaves,  or 
as  apprentices  for  a  term  of  years,  as  Chinamen  are  now  be- 
ing- apprenticed  in  Cuba  and  in  this  country,  ostensibly  for 
seven  years,  but  in  reality  for  life. 

I  do  not  ag-ree  that  capital  shall  own  labor,  North  or 
South,  nor  in  any  country  on  God's  green  earth,  [Applause.] 
I  do  not  care  whether  that  capital  is  in  the  hands  of  one  man 
or  in  the  hands  of  many  men  combined.  Neither  the  state, 
nor  a  corporation  (which  is  an  artificial  person,  and  often  a 
soulless  one  at  that,  created  by  the  authority  of  the  state), 
must  be  recog-nized  as  having-  the  right  to  deprive  any  per- 
son, however  poor,  whether  white  or  black,  of  his  life,  or  lib- 
erty, or  property,  except  in  punishment  for  crime,  of  which 
he  must  be  duly  convicted  in  open  court  by  a  jury  of  his  peers. 
[Applause.]  This  protection  I  demand  for  myself  and  mine, 
and  that  which  I  demand  for  myself,  I  demand  for  the  hum- 
blest of  God's  poor,  of  whatever  kindred,  tongue  or  people. 
I  demand  for  every  human  soul  within  our  gates,  whether 
black  or  white,  or  of  mixed  blood,  the  equal  protection  of  the 
law,  and  that  everywhere  beneath  or  flag,  on  the  land  or  on 
the  sea,  that  they  be  protected  in  their  right  to  life  and  lib- 
erty, and  the  secure  possession  of  the  fruits  of  their  own 
labor.  In  short,  I  demand  that  all  of  God's  children  shall 
have  an  even  chance  in  the  race  of  life.  [Applause.]  You 
will,  I  know,  agree  with  me,  that  it  is  the  duty  of  a  civilized 
state  to  protect  the  weak  and  defenseless  against  the  aggres- 
sions of  the  selfish  and  the  powerful,  to  protect  them  against 
the  heartlessness  of  greed  and  the  brutality  born  of  the  in- 
fernal spirit  of  caste.  [Applause.]  Whatever  the  pretext  or 
excuse,  I  am  opposed  to  all  forms  of  ownership  of  men, 
whether  by  the  state,  by  corporations, or  by  individuals.  The 
ownership  of  men,  as  chattels,  by  the  state,  would  be  the 
most  brutal  and  degrading  form  of  slavery  which  the  devilish 
ingenuity  of  man  could  invent.  If  I  must  be  a  slave,  I  would 
prefer  to  be  the  slave  of  one  man,  rather  than  a  slave  of  a 
soulless  corporation,  or  the  slave  of  a  state.  But  I  protest  in 
the  name  of  that  liberty  which  is  the  birthright  of  the  human 
race,  against  the  enslavement  by  individuals,  by  corporations, 
or  by  the  state,  of  any  of  God's  children,  however  poor  or  de- 
fenseless, whether  white  or  black.     [Applause.] 


—  623  — 

Fellow-citizens,  you  will  readily  understand,  from  what 
I  have  said,  that  I  do  not  believe  slavery  can  leg-ally  exist  in 
this  country,  a  sing-le  hour,  under  an  honest  interpretation  of 
our  national  Constitution. 

I  differ  with  my  friends  Garrison  and  Phillips,  on  this 
point,  and  do  not  admit  that  our  national  Constitution  is  a 
**  covenant  with  hell  and  a  leag-ue  with  death."  [Applause.] 
On  the  contrary,  I  hold  that  if  our  national  Constitution  was 
properly  interpreted,  that  a  slave  could  not  breathe  any- 
where, on  the  land  or  on  the  sea,  beneath  our  starry  flag-. 
[Applause  and  *' that's  true."] 

I  was  asked  to-day  by  a  defender  of  slavery,  whether  if 
I  were  a  judg-e,  I  would  obey  the  command  (as  he  expressed 
it)  of  the  Constitution,  and  return  a  fugitive  slave,  if  one 
was  broug-ht  before  me,  by  his  owner  or  claimant.  I  intended 
in  what  I  have  already  said  to  have  answered  this  question, 
but  I  am  ag-ain  asked,  by  my  friend  on  my  right,  to  answer 
specifically,  and  I  reply  now,  as  I  replied  then,  that  I  would 
not;  that  were  I  a  judg-e,  I  should  interpret  th'^*  Constitution 
for  myself  and  not  as  others  mig-ht  interpret  it  for  me.  You 
know  General  Jackson  said  that  he  interpreted  the  Constitu- 
tion for  himself,  as  his  oath  required  he  should  do,  and  that 
he  did  not  recog-nize  the  rig-ht  of  any  man,  or  body  of  men,  to 
interpret  it  for  him.  This  oug-ht  to  be  g-ood  law  for  my 
questioner,  who  is  doubtless  a  professed  disciple  of  "Old 
Hickory."  [Applause.]  In  a  case  such  as  has  been  pre- 
sented, I  should  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  General  Jackson, 
and  interpret  the  Constitution  as  I  understand  it.     I  should 

HOLD,     THAT    UNDER    OUR   NATIONAL    CONSTITUTION,    NEITHER 

THE  Congress  of  the  United  States,  nor  the  legislature 
OF  ANY  State,  had  the  power  to  make  a  slave  any  more 
THAN  TO  MAKE  A  KING.  [Applause.]  If,  therefore,  any  per- 
son should  present  himself  before  a  court,  in  which  I  was 
acting-  as  judge,  and  claim  a  human  being  as  his  property,  I 
should  require  him  (as  a  just  and  upright  judge  of  Vermont 
is  said  to  have  done),  as  a  condition  to  making  his  claim 
good,  that  he  produce  a  bill  of  sale  from  the  Almighty,  and 
if  he  could  not  do  this,  and  produce  a  bill  of  sale  with  a 
genuine  signature,  I  should  cause  him  to  be  arrested  as  a 
kidnapper,  and  send  him  to  the  penitentiary  for  the  full  term 


—  624  — 

provided  bj  law  for  kidnapping-.  [Applause  and  laughter.] 
If  I  am  clear  about  any  clause  in  the  Constitution,  it  is  the 
clause  which  is  always  quoted  to  justify  the  fugitive  slave 
law.  I  deny  that  the  Constitution  anywhere,  either  in  letter 
or  spirit,  confers  on  Congress  the  authority  to  pass  a  fugitive 
slave  law  of  any  kind.  On  the  contrary,  I  claim,  that  an  in- 
telligent, honest  reading  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  debates 
in  the  convention  which  framed  it,  will  convince  any  fair- 
minded  man,  that  Clause  Three  (3)  of  Article  Four  (4)  of  the 
Constitution,  does  not  confer  on  Congress  the  power  to  pass 
any  law  for  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves,  and  certainly  no 
grant  of  power  to  Congress  can  be  found  in  that  instrument 
for  the  passage  of  such  an  act,  as  the  infamous  fugitive- 
slave  law  of  1850.      [Applause,] 

Let  me  read  the  clause  relied  upon  by  the  slave  barons 
and  their  Northern  lackeys,  for  a  justification  of  the  present 
fugitive-slave  law.  Clause  Three  (3)  of  Article  Four  (4), 
Section  Two,  reads  as  follows: 

Clause  III.       ' '  No  person,  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one 
State,  under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall, 
in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  discharg- 
ed from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on 
claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be  due." 
This  clause  and  each  clause  in  Article  Four  (4),  Sections 
One  and  Two,  are  simply  a  compact  stipulation  and  manda- 
tory on  the  States,  and  confers  no  authority  whatever,  direct 
or  indirect,  on  Congress.     [Applause.]     When  you  go  home 
read  the  Constitution  and  see  if  I  am  not  right.      Wherever 
power  so  important  as  this,  is  conferred  by  the  Constitution 
on  Congress,  it  is  conferred,  and  intended  to  be  conferred,  by 
express  grant,  and  in  clear  and  unambiguous  language,  and 
not  by  implication.     Turn  to  Section  Eight  (8)  and  read  from 
Clause  One  (1)  to  Clause  Eighteen   (18),   and  you  will  find 
that  all  the  grants  of  power  to  Congress  are  given  in  direct  and 
unmistakable  language.     It  reads,  "  The  Congress  shall  have 
power,  etc. , "  and  Article  Ten  (10)  of  the  Amendments  distinct- 
ly provides  that  ' '  The  powers  not  delegated  to  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States,  by  the  Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to 
the  States,  are  reserved  to  the  States  respectively,  or  the  peo- 
ple."   [Applause.]    In  no  section  of  the  Constitution  is  there  a 


—  625  — 

grant  of  power  to  Congress  to  enact  laws  for  capturing  and 
returning  persons  held  by  the  laws  of  any  State  to  service  or 
labor,  either  for  a  term  of  years  or  for  life  —  nor  is  there  any 
authority  given  for  the  capture  and  return  of  criminals  es- 
caping from  one  State  into  another. 

The  slave  code  of  every  slave  State,  denies  that  slaves 
are  *' persons,"  and  describes  them  as  chattels  personal,  or 
as  property.  The  words  used  in  Clause  Three  (3)  of  Section 
Four  (4)  of  the  Constitution  describes  **persons  held  to  service 
or  labor,"  and  in  Clause  Three  (3)  of  Article  One  (1),  Sec- 
tion Two  (2),  as  "bound  to  service  for  a  term  of  years,"  but 
nowhere  describes  them  as  slaves.  The  phrase,  *'  held  to  ser- 
vice or  labor,"  and  "  bound  to  service  for  a  term  of  years," 
are  legal  technical  phrases,  and  can  only  be  applied  to  per- 
sons who  are  bound  or  held  by  a  contract,  which  they  them- 
selves, or  their  lawful  guardians,  may  have  legally  executed 
"for  a  term  of  j^ears,"  and  cannot  possibly  mean  slaves, 
because  no  person,  black  or  white,  or  of  mixed  blood, 
can  legal'ly  sell  himself  into  slavery  or  make  a  contract,  bind- 
ing on  himself  for  life,  with  a  provision  that  his  posterity 
shall  be  slaves  and  chattels  forever.  [Applause.]  Nor  can 
a  guardian  lawfully  sell  a  minor  into  slavery. 

The  interpretation  put  upon  this  clause  of  the  Constitu- 
tion by  the  slave  barons,  is  a  forced  interpretation,  and  an 
outrage  on  the  meaning  of  language,  and  on  all  known  rules 
of  law.  When  this  clause  was  under  consideration  in  the 
convention,  a  proposition  was  made  to  insert  a  distinct  pro- 
vision for  reclaiming  fugitive  slaves.  It  was  promptly  op- 
posed by  the  ablest  men  in  the  convention,  and  abandoned 
without  a  vote,  and  the  clause  concerning  "  persons,"  from 
whom  service  or  labor  may  be  due,  was  adopted  unanimously 
and  without  debate.  So  you  see,  that  the  refusal  of  the  con- 
vention to  provide  for  the  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves,  by  na- 
tional authority,  is  a  historical  fact.  [Applause.]  As  the 
text  of  the  Constitution  which  I  have  quoted,  and  the  debates 
in  the  convention  clearly  indicate,  the  power  to  pass  a  fugi- 
tive-slave law  was  not  conferred  on  Congress,  and  I  am  con- 
fident that  no  such  power  was  intended  to  be  conferred.  All 
that  can  be  fairly  claimed  for  that  clause,  is  that  it  is  a  com- 
40 


—  626  — 

pact  stipulation  and  simply  mandatory,  on  the  States.      [Ap- 
plause.]     With  the  same  parity  of  reasoning-,  it  mig-ht  be 
claimed,  on  the  authority  of  Clause  Two  (2)  of  Section  Two 
(2),  Article  Four  (4),  that  Congress  had  the  power  to  pass  a 
law  for  the  capture  and  return  of  criminals  escaping-  from  one 
State  into  another.     If  this  claim  were  made,  and  Cong-ress 
should  pass  such  an  act  as  the  fug-itive-slave  law,  including" 
the  denial  of  trial  by  jur}-,  and  the  suspension  of  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  what  a  howl  we  should  hear  from  the  apostles 
of  States'  rig-hts,  and  strict  construction  of  the  Constitution. 
[Applause.]     And  yet,  Cong-ress  has  precisely  the  same  au- 
thority, under  the  g-rants  of  power  in  the  Constitution,  over 
escaping-  criminals,   that  it  has  over  persons  escaping-  from 
service  or  labor  due  under  the  laws  of  any  State.    [Applause.] 
Mr.  Madison,  who  by  common  consent,  has  by  all  parties 
been  called  the  "  father  of  the  Constitution,"  repeatedly  de- 
clared during-  the  sitting-  of  the  convention,  "  that  it  would  be 
wrong-  to  recog-nize  in  the  Constitution,  the  idea  that  there  could 
be  property  in  man."     In  view  of  this  well-known  fact,  is  it 
to  be  supposed  that  the  intellectual  g-iants  in  that  convention, 
those  men  of  brain  and  hig-h  patriotic  purposes,  intended  to 
g-ive,  or  thought  they  were  surreptitiously  g-iving-,  to  the  new 
government  which  they  were  creating-,  the  power  to  keep  up 
a  perpetual  slave  hunt  throughout  the  republic,  for  fugitives 
guilty  of  no  crime  but  that  of  escaping  from  the  most  infer- 
nal despotism  on  earth?     [Applause.]     Is  it  conceivable  that 
they   intended  to   make   all   citizens   of    the  republic   slave 
hounds,  and  that  the  first  and  most  important  function  of  the 
free   government,  which  they  were  establishing,  was  to  be 
the  catching  and  returning  of  fugitive  slaves?     [Applause.] 
Did  they  intend  that  this  free  government  which  they  were 
organizing,    should   be   dismembered  and  destroyed,  as  the 
slave  barons  and  their  northern  allies  now  threaten  to  do,  the 
moment  the  National  Government  failed  to  obey  the  insolent 
and  infamous  demands  which  they  are  to-day  making  upon 
us,  that  we  capture  and  return  to  them,  at  public  expense, 
all  their  escaping  human  chattels?     [Applause.]     Are  we  to 
believe,  that  a  majority  of  the  members  of  that  memorable 
convention,  who  had  just  passed  through  the  fire  and  blood 
of  the  Revolution  —  a  revolution    conceived  and  achieved  to 


—  627  — 

establish  the  God-g-iveti  rights  of  personal  liberty — would 
have  been  so  false  to  their  principles  and  professions,  as  to 
induce  them  to  voluntarily  g-rant  to  Cong-ress  the  power  to 
force  them  and  their  posterity  forever,  to  engag-e  in  an  ever- 
lasting- slave  hunt,  for  the  benefit  of  a  few  slave  barons? 
[Applause.]  Thank  God,  that  not  one  jot  or  tittle  of  evi- 
dence can  be  found  to  sustain  a  chang-e  so  monstrous  and  so 
infamous.  [Applause.]  But  I  am  told  by  men  who  claim 
to  be  constitutional  lawyers,  and  by  cross-roads  statesmen, 
who  accept  the  acts  of  Congress  and  the  adjudication  of 
courts  as  *' finalities,"  that  Congress  has  passed  fugitive- 
slave  laws,  and  that  the  highest  court  in  the  nation  has 
affirmed  their  constitutionality.  With  shame  and  humilia- 
tion, I  admit  that  Congress  has  passed  such  laws — laws 
which  the  prince  of  darkness  could  not  make  blacker —  and  I 
admit  that  the  Supreme  Court  has  affirmed  their  constitu- 
tionality. From  this  gross  interpretation  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, I  appeal  to  the  hearts  and  conscience  of  the  people, 
who  can  make  and  unmake  courts  and  relegate  to  private  life 
all  so  called  law-givers  who  deceive  and  betray.  [Applause.} 
An  enlightened  and  patriotic  people  are  certain  at  no  distant 
day  to  abolish  the  infamy  of  slavery  and  consign  its  cham- 
pions and  apologists  to  the  loathing  and  contempt  which 
awaits  them  in  history.     [Applause.] 

If  the  overthrow  of  slavery  and  of  the  slave  barons  can 
be  accomplished  in  no  other  way,  it  must  be  done  by  an 
amendment  to  our  national  and  all  our  State  constitutions, 
and  eventually,  as  I  have  heretofore  said,  we  must  go  further 
than  this,  and  amend  our  national  Constitution,  so  as  to  pro- 
vide for  the  election  of  the  President  and  United  States 
Senators  by  a  direct  vote  of  the  people,  and  the  election  of 
Representatives  to  Congress,  in  such  manner  as  to  secure  to 
the  minority  of  the  voters,  in  each  State,  their  proportion  of 
members  in  Congress,  from  every  State  entitled  under  any 
apportionment  to  three  or  more  Representatives.  [Ap- 
plause.] And  I  hope  to  live  long  enough  to  see  this  demo-* 
cratic  proposition  become  a  national  issue,  and  I  am  sure  you 
will  agree  with  me,  that  it  is  now  a  national  duty  to  inaugu- 
rate such  a  movement.     [Applause.] 

Horace  Mann  once  said  to  me,  that  he  despaired  of  the 


—  628  — 

republic,  when  the  so-called  compromise  measures  of  1850 
were  passed  by  Congress.  I  answered  him,  that  I  did  not  de- 
spair, nor  did  I  propose  to  surrender,  and  I  tell  3^ou  as  I  told 
him,  that  though  our  political  sky  is  stormy  and  dark,  I  have 
an  abiding  faith,  strong  and  clear,  and  I  believe  that  I  shall 
live  to  see  the  day  when  liberty  and  justice  shall  everywhere 
triumph  in  this  fair  land  of  ours.  It  cannot  be  that  this 
long,  dark  night  of  shame  and  crime  will  endure  forever. 
[Applause.]  At  any  rate,  I  intend,  by  God's  blessing,  to 
keep  this  faith  or  none.     [Applause.] 

Fellow-citizens,  as  the  great  Roman  Senator  invari- 
ably closed  every  speech  he  made,  either  in  the  Senate 
or  to  his  army,  whether  on  questions  of  administration  of 
finance  or  of  war,  with  the  declaration,  *'  But  Carthage  must 
be  destroyed,"  so  I,  for  the  hundredth  time  or  more,  close  my 
speech  to-day  with  the  declaration,  that  come  what  may 
* 'American  sIvAvery  must  be  destroyed."  [Applause  and 
cries  of  "Go  on."] 

But,  fellow-citizens,  I  find  that  I  have  spoken  over  two 
hours  and  detained  you  much  longer  than  I  intended.  ["Go 
on,  go  on,"  came  in  chorus  from  many  voices.]  I  would  be 
glad  to  do  so,  if  I  were  not  posted  to  speak  to-night  in  West 
Unity.  Of  course  I  must  not  disappoint  our  friends  over 
there,  and  you  see,  if  I  go  there  to-night  I  shall  be  compelled 
to  stop  now.  I  thank  you  for  the  compliment  implied  in  your 
request  to  "go  on,"  no  less  than  for  the  approving  and  gen- 
erous applause  you  have  given  me  during  my  speech. 

In  closing,  let  me  ask  that  every  earnest  man  and  woman 
before  me,  shall  each  for  themselves  put  on  the  simple  but 
invincible  armor  of  Truth,  and  with  the  sword  of  the  Lord 
of  Gideon,  that  you  go  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer. 
Not  with  the  sword  of  Moloch,  and  the  banner  of  sedition 
and  blood,  but  under  the  spotless  banner  of  the  Prince  of 
Peace.  In  the  inspirational  language  of  our  beloved  Quaker 
Poet, 


*'  Not  mine  sedition's  trumpet-blast 
And  threatening  word; 
I  read  the  lessons  of  the  past, 


—  629  — 

That  firm  endurance  wins  at  last, 
More  than  the  sword. 

**0,  clear-eyed  Faith,  and  Patience,  thou 
So  calm  and  strong"! 
Lend  strength  to  weakness;  teach  us  how 
The  sleepless  eyes  of  God  look  through 
This  night  of  wrong." 

['*AmenI  Amen  I"  and  applause.] 

Letter  from  Bishop  B.  W.  Arnett,  Cliairman  of  Committee. 
When  we  began  the  task  assigned  us,  we  decided  to  begin  with  the  speeches  and 
addresses  delivered  by  Mr.  Ashley  after  his  first  election  to  Congress,  in  1858.  But  in 
reading  a  number  of  his  campaign  speeches  made  in  1853-54  (before  the  Republican 
party  was  organized),  and  in  1855-57,  when  Salmon  P.  Chase  was  elected  governor  of 
Ohio,  we  determined  to  add  to  the  matter  already  stereotyped,  at  least  one  of  his  old- 
time  abolition  stump  speeches,  and  selected  the  one  made  at  Montpelier,  Ohio,  in  1856, 
because  we  happen  to  be  personally  cognizant  of  the  historical  facts  stated,  about  the 
election  of  Mr.  Chase  to  the  United  States  Senate,  and  the  repeal  of  the  black  laws  of 
Ohio.  We  are  confident  that  the  reader  will  thank  us  for  including  with  this  collec- 
tion this  masterly  old-fashioned  stump  speech  and  the  extracts  from  the  Bowlihif 
Green  and  Mt.  Gilead  si?eeches  following'. 

B.  W.  Arnbtt. 


EXTRACTS 


From  Speech  made  by  Hon.   J.  M.  Ashley  at  Bowling 

Green,  Wood  County,  Ohio,  during  the 

Congressional  Campaign  of  i862. 


Mr.  Chairman:  I  have  been  asked  to-day,  as  I  have  been 
asked  before,  why  I  did  not  reply  to  the  deluge  of  slanders 
with  which  my  personal  and  political  opponents  assail  me  in 
this  canvass.  I  answer  you  frankly,  that  I  do  not,  because  I 
know  by  observation  and  reading-  that  ag-ainst  the  politically 
vicious  and  brutal,  neither  character  nor  integrity  nor  ability 
can  successfully  cope  in  any  political  campaign.  As  a  rule 
the  unscrupulous  political  maligner  has  the  first  and  the  last 
word,  and  men  of  self-respect  cannot  descend  to  a  personal 
discussion  with  them.  [Applause.]  In  my  political  cam- 
paigns I  have  attempted  to  follow  the  simple  and  practical 
maxim  laid  down  by  Washington,  who,  when  questioned  by 
his  friends  (as  I  have  been  questioned  here  to-day)  as  to  why 
he  did  not  answer  his  slanderers,  said,  **that  to  persevere 
in  one's  duty  and  be  silent,  is  the  best  answer  to  calum- 
ny." And  a  higher  authority  has  commanded  those  *'who 
are  reviled,  to  revile  not  again."     [Applause.] 

By  my  public  and  private  acts,  whether  of&cial  or  unof- 
ficial, I  demand  to  be  judged.  My  official  acts  and  public  ut- 
terances are  matters  of  r-ecord,  and  cannot  be  altered  or  fal- 
sified except  by  fraud  and  forgery,  and  fraud  and  forgery  can- 
not long  be  successful. 

As  the  most  reckless  of  my  maligners  have  not,  thus  far, 

(630) 


—  631  — 

assailed  the  integrity  of  my  private  life,  I  can  afford  to  say 
to  each  and  all  of  them  as  "Uncle  Toby"  said  to  the  fly, 
which  had  for  a  long"  time  exasperated  and  annoyed  him. 
When  he  caug-ht  it,  he  walked  deliberately  to  the  open  window 
and  permitted  it  to  escape,  with  the  benevolent  and  philo- 
sophical remark,  *  'Go,  poor  thing".  There  is  room  enoug-h  in 
the  world  for  both  thee  and  me."  [Laughter  and  applause.] 
*  Instead  of  entering  into  a  controversy  with  the  political 
plotters  and  conspirators  who  are  assailing  me,  and  have  de- 
liberately misrepresented  r.nd  misinterpreted  my  official  acts 
and  public  utterances,  I  have  on  more  occasions  than  one 
said  as  I  now  say,  that  I  prefer  to  treat  all  such  reckless  ma- 
ligners  with  silent  contempt  and  to  walk  backward,  as  I  now 
do,  with  averted  gaze  [walks  backward,  with  head  turned] , 
and  with  the  broad  mantle  of  charity  cover  their  moral  and 
political  nakedness.  [Applause.]  I  have  lived  long  enough 
to  learn  that  those  who  walk  in  the  sunshine  of  fame  must 
ever  and  always  be  followed  by  the  shadow  of  envy.-  But  life 
is  all  too  short,  and  its  mission  too  grand,  for  me  to  waste  my 
time  and  strength  in  answering  the  slanders  of  the  campaign 
maligner.  I  have  therefore  determined  to  so  live,  as  to  write 
my  friendships  on  the  granite,  and  my  enmities  in  the  sand. 
[Applause.] 


Mr.  Chairman,  again  I  affirm,  as  I  have  often  affirmed 
when  addressing  the  Republicans  of  this  District,  that  sla- 
very is  not  only  the  foe  of  the  human  race,  but  that  it  is 
especially  the  foe  of  every  working-man  in  all  civilized  lands; 
and  I  appeal  to  the  working-men  of  America,  to  strike  hands 
and  aid  us  in  crushing  this  slave  barons'  rebellion,  and  thus  aid 
in  preserving  our  national  unity  and  in  securing  national  free- 
dom. Strike  hands  against  disunion  and  for  a  war  which, 
when  successful,  will  bring  unity  and  peace,  a  union  which 
shall  be  free  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name.  Strike  for  the  right 
of  every  man,  whether  white  or  black,  to  own  himself  and 
the  fruits  of  his  own  labor,  so  that  in  all  our  broad  domain, 
there  shall  not  be  a  single  slave.  Strike  for  co-operation 
and  against  monopolies;  for  a  free  ballot  for  all,  black  as  well 
as  white,  and  equitable  representation  in  Congress  and  in  all 


-632  — 

legislative  assemblies,  State  or  municipal;  strike  also  against 
the  one-man  power  in  our  Government. 

Have  faith  in  the  future  and  in  each  other.  Be  assured 
that  behind  this  slave  barons'  conspiracy,  if  successful,  there 
is  being  prepared  fetters  for  all  working-men,  and  monster 
monopolies  will  then  be  organized  which  will  reduce  all 
laboring-men,  practically,  to  the  condition  of  chattel  slaves. 
Be  not  deceived;  slave  labor  degrades  and  cheapens  the  labor 
of  every  free  man,  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  from 
this  hour,  henceforth  and  forever,  there  can  be  no  enduring 
peace  so  loi:^^-  as  slavery  dominates  in  the  national  or  in  any 
of  our  State  governments. 

The  power  in  our  hands  for  its  destruction  will  be  invin- 
cible, v>rhenever  as  a  unit,  the  working-men  of  America  de- 
cree that  it  shall  die.  The  gilded  curtain  which  has  so  long 
dazzled  but  to  conceal  the  great  crime  of  the  slave  barons* 
rebellion,  will  be  rent  in  twain  by  the  breath  of  the  enfran- 
chised working-men  of  America,  whenever  they  will  it.  If 
you  but  listen  with  me,  you  will  hear,  as  I  now  hear,  the 
measured  and  triumphant  tread  of  an  organized  army  of 
independent  working-men,  who  with  a  freeman's  ballot  in 
their  hands  are  marching  with  music  and  banners  to  battle 
and  to  victory.     [Applause.] 

And  when  that  hour  of  victory  for  true  democratic  gov- 
ernment shall  come,  as  it  is  certain  to  come,  w^hat  a  change 
there  will  be  in  our  national  life,  when  contrasted  with  the 
dark  conditions  which  overshadowed  the  republic  when,  as  a 
boy,  I  first  visited  the  national  capital.  Then,  on  all  sides, 
the  clanking  fetters  of  the  slave  greeted  one's  ears.  Now, 
the  songs  of  liberty  and  hope  everywhere  cheer  you  with 
their  welcome. 


*'  When  first  I  saw  her  banner  wave 
Above  the  nation's  council- hall, 
I  heard  beneath  its  marble  wall 
The  clanking  fetters  of  the  slave. 

"  In  the  foul  market-place  I  stood, 
And  saw  the  Christian  mother  sold, 


—  633  — 

And  childhood  with  its  locks  of  gold, 
Blue-eyed  and  fair  with  Saxon  blood. 

**The  flag"  that  floated  from  the  dome 
Flapped  menace  in  the  morning-  air; 
I  stood  a  periled  strang-er,  where 
The  human  broker  made  his  home. 

**  For  crime  was  virtue:  Gown  and  Sword, 
And  Law  their  three-fold  sanction  g^ave. 
And  to  the  quarry  of  the  slave 
Went  hawking-  with  our  symbol  bird. 

**On  the  oppressor's  side  was  power; 
And  yet  I  knew  that  every  wrong-, 
However  old,  however  strong-. 
But  waited  God's  avenging-  hour: 

**  I  knew  that  truth  would  crush  the  lie  • — 
Somehow,  sometime,  the  end  would  be; 
Yet  scarcely  dared  I  hope  to  see 
The  triumph  with  my  mortal  eye. 

**  But  now  I  see  it!     In  the  sun 

A  free  flag  floats  from  yonder  dome, 
And  at  the  nation's  hearth  and  home 
The  justice  long  delayed  is  done. 

**  Not  as  we  hoped,  in  calm  of  prayer, 
The  message  of  deliverance  comes; 
But  heralded  by  roll  of  drums 
On  waves  of  battle-troubled  air! 

**  Not  as  we  hoped;  but  what  are  we? 
Above  our  broken  dreams  and  plans 
God  lays,  with  wiser  hands  than  man's 
The  corner-stones  of  liberty." 

['* Amen"  and  "Amen"  and  applause.] 


EXTRACT  FROM  SPEECH 


Madis  in  1865  BY  Hon.   J.   M.  Ashi^ey,  at  Gii.kad,  Wood 


County,  Ohio. 


Mr.  Chairman:  It  is  claimed  by  the  unconditional  Union 
men  of  the  nation,  and  conceded  by  all  thoughtful  citizens, 
that  the  constitutional  power  of  the  National  Government  is 
ample  for  its  protection  and  defense.  But  I  go  a  step  further 
and  claim  that  under  the  Constitution,  Congress  alone  has 
the  power  to  determine  what  shall  be  the  future  relations  of 
all  who  have  been  in  rebellion  against  the  Government,  and 
also  what  shall  be  the  future  relations  of  the  slaves  whom  it 
made  free  when  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  his  Emancipation 
Proclamation,  invited  them  to  enlist  in  its  armies  and  aid  in 
putting  down  the  slave  barons'  rebellion. 

If  this  proposition  be  not  true,  then,  indeed,  as  a  nation 
are  we  powerless  and  defenseless  in  the  future  against  organ- 
ized conspiracy  and  internal  public  enemies.  True,  we  have 
crushed  the  rebellion,  and  the  clash  of  arms  no  longer  resounds 
within  hearing  of  the  national  capital,  but  our  hour  of  vic- 
tory is  also  our  hour  of  humiliation  and  defeat,  if  the 
moment  a  truce  is  proclaimed  by  the  generals  in  command  of 
the  contending  armies,  the  vanquished  may  assume  in 
defiance  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  all  the  political 
power  and  authority  which  they  had  in  each  of  the  rebel 
States,  and  in  the  legislative  halls  of  Congress,  prior  to  the 
rebellion.  If  this  amazing  claim  should  be  conceded  by  us, 
then,  indeed,  will  the  joy  of  the  loyal  white  and  black  men  of 
the   South  be  turned  to   sorrow  and  mourning!     If  we  are 

(634) 


—  635  — 

guilty  of  the  folly  and  criminality  of  surrendering-  them  to 
the  tender  mercy  of  their  enemies  and  ours,  we  will  be  of  all 
men  most  guilty.  [Applause.]  Can  it  be  that  after  having* 
emancipated  four  millions  of  human  beings  so  that  no  person 
can  hereafter  hold  and  treat  any  man  as  a  chattel  slave,  we 
are  powerless  to  prevent  his  late  master  from  making  him 
the  slave  of  the  State?    Heaven  forbid.     [Applause.] 


Mr.  Chairman,  there  comes  a  period  in  the  lifetime  of 
every  man  of  individuality  and  strong  convictions,  when  ideas 
take  complete  possession  of  his  heart  and  brain,  which,  if 
conscientiously  followed,  will  carry  him  far  beyond  the  con- 
servative line  of  prudence,  and  enable  him,  despite  prejudice 
and  hate,  the  selfish  interests  of  men,  and- the  formidable 
barriers  of  human  law,  to  contribute  something  to  the  in- 
auguration of  needed  reforms,  and  changes  in  society  and 
governments.  Such  men  are  ever  present  in  all  nations,  with 
the  *'  higher  law"  written  in  their  hearts.  They  come  to  us 
with  an  inspiration  which  causes  them  to  live  simple  and  pure 
lives,  and  to  labor  for  others  with  an  unselfish  devotion  which 
the  world  does  not  understand,  and  which  none  can  appreci- 
ate who  do  not  know  something  of  the  inner  life  of  the  lead- 
ers of  men,  who  follow  their  own  thoughts,  with  the  sublime 
faith  of  a  child.  These  are  the  men  who  intuitively  know 
what  is  really  right  and  best  for  the  human  race;  men  whose 
great  thoughts  and  inspirations  cannot  be  suppressed  by  the 
social  or  political  regulations  of  society  and  governments,  nor 
by  unjust  provisions  of  constitutions  or  the  penal  enactments 
of  statute-books.  That  which  they  believe  to  be  true  they  are 
ever  ready  to  maintain,  though  they  suffered  the  penalty  of 
the  law  which  killeth.     [Applause.] 

The  musty  precedents  of  governments,  the  regulations  of 
society,  the  penal  demands  of  law,  maypunishby  fines  and  im- 
prisonment or  social  ostracism,  but  the  law  of  the  Great  Su- 
preme breathes  into  the  soul  of  such  a  man,  a  power  which 
makes  his  thoughts  outlive  them  all,  and  causes  the  develop- 
ment of  a  more  perfect  and  better  state  of  society  and  govern- 
ment.    [Applause.] 

Such  were  the  anti-slavery  men  and  women  of  America, 


—  636 


I 


the  latchet  of  whose  shoes  the  mass  of  men  ol  their  day  were 
not  worthy  to  unloose.  They  came  to  us  with  the  g'ospel  of 
liberty  in  their  hearts,  and  oppression  fled  before  them.  Like 
heroes  divinely  commissioned,  when  any  one  of  them  *'blew 
a  blast  upon  his  bug-le-horn  'twas  worth  a  thousand  men!" 
You  can  now  all  look  back  and  know  that  each  blew  a  blast 
which  aided  in  destroying"  the  oppressor  and  liberating  the 
oppressed,  so  that  to-day,  within  all  our  borders,  the  sun  does 
not  rise  nor  set  upon  a  single  slave.     [Applause.] 

All  this  has  come  to  us  because  a  chosen  few  dared  to 
put  God's  law  above  all  human  law,  and  to  give  the  best 
thought  of  their  lives  to  the  accomplishment  of  a  great  and 
holy  purpose.  You  all  know  that  I  have  been  a  humble  and 
devoted  follower  and  active  co-worker  with  these  grand  men 
and  women,  whom  we  all  affectionately  call  the  **old  guard.'* 

During  our  great  anti-slavery  battle  I  have  not  been  a 
**  camp-follower,"  as  many  of  you  can  testify.  [Applause.] 
In  the  coming  battle  for  the  enfranchisement  of  the  black 
man,  I  need  not  tell  you  that  I  shall  not  rest  until  he  is 
clothed  by  constitutional  provision,  with  an  American  citi- 
zen's cleanest  and  purest  weapon  —  the  ballot.  [Applause.] 
As  the  ballot  is  the  most  formidable  weapon  of  protection 
and  defense  for  you  and  for  me,  I  demand  that  the  same 
weapon  shall  be  secured  to  every  black  man,  and  that  he  be 
protected  in  his  right  to  use  it  as  freely  and  peaceably  as  we 
use  it  here  in  Ohio.     [Applause.] 

In  doing  this,  we  shall  quit  ourselves  like  men,  and  the 
gates  of  fortune  shall  open  wide  for  us,  as  a  nation.  In 
doing  right  for  the  helpless,  we  shall  gain  strength  ourselves. 
Self-exertion  evermore  gives  fresh  hope  and  a  faith  that  en- 
dures and  with  patience  waits.     Then  let  us 

**Seek  for   strength  in   self -exertion; 
"Work,  and  still  have  faith  to  wait; 
Close  the  crooked  gates  to  fortune; 
Make  the  road  to  honor  straight. 

**  Follow  out  true  cultivation; 
Widen  education's  plan, 


—  637  — 

From  the  Majesty  of  Nature, 
Teach  the  Majesty  of  Man. 


'  Feed  the  plant,  whose  fruit  is  wisdom; 
Cleanse  from  crime,  the  common  sod; 
So  that  from  the  throne  of  heaven 
It  may  bear  the  glance  of  God." 

[Applause.] 

Letter  from  Rev.  S.  T.  Mitchell,  President  of  Wilberforce  University, 
The  foregoing-  speech,  made  at  Montpelier  in  1856,  and  the  ex- 
tracts following  from  speeches  made  in  Wood  County  in  1863  and  '65, 
reflect  with  clearness  and  power  the  advanced  anti-slavery  opinions 
held  by  Mr.  Ashley  at  the  date  of  their  delivery,  and  make  his  anti- 
slavery  record  so  complete  that  we  have  found  "  no  word  or  thought 
which  we  could  wish  to  change  or  blot."  Observation  teaches  us 
that  there  are  but  few  young  men  with  character  and  ability  strong 
enough  to  answer  calumny  by  silence,  and  be  able  to  live  on  a  plane  so  high  as  to  re- 
buke and  answer,  by  acts,  not  words,  all  political  falsehoods;  and  still  fewer  men, 
young  or  old,  who  in  the  midst  of  detraction,  can  declare  as  he  did  in  the  foregoing 
extract  made  from  his  speech  at  Bowling  Green  in  1862,  that  he  had  determined  to  so 
live  as  to  silence  the  maligner  and  to  quote  his  own  language,  "  to  write  my  friend- 
ships on  the  granite,  and  my  enmities  in  the  sand."  We  have  never  read  anythinjf 
grander  in  any  speech.  S.  T.  Mitchell. 


5.    T.    MITCHKLL. 


ADDRESS 

OF  HON.  JAMES  M.  ASHLEY,  OF  OHIO. 


Dki^ivered  in  th«  U.  S.  House  of  Reprkskntativks 
March  31,  1864. 


ON  THE  DEATH  OF  HON.  OWEN   LOVEJOY,  OF  II^LINOIS. 


Mr.  ASHI.EY.  Mr.  Speaker,  on  Friday  nig-ht  last  the 
immortal  spirit  of  Owen  Lovejoy  passed  from  earth.  This 
sad  message,  borne  on  the  lightning-'s  wing,  carried  sorrow 
to  the  hearts  of  millions.  In  his  death  the  nation  has  lost 
one  of  its  ablest,  most  accomplished  and  eloquent  sons,  the 
slave  a  faithful  friend,  and  true  democracy  a  cherished  de- 
fender. 

I  was  not  at  his  bedside  and  cannot  tell  you  how  he  died. 
The  world  knows  how  he  lived;  and  such  a  life  I  am  sure 
could  only  have  a  fitting  close  in  a  Christian  death.  Let  us 
learn  by  his  heroic  example  that 

*'We  live  in  deeds,  not  years;  in  thoughts,  not  breaths; 
In  feelings,  not  in  figures  on  a  dial. 
We  should  count  time  by  heart-throbs.     He  most  lives 
Who  thinks  most,  feels  the  noblest,  acts  the  best." 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  death  of  our  friend  was  not  wholly  un- 
expected by  me.  For  more  than  two  years,  at  our  committee 
meetings,  I  have  witnessed  with  anxiety,  month  by  month 
and  week  by  week,  the  fire  of  his  eye  grow  dim  and  the  vital- 
ity of  his  organization  gradually  yield  to  the  approaching 
destroyer.     Though  not  full  of  years,  he  was  crowned  with 

(638) 


—  639  — 

honors,  and  descended  to  the  tomb  with  the  benediction  of  a  na- 
tion upon  his  head.  He  lived  to  see  the  seed  he  had  sown  ripen 
into  grain,  ready  for  the  harvest.  He  saw  the  dawning-  of  the 
morn  so  long"  and  so  anxiously  .looked  for  by  the  friends  of  free- 
dom in  the  United  States;  but  he  was  not  permitted  to  remain 
with  us  to  join  in  the  g-eneral  song-  of  joy  which  awaits  the  tri- 
/imph  that  ere  long  shall  reg-enerate  the  nation.  That  Provi- 
dence which  cannot  err,has,  for  wise  purposes,  called  our  friend 
and  brother  to  his  reward. 

While  we  sorrow  for  our  loss  and  sympathize  with  his 
bereaved  family  in  their  deep  affliction,  we  can  truthfully 
and  with  exultation  say: 

**  The  g-reat  work  laid  upon  his  manly  years 
Is  done,  and  well  done.     If  we  drop  our  tears, 
Who  loved  him  as  few  men  were  ever  loved, 
We  mourn  no  blighted  hope  nor  broken  plan 
With  him  whose  life  stands  rounded  and  approved 
In  the  full  growth  and  stature  of  a  man.'* 


ADDRESS 

OF  HON.  JAMES  Mo  ASHLEY,  OF  OHIO. 


Delivered   in   the   U.    S.    House    of   Representatives, 
December  17,  1868. 


ON    THE    DEATH    OF    HON.     THADDEUS     STEVENS    OF    PENNSYL- 
VANIA. 


Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio.  Mr.  Speaker,  in  the  death  of 
Thaddcus  Stevens  this  House  has  lost  one  of  its  recog'nized 
leaders,  and  the  nation  one  of  her  most  distinguished  sons. 
In  his  departure  we  shall  miss  another  of  the  uncompromis- 
ing heroes  of  our  anti-slavery  revolution. 

Elijah  and  Owen  Lovejoy  are  entombed,  the  one  at  Alton 
and  the  other  at  Princeton,  Illinois.  Adams  and  Pierpont  sleep 
beneath  the  soil  of  their  native  Massachusetts;  Theodore 
Parker  at  Florence,  in  Italy;  William  Leggett  at  New  Rochelle, 
New  York;  Nathaniel  Po  Rogers  by  his  native  Merrimac; 
Gamaliel  Bailey  within  the  shadow  of  the  national  Capitol; 
Giddings  and  Morris  and  Lewis  in  Ohio;  James  G.  Birney  in 
New  Jersey;  David  Wilmot  and  James  Mott  in  Pennsylvania; 
John  Brown  at  North  Elba,  New  York;  and  there  are  others 
whose  lives  were  as  heroic  and  beautiful  ^and  unselfish,  whose 
names  I  need  not  recall.  To  these  must  be  added  more  than 
three  hundred  thousand,  the  fallen  heroes  and  martyrs  of  our 
liberating  army,  who  sleep  on  every  national  battle-field, 
from  the  heights   of   Gettysburg  to  the  banks  of   the  Rio 

(640) 


—  641  — 

Grande.      Pre-eminent   among-  all   this   invincible   army   of 
heroes,  prophets,  and  martyrs,  is  Abraham  Lincoln, 

"The  generous,  merciful,  and' just." 

With  this  grand  army  of  unselfish  patriots,  his  contem- 
poraries and  co-laborers,  we  have  laid  down  to  rest  all  that  is 
mortal  of  our  friend  in  the  bosom  of  his  beloved  Pennsyl- 
vania. 

The  benediction  of  millions  followed  him  to  his  tomb, 
and  to-day  in  the  free  home  of  every  black  man,  and  of  all 
men  who  love  liberty,  there  is  sincere  sorrow  and  mourning. 

Never  again  in  these  council  halls  will  he  deliberate  with 
the  people's  representatives,  nor  awaken  the  nation  from  its 
lethargy  by  his  genius  and  wonderful  power. 

The  honorable  gentleman  whom  his  constituents  have 
elected  to  succeed  him  on  this  floor,  and  those  who  have  pre- 
ceded me,  have  spoken  so  fully  of  his  early  life,  his  heroic 
struggles,  and  his  personal  history,  that  I  need  not  add  a 
single  word. 

Through  some  of  the  most  eventful  years  in  our  history 
I  have  been  intimately  associated  with  him  on  this  floor. 
During  all  that  time,  which  included  the  darkest  hours  in  the 
nation's  life — hours  which  tested  the  constancy  and  courage 
of  men — he  bore  himself  with  such  unquestioned  fidelity  to 
the  cause  of  human  freedom,  as  to  command  even  the  respect 
of  political  opponents  and  the  cordial  indorsement  of  all  liber- 
ty-loving men. 

As  we  engage  in  the  memorial  services  of  this  hour,  and 
bear  him  again  in  our  hearts  from  this  Capitol  and  the  scenes 
of  his  struggles  and  wonderful  triumphs,  let  the  nation  stand 
with  uncovered  head  and  its  bells  peal  forth  the  solemn  sound 
of  an  anthem  more  appropriate  than  any  words  of  mine: 

*'Toll,  toll,  toll. 

All  mortal  life  must  end. 
Toll,  toll,  toll. 

Weep  for  the  nation's  friend. 
Oh,  the  land  he  loved  will  miss  him, 
41 


1 

I 


—  642  — 

Miss  him  in  its  hour  of  need, 
Mourns  the  nation  for  the  nation, 

Till  its  tear-drops  inward  bleed. 
Let  bands  of  mourning-  drape  the  homestead. 

And  the  sacred  house  of  prayer; 
Let  the  mourning-  folds  lay  black  and  heavy 

On  true  bosoms  everywhere. 

**Toll,  toll,  toll, 

Never  ag-ain  —  no  more  — 
Comes  back  to  earth  the  life  that  g-oes 

Hence  to  the  Eden  shore. 
Let  him  rest, —  it  is  not  often 

That  his  soul  hath  known  repose. 
Let  him  rest, —  they  rest  but  seldom 

Whose  successes  challenge  foes. 
He  was  weary,  worn  with  watching-. 

His  life  crown  of  power  hath  pressed 
Oft  on  temples  sadly  aching-  — 

He  was  weary;  let  him  rest. 
Toll,  bells  at  the  Capitol, 

Bells  of  the  land,  toll. 
Sob  out  your  grief  with  brazen  lung-s, 

Toll,  toll,  toll. 


Mr.  Speaker,  though  death  come  never  so  often,  he  casts 
at  the  portals  of  the  tomb  shadows  ever  new  and  mysterious, 
and  ever  and  always  hath  for  the  living  his  admonitions  and 
his  lessons. 

By  the  side  of  the  grave  we  all  realize  that  there  are 
voices  whispering  to  us  out  of  the  shadowy  silence  beyond  the 
river. 

In  such  an  hour  we  see  with  the  natural  eye  *  *  as  through 
a  glass  darkly,"  but  we  have  the  promise  that  if  faithful  we 
shall  see  *'  face  to  face."  As  there  is  no  race  of  men  without 
the  idea  of  a  God  and  a  future  life,  so  in  the  presence  of  death 
it  is  natural  for  all  to  pause  and  think  of  the  life  beyond. 

What  is  to  be  the  destiny  of  our  friend  in  ''that  undis- 
covered country  from  whose   bourn  no  traveler  returns,"  it  is 


—  643  — 

wisely  not  g-iven  us  to  know.  Let  us  hope  that  he  has  gone 
up  into  the  presence  of  the  God  of  nations  and  of  men,  bear- 
ing- in  his  hands  some  of  the  broken  fetters  which  have 
fallen  from  the  limbs  of  our  four  million  emancipated  bonds- 
men. These  shall  testify  of  his  fidelity  to  justice  and  to  his 
love  of  the  human  race. 

In  that  great  day  when  the  secrets  of  all  hearts  shall 
be  revealed,  I  trust  it  may  be  said  to  him  by  the  Father  of 
all,  "Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of 
these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me."  And  that  this 
will  be  said,  I  may  without  presumption  hope,  for  whatever 
may  be  the  theories  of  men,  whatever  our  hope  for  ourselves 
or  for  others  in  the  life  which  never  dies,  let  us  trust  that 
better  than  all  our  faiths,  and  more  comprehensive  than 
our  grandest  conceptions,  an  all-wise  Creator  has  ordained  a 
plan  as  broad  as  the  universe,  and  as  just  as  it  is  infinite, 
which  will  compensate  in  the  future  life  every  soul  which 
has  struggled  and  suffered  for  mankind  in  this. 

Mr.  Speaker,  there  are  moments  in  the  experiences  of  all 
when  we  cannot  convey  to  other  hearts  the  emotions  of  our 
own.  To  me  such  a  moment  is  the  present.  So  many 
reminiscences  are  crowding  upon  me,  and  so  many  wonderful 
scenes  in  which  our  departed  friend  was  an  actor  are  passing 
as  a  panorama  before  me,  that  I  feel  how  short  I  should  come 
of  doing  them  or  him  justice  were  I  to  dwell  upon  them.  No 
man  who  loves  his  country  and  has  passed  through  those 
scenes  in  these  halls  can  ever  forget  them.  When  I  first 
entered  this  House,  ten  years  ago,  Mr.  Stevens  was  one  of 
the  first  to  take  me  by  the  hand  and  welcome  me.  From  that 
day  until  the  day  of  his  death  he  was  my  friend,  and  often 
my  adviser  and  counselor.  However  often  I  may  have  dif» 
fered  with  him,  as  I  often  did,  there  was  one  question  about 
which  we  never  differed:  the  question  of  the  necessity  of  the 
immediate  and  unconditional  abolition  of  slavery.  Of  the 
practicability  and  justice  of  destroying  slavery  he  never 
doubted.  I  am  thankful  that  he  was  spared  to  witness  the 
end  of  that  indescribable  villainy.  I  rejoice  to  know  that  as 
the  gates  of  the  eternal  world  opened  up  before  him  he  was 
permitted  to  look  back  upon  the  land  he  loved  and  nowhere 
behold  the   footprints  of    a  single   slave.     Because  of    his 


—  644  — 


unwavering"  fidelity  to  the  poor  bondsmen,  who,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  nation  of  oppressors,  were  manacled  and  powerless 
and  dumb,  I  came  to  ^venerate  him;  and  because  I  venerated 
him  while  living-,  I  come  to-day  to  cast  a  g-arland  upon  his 
tomb.  In  this  selfish  world  there  is  nothing-  which  so  strong-ly 
enlists  my  S3^mpathies  and  so  much  commands  my  admiration 
as  a  heroic  and  unselfish  life  spent  in  the  interests  of  man- 
kind. To  me  it  is  the  most  touching-  and  beautiful  of  all 
human  strug-g-les. 

In  espousing-  the  cause  of  the  slave  more  than  forty 
years  ago,  Mr.  Stevens  voluntarily  accepted  social  and  polit- 
ical ostracism,  and  patiently  endured  the  persecutions  of  ig-- 
norant  and  maddened  men,  for  whose  hig-hest  interest  he  was 
laboring.  He  did  this  without  fee  or  hope  of  political  re- 
ward, simply  because  he  believed  it  to  be  right;  and  because 
he  was  right  we  shall  some  day  see  the  children  of  the  men 
who  stoned  him,  g-ladly  join  hands  with  the  liberated  slave, 
in  bearing-  back  the  stones,  in  the  shape  of  blocks  of  whitest 
marble,  with  which  to  build  his  monument. 

I  do  not  assume  to  write  his  epitaph.  In  a  speech  deliv- 
ered in  this  House  January  13th,  1865,  he  said  —  I  read  from 
volume  fifty-four  of  the  Globe,  pag-e  266: 

*'I  will  be  satisfied  if  my  epitaph  shall  be  written  thus: 
*  Here  lies  one  who  never  rose  to  any  eminence,  and  who 
only  courted  the  low  ambition  to  have  it  said,  that  he  had 
striven  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  poor,  the  lowly, 
the  downtrodden  of  every  race  and  languag-e  and  color.'  " 

The  g-rand  blows  which  he  struck  in  his  g-reat  battle  for 
liberty  and  justice  will  long  survive  him  and  leave  their  im- 
press upon  all  lands,  strengthening-  the  purpose  of  the  toiling- 
and  strug-g-ling-  millions  of  earth.  His  successful  life-battle 
should  teach  us  the  value  and  self-sustaining-  power  of  a  life 
consecrated  to  the  best  interests  of  his  country  and  his  fel- 
low-men. 

In  this  impressive  hour,  while  reviewing-  his  heroic  and 
unselfish  acts,  let  us  renew  our  vows  of  fidelity  to  the  g-reat 
principles  which  he  so  long-,  so  ably  and  so  faithfully  main- 
tained. Let  us,  here  and  now,  pledge  our  lives  anew  to  the 
cause  of  human  liberty  and  human  progress,  resolving-  that 
no  obstacle  nor  selfish  interest  shall  cause  us  to  falter,  so 


—  645  — 

that  when  we  descend  to  the  tomb,  the  benedictions  of  man- 
kind shall  bless  us,  as  they  now  bless  him  for  whom  we 
mourn,  and  it  shall  be  said  of  us  as  it  is  now  said  of  him: 

*'He  hath  not  lived  in  vain." 

After  a  long*  and  stormy  battle,  with  a  record  which  the 
friends  of  freedom  will  ever  cherish,  full  of  years  and  crowned 
with  honors,  he — 

'*  Has  g-one  from  this  strange  world  of  ours, 
No  more  to  g-ather  its  thorns  with  its  flowers; 
No  more  to  linger  where  sunbeams  must  fade; 
Where,  on  all  beauty.  Death's  fing-ers  are  laid. 
Weary  with  ming-ling-  life's  bitter  and  sweet; 
Weary  with  parting-  and  never  to  meet; 
Weary  with  sowing-  and  never  to  reap; 
Weary  with  labor  and  welcoming-  sleep. 
In  Christ  may  he  rest,  from  sorrow  and  sin 
Happy,  where  earth's  conflicts  enter  not  in." 


HON.  JAMES  M.  ASHLEY'S  ORATION 
On  thk  death  of  D.  R.  Locke. 


A  PITTING  AND  TOUCHING  TRIBUTE  TO   HIS  MEMORY. 


FROM  THE  TOI<EDO  BI,ADE. 


There  was  deep  silence  when  the  speaker,  in  tones  rev- 
erent and  low,  commenced  his  oration  at  the  bier  of  the  man 
who  had  for  many  years  been  his  personal  and  political 
friend. 

He  said:  My  friends,  we  have  come  tog'ether  to-day  to 
testify  our  respect  for  the  living-,  and  discharg-e  our  last  ten- 
der duty  to  the  dead. 

When  the  shadow  of  a  g-reat  sorrow  falls  upon  us,  we 
naturally  turn  from  the  darkness  which  surrounds  us,  to  catch 
a  glimpse  of  the  coming-  of  the  first  rays  of  morning-  light. 
So  by  the  side  of  every  new-made  grave,  our  hearts  gladly 
welcome  the  thought  of  another  and  better  life  beyond. 

Without  assuming  to  have  a  knowledge  of  the  hereafter, 
v^e  come  reverently  to  lay  our  friend  down  to  rest,  and  we  do 
not  question  that,  *'  after  life's  fitful  fever  he  sleeps  well." 

The  last  time  I  looked  upon  the  face  of  our  friend,  I  was 
impressed  with  the  belief  that  his  life's  work  was  finished; 
that  his  last  battle  had  been  fought,  and,  I  doubt  not,  that  as 
soon  as  he  became  conscious  of  this  fact,  he  desired  to  depart 
and  be  at  rest. 

It  is  as  natural  to  die  as  to  live,  and  because  this  is  true, 
I  do  not  look  upon  death  as  the  arch  enemy  of  man,  but  rather 
as  his  friend. 

When,  therefore,  a  friend  pays  the  last  debt  of  nature,  I 

(  646  ) 


^647  — 

would  not  clothe  myself  in  sackcloth  and  rebel  against  the 
divine  law  which  has  set  a  limit  to  human  habitation,  and 
said  to  each  and  all:  "  Dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  shalt  thcu 
return." 

No  thoughtful  man  of  mature  years  desires  to  live  in  this 
world  of  strug-g-les  and  disappointments,  forever.  Certainly 
I  should  regard  it  as  a  mercy,  if  the  finger  of  death  could  be 
laid  upon  each  one  of  us  the  very  day  our  life's  work  was  done, 
or  whenever  we  became  helpless  and  hopeless,  or  our  suffer- 
ings and  sorrows  outweighed  the  pleasures  and  joys  of  life. 

If  Mr.  ivocke  could  never  again  have  entered  upon  the 
active  duties  of  life,  it  was  a  blessing  that  the  merciful  finger 
of  death  was  laid  upon  him,  and  he  called  to  that  **  bourn 
from  which  no  traveler  returns,"  where  we  all  hope  sorrow, 
disease  and  death  can  never  come. 

I  have  no  wish  to  magnify  the  virtues  of  my  friend,  nor 
at  the  expense  of  truth  to  excuse  his  errors.  The  living 
ought  to  be  able  to  learn  by  the  faults,  not  less  than  by  the 
virtues  of  public  men,  and  when  I  add  that  he  was  human 
and'like  all  men  "prone  to  err  as  the  sparks  are  to  fly  up- 
ward," I  have  said  all  that  truth  and  duty  bid  me  say. 

Those  who  did  not  know  Mr.  Locke  could  not  understand 
him.  This  is  the  fate  of  every  man  of  genius,  and  because 
he  was  not  thoroughly  understood,  his  words  and  acts  were 
often  sharply  criticised  and  sometimes  unsparingly  con- 
demned. That  he  was  a  man  of  great  ability  and  force  of 
character,  all  concede;  and  his  intimates  know  that  he  was 
always  true  to  his  convictions  and  faithful  to  his  friends.  It 
is  true  that  he  did  not  believe  in,  and  could  not  subscribe  to, 
any  of  the  formulated  religious  dogmas  of  our  popular 
churches. 

He  often  said  to  me:  *'  I  cannot  believe  in  such  creeds, 
and  shall  therefore  neither  accept  nor  affirm  any."  And  then 
he  would  quote  from  the  "Sermon  on  the  Mount:"  "  If  j^e 
then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  3^our 
children,  how  much  more  shall  your  Father  which  is  in 
Heaven  give  good  things  to  them  that  ask  him."  With  this 
faith,  or  no  faith;  this  religion  or  no  religion,  "he  wrapped 
the  drapery  of  his  couch  about  him  and  lay  down  to  pleasant 
dreams,"  sincerely  believing  that  the  Power  which  created 


-648  — 

him  was  both  able  and  willing-  to  take  care  of  him.  *'  And 
that  God's  greatness  flows  round  our  incompleteness,  around 
our  restlessness,  His  rest." 

Mr.  Locke  was  a  tireless  worker.  He  could  not  be  a 
drone,  nor  eat  the  bread  of  idleness.  **  Industry,"  with  him» 
was  one  of  the  cardinal  virtues. 

I  need  not  add  a  single  word  to  what  has  been  so  well 
and  appropriately  said  touching  Mr.  Locke's  literary  and 
journalistic  career. 

When,  in  after  years,  the  history  of  Ohio  and  Toledo 
shall  be  written,  Mr.  Locke's  ability  and  claims  to  remem- 
brance and  distinction  will  have  the  fullest  and  amplest 
recognition. 

!is  greatest  work  was  in  behalf  of  the  nation's  unity  and 
integrity  during  the  war  of  the  rebellion.  Through  the 
"Nasby"  letters  he  spoke  every  week  to  millions  of  men. 
These  letters  strengthened  the  arms  of  soldier  and  statesman 
alike,  and  everywhere  inspired  with  hope,  zeal  and  courage 
the  nation's  defenders.  The  humor  and  satire  of  these  letters 
were  never  equaled.  Their  satire  was  as  keen  as  a  Damascus 
blade,  and  their  humor  as  broad  as  the  continent.  They 
shamed  the  "  doughf aced "  statesman  and  *'doughfaced'* 
churchman  into  a  recognition  of  the  humanity  of  the  negro, 
and  did  more  than  to-day  can  be  estimated,  to  breakdown  the 
unreasoning  prejudice  against  the  black  man,  and  consolidate 
the  sentiment  and  judgment  of  the  nation  in  favor  of  the 
emancipation  and  enfranchisement  of  the  slave. 
-^  These  letters  were  read  by  Lincoln,  Sumner,  Chase  and 
Stanton,  and  all  the  leading  statesmen  with  whom  I  was  in- 
timate, with  a  delight  and  pleasure  which  one  incident  will 
fully  illustrate: 

One  morning  I  called  early  at  the  White  House  and  was 
seated  in  the  President's  room,  before  he  came  in.  As  he 
walked  along  his  private  hallway,  I  heard  him  as  I  supposed 
talking  to  himself.  He  started  a  little  on  seeing  me,  not  ex- 
pecting to  find  anyone  in  his  work  room  at  that  early  hour;  and 
at  once  said,  with  a  glow  on  his  face:  **  I  was  just  repeating 
a  passage  from  one  of  your  friend  Nasby's  letters,"  and  re- 
peated the  paragraph  which  had  so  impressed  itself  on  his 
mind.     He  then  added,  "  I  want  you  to  invite  Nasby  to  come 


—  649  — 

to  Washing-ton  and  make  me  a  visit;  and  you  may  say  to  him 
that  I  would  be  willing-  to  resign  the  Presidency  if  I  could 
write  such  letters."  Such  was  the  esteem  in  which  Mr.  Locke 
was  held  by  all  men  of  ability  and  g-enius. 

Mr.  Ivocke  was  also  a  voluminous  and  able  writer  on  \ 
many  subjects,  and  a  pronounced  partisan.      He  believed  in    \ 
party  government   rather  than  individual  government,  and    1» 
therefore  labored  unweariedly  for  the  success  of  the  Repub-J 
lican  party. 

Next  to  his  Nasby  letters,  I  regard  his  "Pulverize  the 
rum-power  "  articles  as  the  ablest  papers  from  his  pen.  These 
articles  undoubtedly  struck  the  hardest  and  most  effective 
blows  which  have  been  delivered  in  recent  years  against  the 
liquor  traffic,  and  have  been  so  recognized  by  the  ablest  men 
who  are  battling  for  the  carxe  of  temperance. 

That  Mr.  Locke  was  a  many-sided  man,  all  who  knew 
him  personally  well  understood.  There  was  a  strange  blend- 
ing of  hope  and  doubt,  of  humor  and  sadness,  of  love  and 
hate,  in  hi^  character.  The  humorist  and  man  of  business, 
however,  was  but  a  part  of  the  sum  total  of  his  being. 

Some  years  ago  I  met  him  on  Broadway,  New  York,  and 
he  invited  me  to  join  him.  While  seated  at  a  table  he  drew 
from  his  pocket  and  read  me  the  hymn  which  is  to  be  sung 
here  to-day,  * '  Come  unto  me. "  I  was  charmed  with  its  beauty 
and  touched  with  its  sentiment  and  spirit,  and  ^aid:  **  David, 
read  that  to  me  iagain,"  which  he  did,  and  in  that  hour  I 
comprehended  more  clearly  the  breadth  and  depth  of  his 
poetic  and  religious  nature.  And  it  must  be,  that  from  this 
religious  nature,  sprung  the  great  moral  force  which  he  so 
heroically  wielded  in  battling  for  the  right. 

*' We  live  in  deeds,  not  years, 
The  battle  of  our  life  is  brief. 
The  alarm,  the  struggle,  the  relief, 
Then  sleep  we  side  by  side." 


Such,  in  brief,  is  an  imperfect  outline  of  Mr.  Locke's  life 
as  I  have  known  him  publicly  as  a  co-worker,  and  socially  as 
a  friend,  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century. 


—  650  — 

And  now,  as  we  lay  away  his  earthly  body  in  the  grave 
of  eternal  silence,  we  reverently  and  hopefully,  oh  Father  of 
lig-ht  and  life,  commit  into  Thy  care  and  keeping  all  that  is 
immortal  of  our  loyal,  steadfast  friend. 


When  Governor  Ashley  related  the  incident  and  the 
occasion  of  the  writing-  of  the  hymn,  *'Come  Unto  Me,"  by 
Mr.  Locke,  the  voice  of  the  speaker  failed  him.  His  eyes 
filled  with  tears,  and  his  lips  quivered  with  emotion.  When 
he  had  finished  speaking-  there  was  scarcely  a  dry  eye  within 
the  sound  of  his  voice. 

Letter  from  Bishop  B.  W.  Amett. 
When  selecting-  the  speeches  in  this  volume,  and  arranging-  them  for  publication, 
especially  when  reading-  the  foregoing  tender  and  affectionate  tributes  to  I«ovejoy  and 
Stephens,  and  to  his  personal  friend,  David  R.  Ivocke,  the  members  of  our  committee 
repeatedly  asked  themselves,  *'  What  is  Mr.  Ashley's  religious  faith  ?"  Unable  to  de- 
termine, one  of  our  number  was  requested  to  write  and  ask  him  the  question  direct. 
The  reply  was  characteristic  for  its  frankness,  and  it  would  have  given  us  pleasure  to 
publish  it  (as  we  have  three  of  his  letters),  had  it  not  been  marked  "  Personal  and 
private."  From  a  mutual  friend,  to  whom  we  wrote  for  the  information  wanted,  we 
learned  that  "  Mr.  Ashley  never  held  to  a  written  creed,  and  that  he  is  not  a  member 
of  any  church  organization."  But  he  writes,  "  All  of  Mr.  Ashley's  acts  and  speeches 
breathe  the  religion  of  humanity,  and  tell  me  more  certainly  than  words,  that  he  has 
a  faith,  even  though  he  does  not  adopt'and  conform  to  any  special  form  of  worship. 
Years  ago  I  knew  him  quite  well,  and  occasionally  talked  with  him  on  religious  sub- 
jects, and  I  betray  no  confidence  when  I  tell  you  that  he  has  always  been  a  liberal 
g-iver  to  charitable  and  church  work,  and  those  who  know  him  intimately  will  tell  you, 
as  I  do,  that  his  mind  is  so  organized,  and  his  faith  so  simple,  that  both  his  head  and 
heart  refuse  to  be  limited  to  what  he  calls  *  the  incompleteness  of  a  written  creed.* 
More  than  once  he  said  to  me,  *that,  of  dogmas  old  or  new,  there  was  in  his  mind  no 
trace  of  such  forms  left,'  and  '  that  he  had  outg-rown  the  sectarian  exclusiveness  of  his 
early  religious  training.*  *The  best  of  creeds,'  he  would  say,  'are  but  man-made,  and 
that  he  had  never  been  able  to  g-ive  his  consent  to  any  religious  dogma  as  a  finality, 
nor  conform  his  life  to  the  narrowness  of  a  written  creed.' "  As  I  read  the  man,  he  is 
in  respect  to  his  religious  faith  not  unlike  Whittier  and  Sumner,  I^incoln  and  Greeley, 
and  men  of  their  peculiar  type  of  mind.  B.  W.  Arnett. 


GOVERNOR  ASHLEY  ON  O'CONNELL. 


His  Centennial  Oration  that  was  Delivered  not  Where 

IT  was  Promised,  but  at  the  Opera  House,  where 

IT  WAS  Welcomed  with  Generous  Applause. 

Toledo,  Ohio,  August,  1875. 


Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  come  not 
to-nig-ht  with  a  set  speech,  nor  a  speech  such  as  I  would  like 
to  make  in  response  to  the  invitation  which  bring-s  me  here; 
but  I  come  to  testify  in  the  fewest  and  most  appropriate 
words  I  can  command,  my  admiration  for  the  heroic  life  and 
public  and  private  worth  of  him  who  for  nearly  hal-f  a  cen- 
tury was  Ireland's  g-reat  leader,  statesman  and  patriot.  I 
need  not  tell  you  after  what  has  been  so  happily  and  so  elo- 
quently said  about  Ireland  and  her  g-reat  leaders,  and  what  I 
know  will  be  said  by  those  who  are  to  follow  me,  that  I  feel 
conscious  I  oug-ht  not  to  detain  you  long-  with  such  a  speech 
as  I  will  probably  make,  and  I  promise  you  that  I  will  not. 

Mr.  President:  Daniel  O'Connell  was  indeed  an  Irish- 
man, and  rig-ht  loyally  may  Ireland  claim  him  as  her  favorite 
son,  and  in  her  heart  of  hearts  cherish  his  memory  with  filial 
affection.  But  O'Connell  was  also  a  citizen  of  the  world,  in 
the  same  sense  that  Washing-ton  was  a  citizen  of  the  world. 
To  my  mind,  however,  the  g-reat  Irish  Liberator  was  more 
like  the  g-reat  liberator  of  America  than  any  other  historic 
American.  In  his  wit  and  wisdom,  in  his  patience  and  love 
of  justice,  and  in  his  sympathy  for  mankind,  O'Connell  was 
so  much  like  Lincoln  that  all  who  have  studied  the  characters 
of  the  two  men,  know  that  had  Lincoln  resided  in  Ireland 
and  O'Connell  in  this  country  during-  the  g-reat  battle  of 
each,  that  the  one  would  have  been  as  heartily  for  the  libera- 

(651) 


—  652  — 

tion  of  Ireland  as  the  other  would  have  been  for  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  slaves  in  America.     [Applause.] 

Am  I  not  therefore  warranted,  and  are  not  all  men  who 
love  liberty  warranted,  in  claiming-  citizenship  with  O'Connell, 
and  may  I  njt  on  behalf  of  over  four  millions  of  slaves,  so 
recently  made  free,  claim  him  as  one  of  the  noblest  and  most 
faithful  of  their  early  champions?  I  know  that  all  who  have 
read  O'Connell's  unanswerable  appeal  ag-ainst  slavery  will 
say  I  may.  So  likewise  may  the  oppressed  and  wronged  of 
every  race  claim  him  as  their  friend  and  brother. 

In  every  land  beneath  the  sun, 

* '  Wherever  from  kindred  torn  rudely  apart, 
Comes  the  sorrowful  wail  of  the  broken  of  heart," 

there  might  the  humblest  reach  the  great  heart  of  O'Connell, 
and  they  always  found  his  hand  outstretched  with  offerings 
of  sympathy  and  succor.     [Applause.] 

So  grand,  broad  and  noble  a  man  as  O'Connell  cannot  be 
denied  recognition  as  a  citizen  of  the  world,  and  so,  as  an 
American,  I  claim  an  interest  in  him  equally  with  you,  my 
brother  Irishman,  and  with  you  come  here  to-night  to  join  in 
appropriately  commemorating  his  centennial.     [Applause.] 

The  liberal  men  of  all  lands  and  of  every  race  and  creed 
were  drawn  to  O'Connell  because  of  his  democratic  ideas  and 
broad,  liberal  catholic  spirit  I  well  remember  how  my  young 
heart  went  out  to  him  when  I  first  read  his  fiery  and  eloquent 
denunciation  of  American  slavery,  nor  can  I  forget  how  my 
esteem  for  him  grew  into  admiration  when  I  came  to  know 
that  he  had  the  pluck  to  defy  the  slaveholders  of  the  world, 
and  that  he  had  caused  to  be  painted  over  the  entrance  of  his 
home  the  words,  "No  slaveholder  admitted  here.'*  After 
that  I  did  not  care  to  know  of  what  race  he  was  nor  to  what 
country  he  belonged,  nor  what  religious  faith  he  professed, 
or  whether  indeed  he  professed  any,  except  that  which  I 
know  he  liad,  the  religion  of  humanity.  From  that  day  to 
this  I  have  never  ceased  to  number  him  among  the  citizens  of 
the  world,  and  I  regard  him  as  one  of  the  noblest,  grandest 
and  best  of  men.     [Applause.] 

But  of   all   the  great   utterances   of   O'Connell   no    one 


—  653  — 

of  them  has  caused  me  to  pause  so  often  and  think  dis- 
passionately, as  that  wonderful  speech  in  which  he  declared 
that  *'  No  revolution  was  worth  the  shedding"  of  one  drop  of 
human  blood." 

Naturally  enough,  I  belonged  to  the  party  called  "  young 
Ireland,"  whose  leaders  were  O'Brien,  Meaher  and  their  en- 
thusiastic compatriots.  I  deplored  their  divisions  and  sor- 
rowed over  their  failure  and  fate,  and  I  went  back  to  O'Con- 
nell  to  remain  in  hearty  accord  with  him  until  his  death. 
[Applause.]  Yet  I  confess  that  I  have  never  been  able  to  reach 
or  maintain  myself  on  a  plane  so  far  beyond  the  influence  of 
*' force"  as  that  which  declares,  "  that  no  revolution  is  worth 
the  shedding-  of  one  drop  of  human  blood."  While  I  admit 
that  I  am  as  perplexed  with  that  utterance  now,asI  wasthen, 
I  find  that  I  have  gradually  come  to  the  conclusion  that  for 
Ireland  in  that  exigency  of  her  struggle,  it  was  master  lead- 
ership, and  wise  statesmanship.  [Applause.]  That  O'Con- 
nell  was  the  directing  spirit  of  Ireland  for  forty  years  is  now 
unquestioned;  that  he  fought  his  great  battle  with  a  hope 
that  could  not  be  shaken  and  a  faith  that  never  doubted  we 
now  know;  that  his  leadership  sometimes  rose  to  g-enius  and 
to  prophecy,  we  now  comprehend.  That  he  was  an  ideal, 
sanguine,  prog-ressive  man  is  also  true;  and  we  have  come  to 
know  that  those  are  the  men  who  move  the  world.  In  study- 
ing" the  lives  of  the  great  leaders  of  humanity,  we  have 
learned  that  true  progress  comes  only  to  men  and  nations 
blessed  with  hopeful  temperaments  and  an  ideal  faith.  For 
such,  beyond  the  shadowy  present  shines  the  g-olden,  hopeful 
future;  with  this  faith  we  can  see  the  ideal  true  man,  and 
conceive  of  the  ideal  just  government.  Without  it  there  can 
be  no  prog-ress,  no  heroism,  no  civilization.  Such  a  faith 
points  us  ever  upward  and  onward,  making"  more  beautiful 
and  spiritual  this  human  life;  such  a  faith  was  Daniel  O'Con- 
nell's;  such  is  the  faith  of  every  true  leader.  Mr.  President, 
I  need  not  recount  to  you  and  to  this  audience  the  story  of 
O'ConnelPs  life;  his  early  struggles,  his  wonderful  triumphs 
and  untimely  death.  All  this  has  been  presented  to  3- ou  bet- 
ter than  I  could  do  it.  I  may,  however,  without  trespassing 
too  long  upon  your  time,  pause  for  a  moment  to  contemplate 
him  as  a  revolutionary  leader  and  compare  him  with  some  of 


654 


the  revolutionary  leaders  of  France.  O'Connell  believed  that  in 
order  to  have  stable  government  the  people  must  be  educated 
up  to  the  point  of  self-g-overnment;  that  the  safest  and  most 
enduring-  revolution,  was  evolution;  that  justice  was  stronger 
than  bayonets;  that  right  was  more  than  might;  that  to  be 
permanent,  a  revolution  in  Ireland  must  be  a  revolution  of 
peace  rather  than  a  revolution  of  force;  that  an  appeal  to  the 
heart  and  conscience  of  mankind  was  far  better  than  a  reliance 
on  force  or  fraud  or  cunning.  Hence  the  foundation  upon  which 
he  builded  was  equity,  which  is  above  justice.  With  this 
sublime  moral  force,  which  is  grander  than  all  other  fprces 
combined,  he  began  his  agitation  and  continued  it  to  the  end. 
With  perfect  consistency  and  good  faith  he  proclaimed  to  Ire- 
land and  to  the  world  a  doctrine  so  divine  in  its  conception, 
that  all  mankind  paused  to  listen  while  he  spoke.  When 
O'Connell  declared  that  *'no  revolution  was  worth  the  shed- 
ding of  one  drop  of  human  blood,"  he  poured  a  broadside  into 
the  camp  of  the  enemies  of  liberty  more  fatal  to  despotism 
everywhere  and  more  fatal  to  the  enemies  of  Ireland  than  any 
battle  that  she  had  fought  for  seven  hundred  years.  It  was 
impossible  not  to  be  thoughtful  after  such  an  utterance  at 
such  a  time  by  such  a  man.     [Applause.] 

A  great  general  is  a  leader  of  armies,  but  a  leader  of  men 
is  such  because  he  is  a  leader  of  ideas.  Such  a  man  O'Con- 
nell is  .now  admitted  to  have  been  by  all  thinking  men.  The 
leaders  in  the  French  revolution  of  '93  believed  in  fate  and 
not  in  God.  They  estimated  men  simply  as  *' waves  of  the 
ocean"  in  their  force  and  fury.  O'Connell  recognized  truth, 
justice  and  equity  as  the  triune  basis  upon  which  mankind 
might  safely  unite  in  a  democratic  federation  of  the  nations 
of  the  world.  Robespierre,  Danton,  Maret,  permitted  no  ap- 
peal to  truth,  justice  or  equity.  To  all  opposition  their 
decree  was  *'  death."  They  erected  the  guillotine  and  called 
it  *'a  virgin  amazon,"  which,  they  said,  **  exterminated  but 
never  gave  birth. "  O'Connell  proclaimed  that  above  the  jus- 
tice of  revolutions  were  the  sacred  rights  of  humanity.  This 
divine  sentiment,  wherever  accepted  by  mankind,  banishes 
all  vengeance  and  hate,  and  sends  gleams  of  hope  and  mercy 
like  rays  from  a  lambent  flame  penetrating  the  darkness  of  a 
cavern,  to  eradicate  the  outrages  of  civil  war,  and  the  indul- 


—  655— 

g-ence  in  cruel  retaliations  and  assassinations  so  often  insep- 
arable from  it.     [Applause.] 

Mr.  President,  it  was  O'Connell's  surprising-  eloquence 
and  splendid  leadership  that  awoke  Ireland  from  a  slumber 
so  fatal  to  her.  He  organized  her  patriotic  millions  on  a 
moral  battlefield  such  as  the  world  has  never  seen;  nor 
should  I  omit  to  state  that  when  these  grand  armies  came 
together  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  the  g-reat  agitator,  number- 
ing at  one  time  over  a  million  souls,  there  was  not  a  drunken 
man  among*  them;  there  was  no  breach  of  the  peace  —  there 
was  simply  a  gathering-  of  moral  forces  such  as  had  never  be- 
fore in  the  history  of  mankind  been  gathered  together  to  ap- 
peal in  the  name  of  justice  and  peace  for  their  God-given 
rights.  The  energy  which  O'Connell  displayed,  the  activity 
which  he  directed,  the  fiery  temperaments  which  he  restrained, 
the  patriotism  which  he  kindled,  let  us  hope,  still  unites  in 
purpose  and  g-lows  and  burns  not  only  in  the  hearts  of  his 
countrymen  but  in  the  hearts  of  all  men  everywhere  who  hate 
oppression  and  love  liberty.     [Applause] 

The  work  he  did,  the  power  he  wielded,  and  the  influence 
he  left  behind  him,  have  pronounced  his  fame  and  crowned 
his  memory  with  the  benedictions  of  his  countrymen  and 
mankind;  may  we  not  hope  that  God  will  ultimately  bless  a 
land  and  a  people  that  could  produce  such  a  matchless  hero? 
[Applause.] 

And  now,  Mr.  President,  what  shall  I  say  of  Old  Ire- 
land, the  land  of  poetry  and  song-,  of  g-enius  and  patriotism 
—  Ireland,  for  so  many  years  crushed  and  bleeding,  but, 
thank  God,  not  yet  enslaved  I  Though  she  be  now  sitting- 
within  the  shadow,  deepened  by  the  shadows  of  her  material 
ruin,  her  poets  and  prophets  have,  through  the  open  archways 
of  thought,  caught  glimpses  of  that  light  which  always  pre- 
cedes the  dawn  of  the  coming-  morn,  and  have  prophesied  her 
deliverance  and  sung-  her  songs  of  triumph.  By  the  side  of 
her  beautiful  rivers,  from  her  mountains  and  her  valleys  and 
her  rockbound  coast,  there  comes  a  sound  of  perpetual  lamen- 
tation, like  the  low  sighing  of  the  vesper  winds  through  the 
g-roves  of  Gethsemane,  as  when  Christ,  with  weary  feet  and 
heavy  heart,  walked  through  its  consecrated  shades.  As  I 
hear  it  to-night,  it  is  an  aspirational  and  sublime  lament, 


—  656  — 


I 


wliich  must  ultimately  reach  and  toucli  all  hearts.  It  is  the 
soul  of  Ireland  from  her  sorrow  and  sackcloth  supplicating" 
Heaven  for  justice.  Oh,  God  of  the  oppressed  and  disinherited, 
a.long--suffering-  and  heroic  people,  joined  by  the  g-reat-hearted 
among-  mankind  of  every  race, kindred  and  tongue,  are  to-night, 
with  uplifted  voice,  appealing  to  Thee  for  the  redemption 
and  liberation  of  Ireland.  And  though  Ireland,  under  the 
wise  leadership  of  O'Connell,  has  learned  to  labor  and  to  wait, 
yet  her  people  at  home,  as  we  here  to-night,  are  crying-  out 
half  impatiently,  ''How  long!  O  Lord,  how  long!"  But, 
whatever  may  betide,  let  us  keep  heart  and  keep  faith,  remem- 
bering that  as  it  is  with  men,  so  it  is  with  nations,  and 
* '  "Whoever  bears  the  cross  to-day,  shall  wear  the  crown  to- 
morrow." 

Above  all,  let  us  not  permit,  as  did  the  children  of  Israel, 
our  murmuring  discontent  to  break  into  open  rebellion  against 
Him  who  holds  all  nations  in  the  hollow  of  His  hand — 

** — ^Forwhat  are  we? 
Above  our  broken  dreams  and  plans, 
God  lays,  with  wiser  hands  than  man's, 
The  corner-stones  of  liberty." 

[Long  and  hearty  applause.] 

Letter  from  Prof.  Henry  Y.  Arnett,  B.  S.,  Columbia,  S.  C. 
Mr.  Ashley  made  no  claim  to  be  classed  with  learned  and  finished  orators.    But 
his  direct  and  manly  appeals  in  behalf  of  an  oppressed  and  cruelly  wrong-ed  race,  en- 
abled him,  when  these  speeches  and  orations  were  delivered,  to  make  clear  his  pur- 
pose  and  to  carry  convictions  to  the  hearts  of  his  hearers.    The  lessons  which  his 
speeches  and  heroic  life  impress  upon  the  writer,  is  that  character  and  sincerity,  unsel- 
fishness and  truthfulness,  are  the  true  statesman's  most  desirable   weapons.    More 
fitting"  and  appropriate  than  any  thoug-ht  I  can  write,  for  this  foot  note,  are  the  lines 
of  the  poet,  which  Mr.  Ashley  in  his  address  on  Lincoln,  at  page  765,  quoted  and  ap- 
plied to  the  great  Emancipator.    I  now  quote  and  apply  them  to  him;  for  of  a  truth, 
we  all  know,  how  heroically  and  steadfastly  during-  the  darkest  nig-hts  of  our  pilgrim- 
ag-e  as  a  race,  and  when  the  crimes  of  this  nation  ag-ainst  us  were  merciless,  he 
"Faithful  stood  with  prophet  finger, 
Pointing"  toward  the  blest  to  be 
When  beneath  the  spread  of  heaven, 
Every  creature  shall  be  free." 
"Fearless  when  the  lips  of  evil 
Breathed  their  blackness  on  his  name. 
Trusting"  in  a  nobler  life  time, 
For  a  spotless  after  fame." 

Hbnry  Y.  Arnbtt. 


ST.  PATRICK^S  DAY  IN  TOLEDO. 


From  the  Buckkye  Gsangkr,  March,  1876. 


The  late  St.  Patrick  celebration  in  Toledo  was  larg-ely 
attended  by  natives  of  the  Emerald  Isle  who  reside  in  this 
place  ;  they  were  accompanied  by  the  Perrysburg-  Silver  Band. 
The  occasion  was  one  of  much  interest,  and  closed  in  the 
evening-  with  a  public  meeting  in  St.  Patrick's  Hall.  Among- 
the  speakers  was  the  Hon.  J.  M.  Ashley,  who  delivered  the 
following-  eulog-ium  on  the  life  and  service  of  the  **  Great 
Commoner." 

The  next  toast  was  *'  Daniel  O'Connell,"  to  which  Gover- 
nor Ashley  responded  as  follows: 


Mr.  Chairman,  and  Ladies  and  Gentlkmen:  Before 
responding-  to  the  toast  just  read,  I  want  to  thank  your  com- 
mittee for  the  very  welcome  invitation  which  brings  me  here 
to-night.  When  I  came  home  night  before  last  and  found  it 
awaiting  me,  I  resolved  that  whatever  else  might  happen,  I 
would  not  repeat  the  **buH"  which  I  committed  at  the 
O'Connell  Centennial  of  last  year,  by  unwittingly  delivering 
a  speech  to  the  wrong  audience.  I  made  up  my  mind  that 
whatever  **  bull"  I  might  commit,  it  should  not  be  by  going 
to  the  ** Opera  House"  instead  of  St.  Patrick's  Hall. 

Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  fitting  and  proper  that  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  Erin,  wherever  dwelling  around  the  globe, 
should  come  together,  as  you  have  come  together  to-night,  to 
aid  in  commemorating  and  perpetuating  the  good  name  and 
fair  fame  of  Ireland's  grand  heroes.  You  who  have  given 
three  hundred  and  sixty-four  days  of  the  year  to  personal  and 
material  pursuits,  can  hardly  do  less  than  give  one  day  for 

42  (657) 


—  658  — 

old  Ireland.  I  know  there  are  those  who  say,that  for  foreig-n- 
born  citizens  to  commemorate  any  day  as  you  are  now  com- 
memorating* this,  is  but  to  promote  strife  and  discord,  and  to 
indulge  in  sentimental  speech  which  can  do  no  g"ood,  and  may 
do  much  harm.  But  if  I  read  the  past  arig-ht,  it  is  to  this 
love  of  sentiment  in  the  human  heart,  that  every  land  is  in- 
debted for  the  heroism  and  patriotism  of  its  sons.  To  this 
sentiment  the  world  owes  its  bravest  deeds  and  martyrs* 
crowns.  It  was  this  sentiment  which  moved  the  g-reat  heart 
of  O'Connell  and  made  him  consecrate  his  life  to  the  cause  of 
Ireland,  and  to  the  cause  of  liberty  in  every  land,  not  forget- 
ting THE  FOUR  MII.I.ION  SI.AVKS  IN  Amfrica.  It  was  this  sen- 
timent of  love  for  their  adopted  country  which  caused  thou- 
sands of  Irishmen,  from  Montg'omery  to  Thomas  Francis 
Meagher,to  offer  up  their  lives  on  the  field  of  battle  to  defend 
and  perpetuate  American  liberty.  When  this  sentiment  dis- 
appears from  among-  men,  patriotism  will  die  in  every  land 
beneath  the  sun.  As  Father  Hannin  said  to  me  a  moment 
ag-o,  "  A  man  who  does  not  love  his  owncountr}^,  cannot  love 
his  adopted  country,"  and  I  may  add,  nor  any  country. 

When  the  emotions  which  in  all  times  have  moved  the 
noblest  and  purest  aspirations  of  mankind,  move  them  no 
more  —  the  mother  will  forget  to  love  the  child  she  bore,  and 
both  mother  and  child  will  forget  to  love  the  land  of  their 
birth.  Thank  God  this  can  never  be,  with  any  race  or  kin- 
dred or  tongue,  and  because  it  can  never  be,  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  Ireland  are  here  to-night  with  many  a  glad  and 
tender  memory  to  consecrate  anew  this  hour  with  fresh  re- 
solves of  fidelity  to  motherland.  To  enjoy  and  profit  by  the 
reflection  which  the  utterance  of  patriotic  sentiment  gives,  I 
accepted  with  pleasure  your  invitation  to  come  here  to-night. 
All  the  higher  and  better  emotions  which  the  love  of  country 
brings,  are  stirred  afresh  within  me  as  I  witness  the  glowing 
enthusiasm  of  those  around  me,  who  in  their  heart  of  hearts 
love  Ireland  and  her  historic  heroes.  Heaven  forbid  that 
any  Irishman  in  America  should  ever  forget  the  land  of  his 
birth;  let  him  rather  turn  to  her  with  deeper  devotion,  as  he 
beholds  her  sitting  in  sorrow  and  sackcloth,  waiting  for  an- 
other great  leader,  who  like  O'Connell  shall  sound  the  resur- 


—  659  — 

rection  trumpet,  and  teach  the  world  that  she  is  not  dead  but 
living-. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  history  of  Ireland  presents  one  con- 
tinued succession  of  brilliant  and  wonderful  men.  Swift 
and  Grattan,  Plunkett  and  Curran,  Burrows  and  Burke, 
Emmet  and  O'Connell,  and  a  host  of  others  familiar  to 
you  all,  and  whom  I  need  not  name;  but  pre-eminent  and 
above  them  all,  as  a  leader,  educator  and  statesman,  stands 
the  name  of  Daniel  O'Connell.  No  other  name  in  Irish  his- 
tory has  made  so  hopeful  the  Irish  heart,  nor  so  lighted  up 
the  political  firmament  of  Ireland  with  democratic  ideas. 
O'Connell  found  the  Irish  people  broken,  bleeding",  dis- 
heartened, divided,  and  lifted  them  from  their  darkness  and 
despair,  until  they  could  see  the  hopeful  lig-ht  of  the  coming- 
morn.  He  united  the  discordant  and  warring-  factions  and 
made  them  one;  he  educated  the  people  up  to  a  just  compre- 
hension of  their  power  and  dig-nity  and  responsibility.  In 
short  he  created  a  public  opinion,  which  breathed  new  life 
into  the  cause  of  Ireland.  By  his  long--continued  and  able  agi- 
tation, he  secured  for  Ireland  religious  toleration,  a  free  press 
and  schools,  and  a  representation  in  Parliament.  With  these 
weapons  properly  wielded  the  future  of  Ireland  cannot  be 
doubted.  With  these  weapons  she  need  no  longer  **  suppli- 
cate," for  soon  she  will  have  power  to  dictate  her  own  terms, 
and  the  wonder  of  all  this  is  — that  O'Connell  accomplished 
what  he  did  as  the  apostle  of  peace.  To  the  irrepressible 
Irish  race  he  declared,  that  *'no  revolution  was  worth  the 
shedding  of  one  drop  of  human  blood."  He  believed  that 
every  reform  achieved  by  accident  or  by  force,  may  be  lost  by 
accident  or  force;  that  only  those  reforms  take  root  and  grow 
which  are  born  of  reflection  and  planted  with  judgment,  and 
are  afterwards  watered  by  discussion  and  education.  He 
believed  that  it  was  best  and  safest  to  engraft  the  reforms 
desired  into  the  national  conscience,  before  attempting  to 
enact  them  into  national  law  —  that  only  such  reforms  as 
were  based  upon  the  consent  of  a  free  and  enlightened  people 
could  stand  the  test  of  time.  Plis  panacea  was  an  educated 
people  with  a  free  ballot;  and  a  government  that  should  be- 
long to  no  one  person  or  family  or  dynasty,  but  belong  to  all 
her  own  children. 


—  660  — 


I 


To  me,  these  ideas  of  O'Connell  embody  the  perfection 
of  human  statesmanship.  Search  all  the  past  history  of 
Ireland  and  you  will  find  no  record  so  clear  and  broad  and 
bright  as  his.  Carlisle  says  that  "he  is  God's  own  appointed 
King  whose  single  word  melts  all  wills  into  his."  What 
praise  can  exceed  this?  God  grant  that  Ireland  may  again  be 
blessed  with  a  leader  and  a  hero  whose  prudence  and  match- 
less eloquence  shall  equal  O'Connell's,  and  such  a  hero  and 
leader  I  believe  she  is  soon  again  to  have;  a  hero  who,  when 
he  comes,  shall  complete  the  great  work  which  O'Connell, 
dying,  left  unfinished,  and  thus  prove  himself  to  be  the  Christ 
of  Ireland's  political  redemption,  so  that  Ireland  from  that 
time  onward  shall  stand  forth  erect  and  disenthralled,  ad- 
ministering her  own  local  government  on  the  basis  of  liberty, 
federation  and  peace,  as  we  do  here  in  Ohio. 

"And  thou,  O  Ireland,  green  and  fair, 
Across  the  waters  wild. 
Stretch  forth  strong  arms  of  loving  care, 
And  guard  thy  favorite  child." 


CO-OPERATION  AND  PROFIT-SHARING  I 


Copy  of  Circui^ar  addressed  to  the    Stockhoi^ders  of 

The  T01.EDO,  Ann  Arbor  and  North  Michigan 

Railway  Company. 


Genti^emen:  After  careful  deliberation,  I  have  deter- 
mined, with  the  approval  of  the  Board  of  Directors,  to  submit 
to  the  stockholders  of  this  Company,  at  the  annual  meeting- 
appointed  for  Wednesday,  April  20, 1887  (for  their  acceptance 
or  rejection),  the  following-  propositions  touching-  ''  profit 
sharing-,"  in  addition  to  the  reg-ular  wages  paid  by  this  Com- 
pany to  each  of  its  officers  (except  its  President),  and  all  its 
employees. 

The  direct  allotment  to  the  laborer,  of  a  share  in  the  prof- 
its produced  by  his  labor,  is  a  method  of  distribution  as  old 
as  human  history;  a  method  older  than  the  *' wag-e  system," 
and  one  for  which  we  have  the  approving-  judg-ment  of  many 
of  the  ablest  thinkers,  both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe. 

I  propose  for  the  benefit  of  all  who  now  are,  or  who  here- 
after may  be,  interested  in  the  prosperity  of  this  Company, 

Letter  from  B.  T.  Tanner,  D.  D.,  one  of  the  Bishops  of  the  A.  M.  E.  Chnrch. 
I  was  never  more  Impressed  with  the  justice  of  "  profit  [sharing-"  than  in  a  convert 
sation  I  had  a  few  years  since  with  a  resident  stockholder  of  one  of  the  street  railways 
of  our  city,  Philadelphia,  Pa.  Said  he,  **  A  few  years  ago  the  shares  of  this  road  were 
valued  and  sold  at  $15  ;  now  they  are  worth  and  sold  at  more  than  $100  a  share."  The 
words  had  scarcely  fallen  from  his  lips  when  we  began  to  think  of  the  absolute  injustice 
of  themethod  which  gave  every  cent  of  this  silent  g-rowth  tojthe  capitalist;  not  allowing 
one  penny  of  it  to  go  to  the  laborer— to  the  driver  and  to  the  conductor,  to  whom  its  in, 
crease  could  in  part  be  credited  as  justly  as  to  the  capitalist.  When  the  shares  were 
at  their  minimum  value,  they  received  their  $1.50  or  $3  per  day  as  did  the  capitalist  re- 
ceive his  6  or  10  per  cent,  as  the  case  may  be.  But  in  the  course  of  years,  when  by  the 
joint  labor  of  the  driver  and  the  conductor,  blended  with  the  money  of  the  capitalist,the 
value  of  the  shares  increased  almost  tenfold,  what  do  we  see  ?  We  see  capital  appro- 
priating to  itself  that  which  should  be  common  to  both.  This,  we  say,  is  manifestly 
tin  just,  and  sooner  or  laterjthis  method  of  conducting  business  must  be  changed,  and 
give  place  to  a  method  more  in  harmony  with  what  is  right.  These  drivers  and  con- 
ductors were  not  the  men  they  were  when  they  first  entered  the  employ  of  this  company. 
They  were  older  and  weaker,  and  less  prepared  to  continue  the  hard  struggle  for  life. 
Had  they  been  allowed  to  share  in  the  silent  growth  of  the  value  of  the  property  they 
were  laboring  to  create  they  would  have  been  infinitely  better  prepared  to  enter  upon 
the  winter  of  old  age.  Governor  Ashley  touches  the  heart  and  interest  of  the  toiling 
millions  in  the  right  place,  in  this  and  other  addresses  on  this  subject. 

B.  T.  Tanner. 

(66:) 


—  662  — 


I 


especially  its  officials  and  employees,  to  blend  with  the  pres- 
ent wag-e  system  the  more  ancient  and  equitable  one  of  "  profit 
sharing-." 

I  submit  this  proposition  for  the  approval  of  the  stock- 
holders, because  I  believe  that  the  two  systems,  if  properly 
united  and  practically  administered,  will  be  a  decided  im- 
provement upon  the  present  wage  system,  and  advantag-eous 
alike  to  emploj^er  and  employed. 

For  many  years  I  have  favored  substantially  the  plan  of 
co-operative  labor  and  *' profit  sharing-,"  which  I  now  pro- 
pose for  adoption  by  this  Company.  In  my  opinion  we  have 
reached  a  period  in  the  history  of  the  "  Ann  Arbor"  Com- 
pany which  justifies  me  in  submitting-  the  propositions  here- 
inafter made  to  the  stockholders,  for  their  ratification  or  re- 
jection. 

And  as  I  do  not  claim  that  the  method  of  distribution 
proposed  is  beyond  improvement,  I  cordially  invite  such 
amendments  as  may  sug-g-est  themselves  to  any  of  the  stock- 
holders or  employees  who  may  receive  a  printed  copy  of  these 
proposed  rules  and  regulations. 

RULE   FIRST. 

The  Toledo,  Ann  Arbor  &  North  Michigan  Railway 
Company  hereby  stipulates  and  agrees  to  pay  to  each  of  its 
officers  (except  its  President)  and  to  all  its  employees  a  divi- 
dend, as  provided  in  the  terms  and  conditions  following: 

All  officials  and  employees  of  said  Company  who  shall 
have  been  continuously  in  its  service  for  five  (5)  years  or 
more,  shall  in  addition  to  the  regular  wages  paid  to  each,  re- 
ceive an  amount  which  shall  equal  the  proportion  hereinafter 
named  of  such  dividends  on  its  capital  stock  as  may  be  de- 
clared by  the  Board  of  Directors  of  this  Company  in  any  year. 


RULK  SECOND. 

The  basis  on  which  a  proportion  of  the  dividends  earned 
by  this  Company  are  to  be  paid  to  each  officer  and  employee 
shall  be  as  follows: 


—  663  — 

The  Board  of  Directors,  when  declaring-  a  dividend,  shall 
add  to  the  total  amount  of  capital  stock  outstanding-,  the 
gross  sum  paid  by  the  Company,  in  salaries  and  wag-es,  for 
the  preceding-  year,  to  all  its  employees  and  of&cials  (except 
its  President)  who  shall  have  been  continuously  in  its  ser- 
vice for  the  five  (5)  years  next  preceding-  the  declaration  of 
such  dividends,  and  each  of  such  officers  and  employees  shall 
be  entitled  to  receive  in  any  year  in  which  a  dividend  shall 
be  declared,  a  dividend  on  an  amount  equal  to  his  salary  for 
the  year  preceding-,  as  if  he  were  the  owner  of  a  number  of 
shares  of  the  capital  stock  of  the  Company  to  a  like  amount, 
at  their  par  value. 

RUIvE  THIRD. 

Every  officer  and  employee  who  shall  have  been  in  the 
service  of  the  Company  continuously  for  twenty  (20)  years  or 
more,  and  voluntarily  retires  from  its  service  with  an  honor- 
able discharg-e,  shall  be  entitled  to  receive,  and  have  delivered 
to  him,  a  certificate  of  the  full  paid-up  capital  stock  of  the 
Company,  which  shall  equal  in  amount  at  its  par  value,  the 
total  sum  paid  him  as  wag-es  for  the  last  year  he  was  in  the 
service  of  the  Company. 

RULE    FOURTH. 

If  any  officer  or  employee  of  the  Company  as  aforesaid, 
shall  be  so  disabled,  while  in  the  line  of  active  duty,  as  to  be 
unable  to  resume  his  place  for  a  period  of  six  months  or  more, 
he  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  a  certificate  of  the  full  paid-up 
capital  stock  of  the  Company,  which  shall  equal  in  amount, 
at  its  par  value,  the  gross  sum  paid  him  for  the  year  imme- 
diately preceding-  his  said  disability.  And  if  any  officer  or 
employee  shall  lose  his  life  while  in  the  line  of  active  duty, 
his  wife,  if  he  has  one,  and  if  not,  his  leg-al  representatives, 
shall  be  entitled  to  receive  a  certificate  of  the  full  paid-up 
capital  stock  of  the  Company  which  shall  equal  in  amount  at 
its  par  value,  five  (5)  times  the  g-ross  sum  paid  him  for  the 
year  next  preceding-  his  death.     Provided,  however,  that  this 


—  664  — 


^ 


rule  shall  not  apply  in  cases  where  a  claim  for  damag-es  is 
made  in  the  courts. 


i 


,     RULK   FIFTH. 

These  rules  and  reg-ulations  touching-  the  mode  and  man- 
ner of  paying"  dividends  and  stock  allotments  to  the  officers 
and  employees  of  the  Company,  shall  not  be  amended  or  abro- 
g"ated  except  at  a  reg"ular  annual  meeting-  of  the  stockholders 
of  this  Company,  and  then  only  after  due  notice  has  been 
g-iven  to  the  stockholders,  thirty  days  prior  to  the  said  reg-ular 
annual  meeting,  that  a  proposition  will  be  made  at  said  meet- 
ing" to  amend  or  abrog-ate  said  rules  and  reg-ulations,  which 
notice  shall  be  published  by  the  Secretary,  with  a  printed 
statement  of  the  chang"e  or  chang-es  proposed. 

RUI.S    SIXTH. 

The  President  and  Board  of  Directors  shall  have  the 
power  and  authority  necessary  to  carry  into  effect  the  fore- 
going" plan  of  profit  sharing"  and  stock  allotment. 

th:^  pi,an  kxpi^ainkd. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  in  this  plan  of  allotment  and 
*'  profit  sharing""  to  make  a  gift  to  the  officers  and  employees 
of  the  Company,  without  value  received.  It  is  not  intended 
to  take  from  the  dividends  due  the  shareholders,  and  arbi- 
trarily add  to  the  wages  of  the  employees  without  an  equiva- 
lent. The  bonus  which  it  is  proposed  to  pay  to  each  officer 
and  employee  is  to  be  paid  out  of  the  additional  earnings  and 
savings  of  the  Company,  which  savings  and  earnings  it  is 
believed  will  be  materially  increased  by  the  activity,  economy 
and  fidelity  of  officials  and  employees  alike,  and  by  a  watch- 
fulness which  must  result  in  decreasing  accidents,  and  in 
securing  a  better  understanding  of  the  responsibilities  and 
duties  of  each,  as  also  a  more  perfect  co-operation  between 
all  who  are  in  the  service  of  the  Company. 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  this  plan  for  paying  dividends, 


—  665  —■ 

the  officers  and  employees  run  no  risk  of  pecuniary  loss. 
They  do  not  own  the  stock  and  cannot  be  held  for  damages, 
but  each  will  receive  a  dividend  when  earned  by  the  Com- 
pany, as  if  he  were  the  owner  of  the  stock.  The  wages  of 
each  is  guaranteed  and  paid  by  the  Company,  and  must  be 
paid,  even  when  the  Company  is  losing  money.  It  will  be 
seen  by  this  simple  statement  that  Capital  must  run  the  risk 
of  all  losses,  and  pay  all  wages  and  daily  expenses,  whether 
earned  by  the  Company  or  not. 

In  the  practical  administration  of  great  corporate  trusts, 
especially  in  the  case  of  a  Railroad  Company,  one  soon  learns 
as  he  cannot  learn  elsewhere,  how  absolutely  inseparable  are 
the  true  interests  of  Capital  and  Labor. 

This  plan  of  allotment  is  proposed  in  the  confident  belief 
that  it  will  largely  increase  the  net  earnings  of  the  Company, 
and  promote  zeal,  economy  and  general  efficiency;  that  it  will 
also  prove  itself  to  be  a  valuable  educator,  and  teach  the 
necessity  of  sobriety  and  fidelity;  and  that  mutual  confidence 
and  good-will  is  better  for  all  than  contentions  and  strikes. 
If  this  plan  of  allotment  and  paying  dividends  is  ap- 
proved by  the  stockholders  and  is  fairly  tested,  it  is  expected 
that  the  entire  dividend  paid  by  the  Company  in  any  one  year 
to  its  officers  and  employees,  will  be  more  than  earned  by 
savings  from  loss  and  waste.     And  when  each  officer  and  em- 
ployee is  properly  educated,  he  will  understand  that  when- 
ever he  permits  or  causes  a  useless  waste,  or  by  negligence  or 
disobedience  of  orders  an  accident  results,  that  he   always 
brings  upon  himself  and  his  associate  employees,  a  loss  pro- 
portionately corresponding  to  that  suffered  by  the  Company. 
The  education  and  discipline  which  the  plan  of  "profit 
sharing  "  and  stock  allotment  above  proposed  must  of  neces- 
sity introduce,  will,  it  is  believed,  be  of  great  economic  value 
in  securing  to  the  Company  the  kind  and  character  of  men 
who  will  desire  to  remain  with  it.     Naturally  enough,  the 
sober,  industrious  and  competent  men  (especially  those  with 
families)  will  seek  and  remain  in  the  employ  of  a  Company 
which  recognizes  the  plan  of  '*  profit  sharing"  as  herein  pro- 
posed, and  naturally  enough  every  temperate,  prudent  man 
who  saves  his  money,  will  prefer  the  same  class  of  men  for 
his  associates,  and  the  Company  can  rely  on  such  men  to  aid 


—  666  — 


I 


it  in  securing-  and  keeping-  only  the  best  and  most  trustworthy 
men  in  its  service. 

As  a  rule,  the  temperate  saving-  man  is  a  better  workman 
and  more  reliable  than  one  who  is  intemperate  and  improvi- 
dent. Successful  economy  on  the  part  of  an  employee,  bring-s 
stability  and  contentment.  Every  intellig-ent,  competent 
railroad  manag-er  estimates  such  a  man  at  his  actual  worth, 
and  desires  to  increase  his  wag-es  in  proportion  to  the  amount 
which  he  saves  or  earns  for  the  Company,  and  nothing-  can  be 
more  gratifying-  to  such  a  manag-er  than  to  see  his  workmen 
securing-  homes  of  their  own,  and  laying-  up  something-  for  a 
rainy  day. 

I  propose  to  make  four  (4)  periods  of  five  (5)  years  each 
(or  20  years)  as  the  maximum  period  of  service;  and  require  a 
period  of  five  (5)  years'  continuous  service  as  a  condition  to 
securing-  a  proportion  of  the  profits  earned  by  the  Company. 
And  it  is  also  proposed  for  the  consideration  of  the  Board  of 
Directors,  whether,  in  the  near  future,  it  may  not  be  desirable 
and  equitable  to  g-rant  in  addition  to  the  dividends  and  stock 
allotment  provided,  an  increase  in  the  wag-es  paid  each  officer 
and  employee  who  may  have  remained  in  the  service  of  the 
Company  for  two  or  more  periods  of  five  (5)  years  each,  and 
especially  for  the  fourth  (4)  period,  which  completes  the 
twenty  (20)  years'  continuous  service,  at  which  time  it  is  sug*- 
g-ested  stipulation  oug-ht  to  be  made,  that  any  of  such  em- 
ployees could  then  voluntarily  retire  or  be  retired  by  the  Com- 
pany, each  person  so  retired  or  voluntarily^  retiring  to  receive 
from  the  Company  the  amount  of  paid-up  capital  stock,  as 
hereinbefore  provided. 

In  addition  to  the  *'plan"  of  profit  sharing  as  herein 
proposed  and  an  increase  in  compensation  for  a  continuous 
service  of  ten  years  or  more  as  recommended,  it  is  suggested 
that  in  lieu  of  any  claim  against  the  Companj^  for  damages 
because  of  accidents,  that  a  fund  for  accident  and  life  insur- 
ance be  provided  at  an  early  day,  in  such  manner  as  shall 
seem  to  the  Board  of  Directors  just  and  equitable,  and  pro- 
viding also  that  all  promotions  so  far  as  practicable  shall  be 
made  from  among  the  officials  and  employees  longest  in  the 
service  of  the  Company.  J.  M.  Ashley,  President. 

Toledo,  Ohio,  January  24,  1887. 


THE  FEDERATION  OF  RAILROAD  WORKERS 


And  all  Wage-workers  —  Gov.  Ashley's  Address,   Junk 

10th,  1891,  TO  THE  International  Train  Dispatchers' 

Convention,  on  Co-operation  and  Strikes. 


FROM  THE  TOLEDO  BLADE. 


Governor  Ashley  and  his  position  on  labor  org-anizations 
and  labor  questions,  with  particular  reference  to  railroads,  is 
clearly  set  forth  in  an  address  read  to  the  train  dispatchers, 
who  met  in  international  convention  in  Toledo,  June  10th, 
1891. 

ADDRESS. 

Dear  Sir:  "  It  would  have  been  a  welcome  task  to  me 
could  I  have  accepted  the  invitation,  with  which  you 
honored  me,  to  address  your  association  at  its  contemplated 
annual  convention  in  Toledo  on  the  10th  inst.  You  ask  me 
to  favor  your  association  with  my  views  upon  the  problem  of 
railway  employees'  organizations,  so  that  you  can  read  the 
same  to  your  deleg-ates  assembled  in  convention. 

The  opinions  which  I  hold  touching-  org-anizations  of 
working--men  and  the  relations  of  capital  and  labor,  are  the 
logical  outg-rowth  of  my  early  fight  against  the  right  of  cap- 
ital to  legal  ownership  in  man.  An  intelligent  discussion  of 
slave  ownership  involved  of  necessity  the  question  of  the  prop- 
er relation  between  labor  and  capital.  Naturally  enough,  he 
who  denied  the  right  of  slave  barons  to  the  ownership  of 
their  laborers  as  chattels,  would  deny  the  right  of  capital  to 
enslave  labor  by  any  law  or  custom,  which  the  hatred  of  race 

(667) 


—  668  — 


and  spirit  of  caste,  or  the  avarice  or  selfishness  of  unscrupu- 
lous men  might  invent. 

I  believe  that  co-operation  and  profit-sharing-  will  ulti- 
matel)'  prove  to  be  the  most  practical,  and  by  far  the  best  solu- 
tion of  the  labor  problem. 

This  idea  has,  within  a  few  years,  commended  itself  to 
the  considerate  judgment  of  many  of  the  ablest  men  in  Europe 
and  in  this  country.  The  plan  for  profit-sharing-  which  I  pre- 
pared and  which  the  Ann  Arbor  company  adopted  is,  in  my 
opinion,  applicable  to  all  kinds  of  industries  in  which  it  may 
be  necessary  to  employ  ten  or  ten  thousand  men. 

It  is,  as  I  see  it,  especially  adapted  to  railroading-  in  all 
its  departments,  and  can  be  used  in  all  business  co-partner- 
ships or  public  corporations  of  whatsoever  kind,  and  even  in 
farming-. 

When  laboring-  men  shall  have  been  properly  educated, 
co-operation  and  profit-sharing-  will,  in  my  opinion,  as  cer- 
tainly take  the  place  of  the  present  wag-e  system  as  the  wag-e 
system  succeeded  slavery  and  serfdom.  I  send  you  by  this 
mail,  under  separate  cover,  a  copy  of  one  of  my  annual  re- 
ports. 

In  the  appendix  you  will  find  the  plan  which  I  favor,  to- 
g-ether with  a  brief  explanation  of  its  practicability.  An  ex- 
amination of  this  plan  will  disclose  the  fact  that  it  is  just, 
alike  to  employed  and  employer,  and  in  any  event,  is  safe  for 
all  employees. 

Intellig-ent  men  comprehend  that  the  first  duty  of  all  rail- 
road men,  employer  and  employed,  is  to  stand  tog-ether.  The 
interest  of  one  is  beyond  question  the  interest  of  all. 

Whatever  destroys  the  property  or  damag-es  the  business 
of  a  railroad  company,  tends  to  decrease  the  wag-es  of  em- 
ployees, or  both.  The  parasites  who  camp  along-  the  line  of 
every  railroad,  and  without  visible  means,  subsist  by  plunder 
and  disreputable  practices,  are  in  larg-e  part  the  result  of  con- 
ditions produced  by  railroad  men  in  their  unwise  and  indefen- 
sible conflict  with  each  other,  especially  in  the  strikes,  which 
incompetent  and  unworthy  leaders  have  so  recklessly  ordered, 
to  end  only  in  defeat  and  disaster.  No  thoug-htful  man  will 
ever  attempt  to  justify  or  to  excuse  three-fourths  of  all  the 
strikes  which,  in  the  past  twenty  years  or  more,  railroad  men 


—  669  — 

have  reluctantly  been  forced  into  by  men  utterly  incompetent 
to  lead  or  direct  a  movement  so  far-reaching-  in  its  con- 
sequences as  a  strike  on  any  ordinary  line  of  railroad. 

When  to  the  delay,  and  sometimes  to  the  entire  suspen- 
sion of  the  legitimate  business  of  a  community  depending"  on 
such  a  line  of  railroad,  there  is  added  the  wanton  and  mali- 
cious destruction  of  property  belong^ing"  to  the  railroad  com- 
pany, a  point  has  been  reached  which  demands  the  united  ac- 
tion of  all  honorable  railroad  men,  for  the  suppression  and 
exclusion  of  men  g-uilty  of  such  nefarious  acts  from  the  ranks 
of  reputable  railroad  employees. 

The  accumulated  property  of  the  world  belong's,  not 
wholly  to  its  individual  owners,  but  in  part  to  the  citizens  of 
the  world.  He  who  wantonly  or  deliberately  destroys  the 
property  which  leg-ally  belongs  to  him,  because  his  own  labor, 
or  the  labor  of  his  ancestors  had  produced  it,  is  guilty  of  an 
offense  punishable  by  the  laws/)f  all  civilized  states. 

He  who  destroys  the  property  of  another,  because  of 
some  misunderstanding  or  disagreement,  commits  a  crime 
which  should  exclude  him  from  the  companionship  or  recog- 
nition of  all  manly  men. 

I  have  never  met  more  than  two  or  three  railroad  man- 
agers who  were  not  ready  and  anxious  to  promote  the  inter- 
ests of  their  employees,  and  these  two  or  three  men  were  un- 
fitted by  nature  and  training  for  such  responsible  positions. 

A  large  majority  of  railroad  managers  of  my  acquaint- 
ance are  broad  and  liberal-minded  men, who  came  up  from  the 
ranks  of  railroaders,  and  are  in  heartj^  sympathy  with  the 
aspirations  of  the  rank  and  file,  not  only  because  they  are  by 
nature  manly  rien,  but  because  they  themselves  have  been  of 
the  rank  and  file  and  know  by  their  own  experience  and  ob- 
servation what  the  wants  and  hopes  of  each  are. 

I,  therefore,  repeat  that  the  first  duty  of  all  railroad  men, 
employer  and  employed,  is  to  stand  together  and  unitedly 
repel  the  unjust  and  dishonest  attacks  made  upon  railroad 
men  and  railroad  property. 

All  men  who  have  given  the  subject  any  reflection  know 
that  organized  capital,  with  steam  and  electricity,  has  so 
changed  the  commercial  and  business  forces  of  the  world  that 
to-day  five  men,  by  using  this  new  power,  can  do  the  work 


—  670  — 

which  thirty  or  forty  years  ag-o  required  one  hundred  men. 
This  fact,  now  generally  recognized,  has  prompted  many  of  the 
thinking  men  who  are  in  sympathy  with  the  wage-workers, 
both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  to  urge  disorganized 
labor  to  organize,  not  to  exclude  other  men  from  work,  nor  to 
do  any  criminal  act,  but  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  rights 
and  bettering  the  conditions  of  all  workers  and  ultimately  to 
obtain  a  business  co-partnership  with  capital,  not  only  in 
railroading,  but  in  all  industries,  on  a  basis  just  and  equi- 
table to  both  capital  and  labor. 

You  ask  me  what  plan  of  organization  men  should  adopt 
to  secure  this  end.  That  is  the  problem  of  problems,  and  the 
man  who  solves  it  will  be  entitled  to  the  recognition  and 
gratitude  of  all  wage-workers  the  world  over,  as  also  of  all 
classes  and  conditions  of  men,  because,  whatever  plan  may 
ultimately  be  adopted  by  railroad  men,  it  must,  in  order  to  be 
satisfactory  and  enduring,  commend  itself  to  the  great  body 
of  wage-workers  in  all  departments  of  human  industry. 

I  therefore  earnestly  desire  that  the  intelligent  railroad 
men  of  this  country  should  adopt  some  such  plan  of  co-opera- 
tion and  profit-sharing  as  I  have  suggested,  to  the  end  that 
it  may  be  by  them  formally  presented  to  all  railroad  owners 
and  managers  for  their  official  action.  Such  a  presentation, 
on  the  part  of  practical  railroad  men,  would  secure  an  able 
and  prompt  discussion  of  the  principle  involved,  and  I  confi- 
dently believe  in  its  final  adoption  with  such  modifications  and 
additions  as  men  of  brains  and  experience  may  approve. 

To  this  end,  and  to  secure  such  an  organization  as  the 
importance  and  magnitude  of  their  interest  demands,  I  favor 
the  federation  of  all  railroad  workers  in  State  organizations, 
with  the  entire  body  in  all  States  and  Territories  represented 
in  one  national  organization,  in  which  every  department  of 
railroad  workers  shall  have  a  proportional  representation  ac- 
cording to  number  of  members  residing  in  each  State  and  Ter- 
ritory. 

Believing  that  in  this  world  the  best  that  any  mortal  has 
is  that  which  every  mortal  shares,  I  hold  that  the  interest  of 
each  is  the  interest  of  all. 

If  this  proposition  be  admitted,  then  a  national  f  ederatioH 
of  railroad  men,  and  subordinate  federations  for  each  State 


—  671  — 

and  Territor}^  should  be  organized,  into  which  all  reputable 
railroad  workers  should  be  welcome,  who  voluntarily  desire 
to  affiliate  with  such  an  org"anization  by  subscribing-  to  its 
constitution. 

The  constitution  of  this  national  federation,  after  defin- 
ing" clearly  the  purposes  of  the  organization  and  the  powers 
and  duties  of  all  State  and  Territorial  organizations  affiliat- 
ing with  it,  should  especially  provide  the  machinery  by  which 
all  questions  touching  the  relation  of  railroad  workers  to 
railroad  companies  will  be  heard  and  determined.  In  each 
duly  organized  State  and  Territorial  and  subordinate  associa- 
tion, every  member  whose  name  properly  appears  on  the  roll 
should  have  the  right  secured  to  him  to  vote  by  ballot  on  all 
questions  submitted  to  the  organization  by  authority  of  the 
national  or  of  any  State  or  Territorial  federation;  and  espe- 
cially in  his  local  assembly  should  the  right  of  the  ballot  be 
secured  to  him  on  the  demand  of  one-tenth  of  the  members 
present  at  any  meeting. 

In  this  country  every  duly  qualified  elector  has  a  right  to 
vote  by  ballot  for  the  representatives  of  his  choice,  whether 
that  official  be  the  President  of  the  United  States,  a  State  of- 
ficial or  private  citizen;  why,  then,  should  not  every  railroad 
worker  have  secured  to  him  the  right  to  vote  by  ballot  in  his 
local  federation  on  every  question  affecting  his  individual  in- 
terest, or  that  of  the  general  interest  of  the  organization? 
As  no  railroad  man  would  be  permitted  to  vote  in  any  local 
council  who  was  not  a  member  in  good  standing,  so  only 
those  who  are  members  and  voters  would  be  eligible  to  any 
official  position  as  a  representative  to  either  the  State  or  na- 
tional assemblies. 

Experience  must  have  taught  every  thoughtful  railroad 
man  that  all  officials  and  delegates  to  represent  them  in  any 
deliberative  body,  ought,  after  due  notice  of  the  time  and  place 
of  such  election,  to  be  elected  by  ballot,  and  not  by  a  howling 
mob,  under  the  management  of  unscrupulous  and  unworthy 
leaders. 

At  such  elections  the  minority  should  always  have  secur- 
ed to  them  the  right  of  representation  in  proportion  to  the 
ballots  cast  by  them;  no  more,  no  less. 

Provisions  should  be  made  in  the  national  constitution  of 


—  672  — 

such  a  federation  for  obtaining- the  deliberate  opinion  of  every 
member  in  each  State  and  Territory  on  all  important  ques- 
tions submitted  for  official  action.  To  do  this  practically, 
special  provision  must  be  made  to  secure  proportional  repre- 
sentation from  all  local,  district  and  State  assemblies,  to  the 
minority  as  well  as  the  majority,  when  sending"  deleg"ates  to 
district  or  State,  or  to  the  national  assembly. 

The  concurrent  vote  of  not  less  than  two-thirds,  and 
sometimes  three-fourths  of  the  representatives  in  district. 
State  or  national  assemblies  should  be  required  to  adopt  any 
new  or  untried  proposition,  such  for  instance  as  the  adoption 
of  my  plan  of  co-operative  profit  sharing-. 

If  a  proposition,  touching-  any  subject  worthy  the  consid- 
eration of  either  district  or  State  federations  or  the  national 
assembly,  cannot,  after  open  debate  command  a  two-thirds 
vote  or  even  three-fourths  vote  of  men  whose  personal  inter- 
ests are  all  in  favor  of  a  just  disposition  of  this  subject,  its 
defects  must  be  of  a  character  to  render  its  attempted  enforce- 
ment by  a  mere  numerical  majority  verj^  questionable. 

Every  individual  wag-e-worker,  who  voluntarily  combines 
in  such  an  org-anization,  does  so  not  only  to  protect  and  pro- 
mote his  own  interests,  but  to  secure  the  rig-hts  and  interests 
of  all  workers.  He  cannot  afford,  and  will  not  willing-ly  put 
himself  under  subjection  to  an  org-anization,  in  which  he 
practically  has  no  voice.  That  he  will  have  no  voice  in  such 
an  org-anization  unless  he  has  secured  to  him  the  right  to 
vote  by  ballot,  experience  has  amply  demonstrated. 

And  I  affirm  that  unless  a  concurrent  vote  of  not  less 
than  two-thirds,  representing-  the  minority,  as  well  as  the  ma- 
jority of  the  org-anization,  can  be  secured  to  each  member  or 
all  questions  touching-  individual  freedom,  he  is  in  dang-er  oi 
being  subjected  to  a  despotic  power,  which  might  deprive 
him  of  the  liberty  of  disposing  of  his  own  labor,  and  so  hedg( 
him  about,  as  to  make  the  bettering  of  his  condition  in  lif( 
impossible. 

It  will  hardly  be  claimed  that  a  minority  of  the  organi 
nation  should  be  clothed  with  the  power  of  administering  it. 

The  point  to  be  reached  is  to  collect,  with  something  lik 
mathematical  precision,  the  deliberate  and  unbiased  judg 
ment  of  every  railroad  worker,  on  every  proposition  in  whic! 


—  673— 

all  who  are  members  of  the  org-anization  are  interested,  di- 
rectly or  indirectly.    I  therefore  would  provide  in  the  national 
and  State  constitution  that  no  separate  or  local  organization 
of  railroad  workers,  such,  for  instance  as  the  *' Association  of 
Train  Dispatchers,"  should  have  the  power  on  their  own  mo- 
tion and  without  the  affirmative  vote  of  two-thirds  of  all  the 
workers  or  employees  on  any  road,  who  were  members  of  the 
org-anization,  to  declare  a  strike  or  do  any  act  hostile  to  the 
interest  of  the  majority  of  the  employees  of  such  railroads. 
I  would  require  the  question  to  be  first  submitted  by  the  of- 
ficers of  the  State  org-anization  to  all  subordinate  affiliated 
councils  in  the  State  or  along-  the  line  of  railroad  so  affected 
by  the   proposed   strike.      Such   a   constitutional   provision 
should  secure  deliberation  and  a  vote  by  ballot  to  all  railroad 
workers  who  were  members  of  the  federation  and  on  the  pay 
roll  of  the  company  on  which  it  was  proposed  to  order  a  strike. 
All  such  ballots  should  be  printed,  simply  yes  or  no,  and  a 
proposition  of  that  character  ought  to  require  a  vote  of  not 
less  than  two-thirds  in  its  favor  to  authorize  the  officers  of 
any  State  federation  to  order  a  strike.     If  it  be  objected  that 
a  vote  of  two-thirds  is  too  large  and  that  only  a  majority  of 
those  present  and  voting  ought  to  be  sufficient,  even  though 
a  minority  of  the  total  federations  interested — the  answer  is, 
that,  as  a  rule,  there  is  always  doubt  about  the  practicabil- 
ity or  necessity  for  the  passage  in  the  national  Congress  or 
in  State  legislatures  or  in  any  city  government  of  any  act  or 
law,  such  as  declaring  war  or  amending  the  Constitution,  or 
even  creating  a  city  bonded  debt,  for  posterity  to  pay.     Pru- 
dence requires  that  such  acts  should  be  done  by  all  civil  gov- 
ernments only  after  careful  deliberation,  public  discussion, 
and  not  less  than  two-thirds,  and  sometimes  a  three-fourths 
vote  of  the  assemblies  charged  with  the  duty  of  such  legisla- 
tion. 

We  cannot  amend  our  national  Constitution  unless  Con- 
gresSjby  a  two-thirds  vote  of  both  the  Senate  and  House, 
concur  in  submitting  a  plain  and  definite  proposition,  and 
then  it  requires  an  affirmative  vote  of  three-fourths  of  the 
States  to  ratify  it  to  make  it  a  part  of  the  Constitution. 

In  some  States  a  proposition  to  amend  the  constitution 
43 


—  674  — 

must  have  passed  both,  houses  of  the  State  legislature  by  a 
tw.o-thirds  vote  two  years  in  succession,  and  then  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  electors  of  such  State  for  their  acceptance  or 
rejection  by  a  direct  vote,  yes  or  no.  No  intellig-ent  man  can 
afford  to  be  less  careful  when  providing-  for  the  protection  of 
his  individual  rights. 

A  recognition  of  this  conservative  principle  in  all  organ- 
izations of  wage-workers  and  especially  in  a  federation  of 
railroad  men,  such  as  I  have  suggested,  is  an  absolute  neces- 
sity, as  a  condition  to  permanence  and  success. 

It  is  not  possible  to  make  an  organization  live  and  suc- 
ceed by  trickery  and  fraud. 

Temporary  success  may  be  and  sometimes  has  been  secured 
by  trickery  and  fraud,  but  in  the  long  run  injustice  and  crime 
are  doomed  to  defeat,  and  when  crime  goes  down  there 
always  go  with  it  the  men  guilty  of  doing  the  wrong  acts 
which  gave  them  temporary  triumph. 

On  all  well-ordered  railroads  the  importance  and  respon- 
sibility of  the  train  dispatcher's  department  is  fully  recogniz- 
ed, and  it  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  by  any  wage-worker  that 
in  all  departments  of  human  industry  "  responsibility  "  car- 
ries with  it  corresponding  opportunities.  From  the  ranks  of 
the  Train  Dispatchers'  Association  are  certain  to  come  in  the 
future,  as  in  the  past,  many  of  our  able  railroad  managers 
and  prominent  officials. 

The  whole  world  admires  a  just  and  manly  man.  It 
therefore  requires  no  seer  or  prophet  to  predict  that  in  every 
coniiict  with  exacting  and  unjust  managers  such  an  organi- 
zation of  railroad  workers  as  I  have  outlined,  administered 
with  prudence  and  dignity,  will  always  win. 

If  you  acquit  yourselves  like  men,  and  with  fraternal 
duty  consecrate  your  daily  toil,  you  cannot  be  defeated.  On 
such  a  platform  you  have  but  to 

"  Stand  firm,  and  all  the  world  shall  see 
Your  light  shine  out  o'er  land  and  sea." 

J.    M.    ASHI^KY. 

C.  E.  Case,  Esq., 

Secretary  Train  Dispatchers'  Association  of  America. 


EXTRACTS 

From  Governor  Ashley's  First  Address  in  the  Congres- 
sional Campaign  op  1890. 


Hon.  C.  A.  King-  introduced  Governor  Ashley  in  a  short 
speech.  He  said  that  the  Republican  Congressional  conven- 
tion, on  the  10th  of  October,  had  chosen  a  candidate  for  Con- 
g-ress.  That  candidate  had  been  notified  and  had  accepted. 
He  desired  simply  to  present  to  the  audience  Governor 
Ashley. 

Applause  again  followed  when  the  Governor  stepped  for- 
ward and  began  to  speak.     He  said: 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  Fellow- 
Citizens  all:  Your  cordial  reception  and  old-fashioned 
greeting  is  like  a  Highland  welcome;  and  I  accept  it  in  the 
spirit  in  which  it  is  given  and  thank  you  for  it  with  all  my 
heart. 

In  accepting  the  unsolicited  nomination  which  the  Re- 
publican-Congressional convention  of  this  district  tendered 
me  on  the  10th  instant,  I  feel  that  it  is  due  to  both  you  and 
myself  at  the  outset  to  state  frankly  that  I  accept  the  nomi- 


(675) 


—  076  — 

nation,  notjbecause  I  personally  desire  a  seat  in  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States,  with  all  its  responsibilities  and  thank- 
less labor,  but  because  I  believe  it  to  be  a  duty,  and  because 
I  sincerely  believe  there  are  formidable  forces  at  work,  which, 
if  unchecked,  must  drift  the  nation  and  party  into  conditions 
of  peril  and  disaster.      [Applause.] 

To  avert  these,  will,  in  my  opinion,  require  not  only  the 
united  efforts  of  the  Republican  part}- ,  but  the  hearty  co-op- 
eration of  the  able  men  of  all  sections  and  parties. 

It  will  be  my  duty  to  present  to  you,  in  the  few  addresses 
which  I  shall  be  able  to  make  during-  the  short  canvass  on 
which  we  are  entering-,  such  facts  and  such  arg-uments  touch- 
ing" the  situation  of  the  country,  and  the  tendencies  of  which 
I  speak  as  may,  peradventure,  contribute  something  to  arouse 
thinking-  men  to  the  gravity  of  the  impending  conflict  before 
us,  that  they  may  be  induced  to  call  a  halt  and  ask  them- 
selves the  question,  "  Whither,  as  a  nation,  are  we  drifting?" 

The' older  citizens  of  Toledo  and  Northern  Ohio  are  fa- 
miliar with  my  manner  of  speech,  and  all  know  that  I  am  in- 
capable of  concealment  or  evasion.  In  every  political  can- 
vass I  ever  made,  whether  a  candidate  or  not,  I  stated  the 
issue  with  such  plainness  that  no  one  could  misunderstand  or 
honestly  misinterpret  me.     [Applause.  ] 

I  have  always  held  that  a  public  speaker  should  speak  with 
frankness,  simplicity  and  directness.  That,  first  of  all,  he 
should  so  impress  his  individuality  upon  his  audience  as  to 
•  make  every  thought  he  expressed  glow  with  a  sincerity 
which  should  stamp  itself,  not  only  on  the  hearts  and  minds 
of  his  hearers,  but  even  on  the  coldest  printed  page,  that  he 
should  so  far  forget  his  surroundings  as  to  lose  all  conscious- 
ness of  self,  and  with  quiet  earnestness  for  his  only  rhetoric, 
make  his  appeal  as  one  who  sees  the  truth,  and  whose  Hpscan 
utter  that  only  which  he  sees  and  believes.     [Applause,] 

I  should  like  to  come  before  vou  when  I  shall  have  more 
time  to  discuss  the  great  political  questions  at  issue,  but 
from  the  hour  we  reached  Sandusky  one  delay  followed  an- 
other, and  It  would  be  doing  vou  great  injustice  to  keep  you 
longefo  I  Will  not  at  thss  late  hour  undertake  to  speak  as  1 
had  intended,  prior  to  my  detention  at  Sandusky.  I  have  ac- 
cepted the  nomination  and  I  stand  on   the  platform.     I  may 


—  677  — 

say  my  business  is  to  defend  the  platform  on  which  I  stand. 

I  shall  confine  myself  to  the  discussion  of  national  issues, 
and  shall  not  allow  myself  to  be  diverted  from  them  by  any 
side  issue  on  which  I  shall  have  no  vote  in  Congress.  My 
duty  to  the  other  counties  in  the  district,  and  my  duty  to  the 
Republicans,  should  be  to  hold  a  steady  hand. 

[Someone  on  the  left  here  cried  out,  **How  do  you  stand 
on  the  g-as  question?"  Turning  towards  his  questioner  the 
Governor  made  no  hesitation,  but  replied:  **  I  intend  to  stand 
for  Toledo,  and  as  I  have  no  vote  in  Congress  on  the  gas 
question,  I  will  say  nothing  about  it."  The  applause  follow- 
ing was  spontaneous.] 

I  stand  for  Toledo  [the  Governor  continued] ,  and  have  been 
struggling  for  thirty-nine  years  to  build  her  up.  I  have  at 
heart  as  much  as  any  man,  her  interest  and  prosperity. 
Moreover,  we  may  differ  in  the  method  by  which  we  are  to 
get  that  prosperity,  and  as  long  as  I  don't  have  to  vote  upon 
it  in  Congress,  I  shall  not  undertake  to  reconcile  the  differ- 
ence. If  a  man  should  ask  me  what  is  my  religion,  I  should 
probably  tell  him  that  it  was  none  of  his  business.  If  I  was 
a  candidate  for  bishop  or  pope,  I  should  recognize  the  justice 
of  that  question  and  answer  it.  If  I  was  a  candidate  for  the 
city  council  of  Toledo,  I  should  recognize  the  justice  of 
questions  on  local  interest.  I  do  not  intend  to  evade  any 
question  that  can  be  of  possible  importance  in  this  campaign. 
I  should  not  ignore  them  for  the  sake  of  the  fight  I  propose 
to  make  in  this  district.  When  I  was£rst  elected  as  a  repre- 
sentative in  Congress  I  was  a  very  young  man.  I  made  up 
my  mind  that  I  would  go  slow  and  safe. 

I  may  have  made  mistakes,  but  whatever  L  did,  are  mat- 
ters of  record.  The  slanderous  hearsayers  cannot  put  their 
fingers  on  a  single  vote  to  which  they  object  or  you  object. 
They  cannot  point  to  a  single  public  or  private  speech  express- 
in  g  a  sentiment  to  which  you  would  object.  All  I  ask  of  you 
is  to  turn  to  the  records,  as  to  any  slanders  that  may  have 
been  circulated  twenty  years  ago.  I  don't  care  enough  for  an 
election  to  make  a  single  dodge.  If  anybody  asked  me  how 
I  built  the  Ann  Arbor  road,  I  should  probably  tell  him  that 
it  was  none  of  his  business.  I  got  gray  in  doing  it.  While 
I  was  building  it  I  had  to  borrow  money,  and  agreed  that 


—  678  - 

my  lips  should  be  sealed  politically,  and  I  would  keep  out  of 
politics.  But  the  money  is  paid,  and  I  am  free  to  talk  poli- 
tics now. 

Now,  gentlemen,  on  all  the  bills  before  the  last  Congress 
the  Republican  party  was  in  the  main  right.  Among  them  was 
the  tariif  bill.  I  voted  for  the  old  tariff  bill,  and  I  should  have 
voted  for  this  one  had  I  been  in  the  present  Congress.  [Great 
applause.]  There  may  be  provisions  in  it  for  which  I  would 
not  have  voted  in  Committee  of  the  Whole,  but  if  a  bill, 
has  70  or  80  per  cent,  of  my  ideas  in  it  and  I  can't  get  90,  it 
will  receive  my  support,  and  I'll  take  80  per  cent.  No  interest 
of  the  city  shall  escape  my  attention.  I  am  the  only  man 
who  ever  made  a  speech  in  Congress,  booming  Toledo. 
[Laughter.]  I  don't  think  Toledo  lost  anything,  gentlemen, 
whenever  material  interests  were  at  stake  when  I  was  there. 
I  may  be  ahead  of  my  party  now,  as  I  was  in  the  old  anti-slavery 
days,  but  the  man  who  is  ahead  of  his  column,  and  falling" 
with  his  face  to  the  foe,  is  a  great  deal  better  soldier  than 
any  man  who  is  skulking  in  the  rear,  and  dropping  out  at 
the  first  opportunity.     [Applause.] 

I  have,  as  most  of  you  know,  just  returned  from  a  pleas" 
ant  sojourn  on  the  continent.  While  there  I  was  not  idle, 
and  saw  much  that  was  both  interesting  and  instructive. 
Even  the  old  ruins  taught  impressive  lessonso 

The  crumbling  castles  and  prisons,  and  monasteries,  all 
told  of  a  despotism  and  grandeur,  built  on  the  unrequited 
toil  and  suffering  and  sorrow  of  the  million,  to  gratify  the 
pride  and  selfishness,  the  vanity  and  ambition  of  the  few. 

The  press,  the  schools  and  colleges,  with  the  co-opera- 
tion of  commerce  and  steam  and  electricity,  have  abolished 
the  old  barbarism  and  changed,  let  us  hope  for  the  better,  the 
old  order  of  things.  But  the  immense  standing  armies  of 
Europe  are  eating  up  the  substance  of  the  nations,  and 
stamping  with  an  iron  hand,  submission  and  endurance  on 
the  character  of  the  people.  This  could  not  be  otherwise 
with  a  standing  army  of  3,000,000  men,  equipped  with  all  the 
modern  weapons  of  destructive  warfare  and  drilled  to  obey 
the  orders  of  their  commanders-in-chief.  Each  of  the  so- 
called  *' great  powers"  can,  on  short  notice,  transport  from 
300,000  to  1,000,000  men,  by  steam,  on  land  and  water  to  any 


—  679  — 

objective  point  within  their  dominions,  and  hurl  them  ag'ainst 
an  invading-  army  or  use  them  to  crush  any  internal  insurrec- 
tion or  rebellion.  So  formidable  are  these  great  armies,  and 
so  thoroughly  do  they  crush  out  all  freedom  of  thought  and 
action  that  they  practically  reduce  all  classes  and  conditions 
of  men  to  enforced  and  abject  silence,  and  everywhere  an 
American  recognizes  the  fact  that  even  modern  Europe  is 
old,  and  that  her  people  are  sullenly  obeying  the  bugle  call, 
and  keeping  lock-step  to  the  music  of  fife  and  drum.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

Wherever,  on  the  continent,  I  cast  my  eyes,  I  saw  that 
even  the  young  were  old  in  manner  and  speech,  and  their 
faces  wore  a  subdued  and  anxious  look,  as  if  life  was  a  serious 
struggle  with  them.  In  our  country  you  will  find  even  the 
old  young,  and  a  vivacity  in  all,  which*  is  born  of  the  fresh- 
ness and  hope  of  youth.  With  our  people  you  see  the 
elastic  step  and  stately  tread  of  vigorous  manhood,  a  condition 
which  is  the  natural  outgrowth  of  personal  liberty  and  per- 
sonal independence. 

No  intelligent  foreign  observer  who  visits  our  shores  can 
fail  to  note  the  marked  difference  in  the  characteristics  of  a 
people  who  live  under  a  government  of  forc:^  and  those  who 
live  under  a  government  of  consent.     [Applause.] 

What  wonder  then  that  on  Tuesday  last,  as  I  steamed 
up  the  magnificent  harbor  of  New  York  and  my  eyes  caught 
sight  of  the  colossal  statue  of  '*  Liberty  Enlightening  the 
World,"  and  I  saw  floating  in  the  breeze  on  every  hand  that 
banner  of  matchless  beauty,  which  symbolizes  the  dignity 
and  sovereignty  of  my  country,  that  there  should  have  welled 
up,  as  there  did,  from  my  heart  to  my  lips,  in  glad.acclaim, 
the  words  of  our  national  hymn: 

*'  My  country,  '  tis  of  thee, 
Sweet  land  of  liberty. 
Of  thee  I  sing." 

[Applause.] 

Mr.  Chairman:     There  are  before  me  to-night  those  who 
will  live  to  see  the  population  of  our  country  number  100,000- 


—  680  — 


m 


000  or  more  —  a  population  of  manly,  self-reliant,  indepen- 
dent men,  because  trained  in  the  school  of  freedom.  A  pop- 
ulation having-  a  common  language,  a  common  interest  and  a 
common  destiny;  into  whose  care  and  keeping  there  has  been 
committed  the  most  priceless  political  heritage  ever  vouch- 
safed to  man  on  earth;  and  throughout  all  our  broad  domain, 
from  hamlet  to  city,  on  river  and  lake,  from  the  summit  of 
every  wind-beaten  mountain,  and  in  the  quiet  homes  of  every 
sheltered  valley,  from  the  fragrant  shade  of  the  sweet  mag- 
nolia blossom  to  where  our  chill  north  winds  sigh  through 
the  stately  pines;  everywhere,  from  center  to  circumference 
and  from  ocean  to  ocean  there  shall  go  up  from  all  hearts  and 
all  lips  but  one  aspiration  and  that  for  the  unity  and  glory 
and  grandeur  of  the  republic;  there  shall  be  recorded  but  one 
oath,  that  of  fidelity  to  the  Constitution  and  loyalty  to  the 
flag,  and  all  national  songs  shall  be  songs  of  thanksgiving 
and  songs  of  triumph.  And  everywhere  beneath  the  nation's 
ensign  there  shall  be  heard  but  one  mai^ediction  and  but  one 

INVOCATION,  DISASTER,  DEFEAT  and  DEATH  to  him  who  DE- 
SERTS or  DISHONORS  or  betrays  that  flag,  and  i,ife  and  heai^th 
and  JOY  to  him  who  dwells  in  peace  beneath  its  radiant  folds. 
[Continuous  applause.  And  the  band  struck  up  "  America," 
as  the  vast  audience  began  to  leave  the  building.] 


NIEIVLORIAIv    ADDRKSS 

AT  Wauskon,  May,  1892. 


Mr.  President  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  Fellow- 
citizens  all:  I  need  not  tell  you  that  your  g-enerous  greeting- 
quickens  my  pulse-beats  and  stirs  my  heart  with  pleasurable 
emotions.  You  can  all  see,  without  my  telling-  you,  how  glad 
I  am  to  be  with  3^ou  to-day.  I  do  not  wish  to  disg-uise  the 
satisfaction  I  feel  at  receiving-  from  you  such  an  old-time 
welcome. 

This  occasion  recalls  to  my  mind  other  meeting's  of  a  like 
character  here  in  Fulton  County,  and  many  faces  once  well 
known  among-  you;  as  also,  the  f rag-rant  memory  of  scores  of 
g-rand  men  and  women  who  in  the  days  agone,  were  my  unself- 
ish steadfast  friends. 

Many  of  those  now  hidden  from  our  earthly  sight  were 
moral  heroes,  worthy  of  our  remembrance  and  of  honorable 
mention,  not  only  here,  but  everywhere.  In  my  heart  of 
hearts,  there  is  always  a  memorial  tribute  ready  to  be  offered 
up  to  the  memory  of  such  noble  friends  as  have  passed  from 
here  to  the  realms  beyond  the  stars. 

Mr.  President:  Kvery  memorial  service,  however  simple, 
recognizes  a  sacrifice  or  attests  a  martyr.  Every  memorial 
monument,  erected  by  voluntary  contributions  (as  was  this 
one),  is  intended  to  perpetuate  the  memory  and  the  heroism 
of  those  who  fell  either  on  the  field  or  in  the  forum  battling 
for  the  right.  Every  flower  placed  on  the  grave  of  a  dead 
hero,  or  festooned  in  wreaths  on  a  monument,  as  on  the  one 
before  us,  testifies  to  the  present  and  to  future  generations, 
how  we  honored  the  men  who  fell  and  the  cause  for  which 
they  yielded  up  their  lives. 

In  a  few  short  years  the  last  surviving  soldier  who  par- 
ticipated  in   the   great  conflict,  which  we  are  to-day   com- 

(681) 


—  682- 


I 


memoratitig",  will  have   passed  with   the  benedictions  of   a 
grateful  people,  to  the  higher  and  better  life  beyond.  | 

As  the  coming  generations  of  men  shall  pause,  as  pause 
they  will,  before  this  and  other  like  monuments,  the  question 
which  each  for  himself  will  ask,  must  be:  For  what  did 
these  men  voluntarily  offer  themselves  up  as  a  sacrifice? 
Was  the  cause  for  which  they  fought  and  fell,  a  just  cause? 
Did  it  represent  a  principle  worth  fighting  for,  and  if  need 
be  worth  dying  for?  If  the  answer  which  comes  shall  be 
such  as  the  truthful  historian  must  chronicle,  when  the  pas- 
sions and  mad  acts  which  made  the  great  rebellion  possible* 
shall  have  been  softened  or  forgotten,  the  answer  must  be, 
**that  they  did  not  die  in  vain."  The  answer  must  be 
*'that  in  their  triumph  the  God-given  right  of  every  human 
soul  to  life  and  liberty  was  affirmed,  and  the  unity  and  power 
and  glory  of  the  republic  confirmed." 


When  the  rebel  armies  surrendered,  not  all  which  might 
have  been,  nor  all  that  ought  to  have  been  demanded,  as 
security  for  the  future,  was  ever  seriously  discussed.  As 
there  was  no  thought  of  exacting  any  pecuniary  compensa- 
tion for  our  sufferings  and  sacrifice,  there  ought  to  have 
been  prescribed  such  terms  of  surrender  as  would  have  made 
another  causeless  rebellion  in  the  future  practically  impossi- 
ble. I  said  then,  and  say  now,  that  our  stipulations  for  their 
surrender  ought  to  have  been  made  clear  and  strong  and  been 
engrafted  into  our  national  Constitution,  because  if  made 
part  of  our  national  Constitution,  they  could  not  be  unjust, 
as  the  conditions  thus  prescribed  would  of  necessity  operate 
on  the  North  and  on  the  South  alike.  But,  in  our  desire  for 
peace,  in  our  anxiet}^  for  the  return  of  our  erring  brothers  to 
the  old  mansion,  we  did  not  make  the  terms  of  surrender  nor 
the  stipulations  as  to  the  future  as  clear  nor  as  far-reaching 
as  was  the  duty  of  practical  statesmen. 

The  terms  of  surrender  were  in  fact,  as  all  will  remem- 
ber, so  ambiguous  and  shadow}^  that  many  of  our  most  emi- 
nent and  trusted  statesmen  denounced  the  terms,  '  *  as  a  sur- 
render on  our  part  to  the  enemy." 

That  we  ought   to  have   made  the  terms   of    surrender 


^683  — 

broad  and  liberal,  and  as  free  from  malice,  and  as  charitable  as 
they  were,  all  concede;  but  we  oug-ht  to  have  made  the  terms 
cover  questions  which  all  thoug-htful  men  knew  must  soon 
confront  us,  and  which  are  now  confronting*  us. 

This  amiable  weakness  and  childlike  trustfulness,  how- 
ever, is  not  unnatural  nor  confined  to  this  generation.  In  . 
1812  we  went  to  war  with  Great  Britain  on  a  question  known 
as  the  **  rig-ht  of  search."  After  we  had  practically  defeated 
the  British  on  both  the  sea  and  land,  we  appointed  commis- 
sioners to  make  a  treaty  of  peace.  As  our  distinguished 
commissioners  met  the  British  officials  day  after  day,  and 
looked  into  each  other's  faces,  they  not  only  did  not  discuss 
the  question  which  had  caused  the  war,  but  when  the  treaty 
was  signed  not  a  single  stipulation  or  word  could  be  found  in 
it  about  the  **  right  of  search." 

We  did  better  at  the  close  of  our  great  rebellion,  than 
the  peace  commissioners  whom  we  sent  to  Great  Britain  in 
1814.  We  knew  that  slavery  was  the  cause  of  the  war,  and 
all  intelligent,  honest  men  frankly  said,  **As  slavery  has 
been  the  cause  of  the  war,  slavery  must  die,"  and  it  did  die. 
The  Emancipation  Proclamation  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and 
the  adoption  of  the  Thirteenth  Amendment,  made  it  impossi- 
ble forever  thereafter,  for  a  slave  to  breathe  on  any  spot  of 
God's  green  earth,  beneath  the  radiant  folds  of  our  flag  of 
stripes  and  stars. 

But  we  passed  over  and  did  not  provide  for  the  settlement 
of  important  questions  which  were  then  confronting  us,  and 
which  are  to-day  confronting  us,  questions  which  have 
menaced  our  peace  and  unity  more  than  once,  and  which  will 
continue  to  menace  it  until  they  are  honorably  adjusted  by 
the  concurrent  non-partisan  action  of  all  sections  and  all 
parties.  If  the  questions  to  which  I  refer  are  not  met  and 
satisfactorily  adjusted  by  an  amendment  to  our  national 
Constitution,  substantially  as  I  suggested  in  an  address 
before  the  Ohio  Society  of  New  York,  a  conflict  is  certain  to 
overtake  us,  which  will  culminate  in  a  civil  war  more  disas- 
trous than  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  because  it  will  be  a  parti- 
san instead  of  a  sectional  war. 

This  partisan  war,  I  fear,  will  grow  out  of  partisan  con- 
flicts incident  to  the  mode  and  manner  of  nominating  and 


—  684  — 

electing-  our  Presidents,  and  Senators  and  Representatives  in 
Congress,  unless  we  provide  ag-ainst  it  by  such  amendments 
to  our  national  Constitution  as  shall  make  such  conflicts 
impossible. 

Letter  from  Chairman  of  the  Committee,  Bishop  B.  W.  Arnett. 
The  reader  of  this  volume  will  learn,  that  both  before  and  after  the  war  of  the  re* 
bellion,  Mr.  Ashley  spoke  as  one  of  God's  own  interpreters,  and  made  plain  our  duty 
as  a  nation.  Stern  and  earnest  in  his  denunciations  of  the  g-reat'crime  of  slavery,  yet 
with  patience  and  tenderness  he  showed  us  the  Divine  in  humanity,  and  spoke  with 
the  firmness  and  forbearance  of  one  who  dwelt  in  the  courts  of  the  Lord.  Just  and 
generous,  a  clear  and  independent  thinker,  he  sought  to  plant  the  seed  of  thought  in 
others  rather  than  publish  and  claim  them  for  himself.  He  never  had  any  of  that 
narrow  selfishness  which  files  a  "caveat"  on  every  thought  that  came  to  him.  Search 
the  records,  and  nowhere,  by  speech  or  pen,  can  a  word  be  found  from  him  claiming 
special  or  exclusive  credit  for  introducing  his  bill  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  thq 
District  of  Columbia,  nor  for  having  introduced  the  first  proposition  for  amending  the 
national  Constitution  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  United  States,  and  by  his  tireless  an4 
prudent  labors,  securing  its  passage  by  Congress,  in  the  words  of  the  Thirteenth 
Amendment.  He  left  that  task  to  his  contemporaries  and  to  the  future  historian. 
Charles  Sumner,  Chief  Justice  Chase,  James  G.  Blaine  and  other  men  of  eminence 
have  publicly  recognized  and  testified  to  his  ability  and  successful  parliamentary 
work  for  the  abolition  of  slavery.  In  publishing  this  "souvenir,"  the  negro  has  built 
him  a  fitting  monument ;  but  not  out  of  the  stones  cast  at  him  in  the  dark  days  of 
slavery  by  the  enemies  of  our  race,  but  a  monument  which  contains  some  of  his  best 
and  most  effective  appeals  for  our  liberation  and  enfranchisement.  When  compiling 
this  volume,  we  were  not  without  hope,  that  in  this  form  Mr.  Ashley's  speeches  and 
orations  may  prove  to  be  for  him  a  more  enduring  monument  than  marble  or  granite. 

B.  W,  Arnett. 


MAUMEE  VALLEY  PIONEER  ASSOCIATION  CELE- 
BRATION. 


Address  of  Governor  Ashi^ey  to  the  Men  and  Women 
Who  Came  Early  to  this  Part  of  Ohio. 


FROM  THE  TOI.EDO  BI.ADE. 


Liberty  Center,  O.,  Aug-.  19.  —  At  the  reunion  of  the 
Maumee  Pioneer  Association  in  Young-'s  grove,  this  afternoon, 
after  the  election  of  officers,  mention  of  which  was  made  in 
yesterday's  Blade,  Chairman  Young-  introduced  the  speaker 
of  the  day,  Hon.  J.  M.  Ashley,  of  Toledo.  Gov.  Ashley  de- 
livered the  following-  address,  which  was  listened  to  with 
great  interest  and  appreciation  by  the  large  gathering  of 
pioneers: 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  of  the  So- 
ciety: When  honored  by  j^our  unexpected  invitation  to  ad- 
dress your  society  to-day,  I  accepted  with  pleasure. 

Of  course,  you  know,  as  I  do,  that  the  invitation  did  not 
come  to  me  because  I  was  a  pioneer,  or  the  son  of  a  pioneer. 

I  came  into  the  Maumee  Valley  long  after  the  pioneers, 
whose  deeds  you  annually  meet  to  commemorate,  had  passed 
to  another,  and  let  us  hope,  a  more  peaceful  life,  after  having 
laid  broad  and  deep  the  foundation  of  our  present  substantial 
homes  of  peace  and  plenty. 

I  assume,  therefore,  that  your  invitation  came  to  me  by 
the  partiality  of  old  friends,  who  again  wanted  to  see  and 
hear  me. 

The  desire  on  my  part  to  see  and  enjoy  the  day  with  you, 
is  evidenced  by  my  presence. 

I  regret  that  I  have  not   had  time  to  prepare  a  paper 

(685) 


—  686  — 

suitable  for  the  occasion,  and  worthy  of  preservation  by  your 
society,  but  I  could  not  do  as  I  wished,  and  must  ask  your  in- 
dulg"ence  during-  the  short  time  I  shall  detain  you. 

The  observations  I  am  about  to  make  must  be  such  as 
shall  sug-g-est  themselves  while  I  am  on  my  feet. 

I  see  you  have  with  you  here  to-day  that  modern  wonder, 
the  ubiquitous  newspaper  reporter,  so  if  I  say  anything-  worth 
recording-  you  may  be  certain  he  will  faithfully  record  it  for 
his  paper.  If,  peradventure,  I  should  make  a  mistake  in 
word,  or  a  slip  in  speech,  let  us  hope  that  like  *' Uncle  To- 
by's" recording-  angel,  he  will  drop  a  tear  on  that  part  of  his 
report,  and  blot  it  out. 

Mr.  President,  there  are  pioneers  who  conceive,  and  plan 
and  project,  and  there  are  pioneers  who  org-anize  and  com- 
mand and  execute. 

The  first  we  call  "theoretical"  pioneers,  the  second 
*'  practical "  pioneers. 

In  temperament  and  activity,  I  may  be  properly  be  classed 
with  both  the  pioneers  who  "  project"  and  the  pioneers  who 
**  execute." 

"Without  a  knowledge  that  other  men  in  other  lands  had 
conceived  substantially  the  same  idea,  I  had,  before  attaining 
my  majority,  thought  out  for  myself  and  affirmed,  *'  that  la- 
bor was  equitably  entitled  to  a  fair  proportion  of  the  wealth 
which  it  created."  Naturally  enough,  if  this  proposition  be 
admitted,  it  follows  of  necessity,  that  the  laborer  must  first 
own  himself  before  he  can  own  and  hold  any  part  of  the  prop- 
erty which  his  toil  has  produced. 

Having  thus  early  adopted  and  publicly  affirmed  this 
pioneer  proposition,  I  entered  with  vigor  and  earnestness  up- 
on a  crusade  against  the  right  of  any  man  to  own  or  hold  an- 
other as  a  slave;  which  crusade  ended  on  my  part  only  with 
the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  nation,  and  the  adoption  of 
the  Thirteenth  Amendment  to  our  national  Constitution,  pro- 
hibiting that  crime  forever. 

My  official  connection  with  that  sublime  act  of  justice 
has  secured  for  me  a  fitting  place  in  history,  and,  with  my 
record  on  that  question,  I  know  every  friend  of  freedom 
is  content. 

After  the  overthrow  of  slavery  and  the  adoption  of  the 


—  687  — 

Thirteenth,  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  amendments  to  our 
national  Constitution,  I  entered  upon  another  pioneer  cru- 
sade, or  campaign  of  reform,  one  which  seeks  to  secure 
to  the  qualified  electors  of  the  nation  the  right  to  nominate 
and  elect  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  Senators 
and  Representatives  in  Congress  by  a  direct  vote  of  the  peo- 
ple by  ballot,  and  to  substitute  for  our  present  wage-system 
a  plan  of  co-operation  with  capital  and  profit-sharing  for  la- 
bor, which,  if  adopted  and  practically  administered,  will  se- 
cure to  the  toiler  in  all  departments  of  human  industry  a  just 
and  fair  proportion  of  the  wealth  which  labor  creates. 

If  some  such  plan  as  I  propose  had  been  applied  in  their 
every-day  life,  by  our  early  pioneers,  their  hardships  would 
have  been  lessened,  their  security  for  life  and  property  would 
have  been  greater,  and  their  enjoyment  correspondingly  in- 
creased. 

It  was  only  a  short  time  ago  that  we  used  to  carry  our 
grist  to  the  water-mill  of  the  riverside,  and  grumble  then  as 
now  at  the  amount  of  toll  taken  by  the  miller.  To-day  that 
miller  is  superseded  by  one  who  turns  out  3,000  barrels  of 
flour  every  twenty-four  hours.  And  so  with  our  wagons;  in- 
stead of  being  made  by  the  builder  in  his  little  shop  at  the 
cross-roads,  they  are  now  made  in  the  great  factories  at  the 
rate  of  one  every  thirty  minutes.  We  used  to  think  that  no- 
body would  ever  have  ingenuity  enough  to  make  horse-shoe 
nails  by  machinery,  but  to-day  they  are  furnished  to  the 
blacksmith  far  cheaper,  smoother  and  stronger,  than  he  could 
ever  make  them.  Our  mothers  used  to  spin  and  weave  our 
blue-jeans  for  us,  but  to-day  we  wear  much  better  and  cheaper 
clothes  purchased  of  the  tailors  and  storekeepers. 

What  has  brought  about  thk  revolution?  I  answer,  a 
monster.  The  monster  of  iron,  steam  and  electricity.  A  mon- 
ster which  if  not  properly  controlled  will,  in  time,  be  powerful 
enough  to  crush  all  toilers.  I  have  had  some  experience  in 
practical  affairs  and  I  say  to  you  that  this  monster  if  ap- 
proached in  the  right  way  can  not  only  be  controlled,  but  can 
be  made  to  serve  our  ends.  It  must  not  be  permitted  to  get  the 
upper  hand.  We  must  harness  this  iron  monster  of  steam  and 
electricity  and  teach  it  to  do  our  bidding.     My  remedy  for  the 


—  688  — 


% 


dangfer  that  besets  us  is,  arbitration  and  co-operation.     [Ap- 
plause.] 


This  beautiful  Maumee  valley  has  never  been  appreciated 
by  our  people.  I  have  traveled  the  world  over  and  I  say  to 
you  that  we  have  no  reason  to  be  ashamed  of  our  home  val- 
ley. Mrs.  Sherwood,  in  a  poem  soon  to  be  printed,  has  de- 
scribed much  better  than  I  can  the  beautiful  Maumee.  I  will 
read  you  the  last  two  stanzas: 

"  O  river  of  the  purpling-  vine, 
O  river  of  the  corn  and  wine, 
O  river  where  the  g-olden  peach 
Hangs  luscious  on  the  pebbled  beach, 
Where  glide  the  galleys  of  the  seas 
In  laughter-laden  argosies, 
O  river,  consecrate  to  truth 
In  proud  Ohio's  royal  youth. 
Thy  deeds  are  dear  to  poesy, 
Maumee,  Maumee. 

'*  O  fair  Miami  of  the  lakes, 
For  thee,  majestic  music  wakes. 
The  splendor  of  thy  wide  estate, 
To  liberty  is  consecrate; 

To  kindlier  creeds  and  statelier  laws,  ! 

To  manlier  deeds  and  holier  cause; 
From  primal  man's  barbaric  state. 
To  truth  transfigured  and  elate; 
To  human  freedom's  high  decree, 
Maumee,  Maumee." 

[Applause.] 


Mr.  President:  As  I  look  back  and  see  moving  westward 
the  great  historic  human  panorama  of  the  ages,  beginning 
with  Columbus  on  the  sea,  and  continuing  on  this  continent 
for  four  hundred  years,  I  am  lost  in  wonder  and  admiration. 


—  689  — 

This  triumphal  movement  of  the  human  race,  on  the  sea 
and  on  the  land,  from  the  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus 
to  this  hour,  has  had  no  parallel  in  human  history. 

You  are  all  familiar  with  the  drama  of  the  early  discov- 
erers of  America,  as  on  their  ships  they  scanned  for  months 
with  anxious  gaze  the  sea  and  sky,  while  plowing*  the  un- 
known ocean;  and  you  are  still  more  familiar  with  the  drama 
of  the  early  explorers  of  this  continent,  as  with  covered 
wag-ons  and  Indian  canoes,  they  pioneered  their  way,  by 
river  and  lake,  through  unbroken  forests  and  over  formidable 
mountains,  encountering*  on  every  hand  suffering",  privation 
and  death. 

The  exodus  of  the  children  of  Israel  out  of  the  land  of 
Eg-ypt,  under  the  masterly  leadership  of  Moses,  has  for  cen- 
turies been  held  up  to  mankind  as  a  lesson  and  a  warning", 
and^rom  the  time  of  that  marvelous  deliverance  has  been  the 
theme  of  poets  and  prophets,  and  yet  the  exodus  of  the  chil- 
dren of  men,  under  Columbus,  out  of  their  European  land  of 
bondage  to  this  continent,  representing  as  it  did,  all  civilized 
races,  has  transcended  in  glory  and  grandeur,  and  in  its  far- 
reaching  and  beneficent  results  to  the  human  race,  the  exodus 
of  the  children  of  Israel  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt.  [Applause.] 
The  spirit  which  moved  and  directed  Columbus  was  im- 
planted in  the  breasts  of  all  our  early  ocean  and  continental 
pioneers. 

From  Massachusetts  Bay  to  the  capes  of  Florida,  we  first 
find  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  and  the  French.  After- 
wards the  French  pushed  their  way  up  the  St.  Lawrence 
through  Canada,  and  across  the  lakes  up  the  Miami  of  Lake 
Erie;  over  the  classic  ground  on  which  we  stand  to-day,  down 
the  Wabash  and  Ohio,  to  the  Mississippi  and  the  Gulf. 

Then  came  the  sturdy  English  stock,  to  stick  and  stay. 
They  came  from  New  England  and  New  York  to  Ohio  and 
the  Northwest,  and  following  close  after  them  came  the  great 
exploring  expeditions  of  Lewis  and  Clark,  which  crossed  the 
Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific  in  1802-3. 

Prior  to  this,  the  advanced  guard  of  Scotch-Irish  from 
Pennsylvania  had  followed  the  Monongahela  and  descended 
the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  to  New  Orleans. 
44 


—  690  — 

And  the  pioneere  from  Maryland  and  Virg-inia  had  f oug-ht 
their  way  through  mountains,  to  Kentucky  and  Tennessee, 
and  possessed  and  held  that  country. 

Thousands  of  caravans  of  covered  wagons,  with  women 
and  children,  spread  over  a  territory  on  a  line  which  reached 
north  and  south  four  hundred  miles  or  more,  and  moving,  as 
I  see  them,  like  the  waves  of  the  ocean,  substantially  abreast, 
crossed  the  Alleghenies,  descended  rivers  and  penetrated  un- 
broken forests,'  meeting  danger  and  death,  as  often,  if  not 
oftener,  than  did  the  early  pioneers  of  the  ocean. 

The  faith  and  fortitude,  the  courage  and  endurance  of 
the  men  and  women  who  pioneered  their  way  across  the  con- 
tinent, equaled,  if  it  did  not  eclipse,  that  of  the  early  ocean 
pioneers.     [Applause.] 

The  same  impelling  motive  animated  both. 

The  overland  pioneers  could  nowhere  plant  their  fla^  in 
safety,  nor  rest  in  peace,  until  they  had  silenced  in  death  the 
wild-man's  terrific  yell. 

More  caravans  were  wiped  out  in  blood  by  the  red  man 
than  were  lost  by  the  earl}^  ocean  pioneers  at  sea,  and  yet 
great  armies  on  both  the  land  and  sea  came  on  and  on,  never 
hesitating,  never  faltering. 

The  pluck  and  heroism  of  the  ocean  and  continental 
pioneers,  presents  a  sublime  spectacle,  the  contemplation  of 
which,  fills  every  manly  heart  with  patriotic  emotions. 

There  were  thousands  of  men  at  the  head  of  west-bound 
expeditions,  as  brave  and  dauntless  and  hopeful  as  Columbus; 
men  who  could  command  and  successfully  fight  great  battles; 
men  whose  steady  advance  could  not  be  stayed  by  danger, 
nor  their  purpose  defeated  by  obstacles,  however  formidable. 

Fortunate  are  we  to  be  the  descendants  of  such  a  sturdy, 
heroic  race  of  men,  and  to  be  the  possessors  of  the  priceless 
political  and  material  inheritance  which  they  created  and  be- 
queathed.     [Applause.] 

You  have  all  read  the  story  of  Columbus,  and  many  ol 
you  have  read  more  than  one  account,  as  described  by  poets 
and  historians,  of  the  manner  in  which  he  handled  and  di. 
rected  the  terrified  and  half-mutinous  officers  and  men  on  his 
ships,  that  long,  dark  night  before  he  sighted  land  in  the 
new  world. 


—  691  — 

Many  an  overland  pioneer  with  his  convoy  of  prairie 
schooners  had  a  like  experience,  and  acquitted  himself  as  gal- 
lantly.    [Applause.] 

As  his  trusted  flag-ship  plowed  the  stormy  ocean,  that 
long-  dark  night,  Columbus,  pale  and  worn,  paced  her  sea- 
washed  deck  with  faith  unshaken;  always  answering  his  re- 
bellious officers  and  crew,  when  they  demanded  that  he  turn 
back,  with  the  single  but  firm  command,  **  Sail  on.  Sail  on. 
Sail  on.     And  on." 

At  last,  in  the  early  gray  of  the  morning  his  eye  caught 
sight  of  a  speck,  and  when,  with  the  aid  of  his  glass,  he  as- 
sured himself  that  it  was  land  he  saw,  his  great  heart  and 
pent-up  spirit  broke  forth  in  joyous  triumph,  with  the  only 
words  his  lips  could  utter,  **  A  light.  Alight.  Alight.  A 
light."  And  you  and  I  know,  that  to  us  as  Americans,  out  of 
that  light,  there  grew  a  star-lit  flag  unfurled.  To  the  human 
race,  "It  grew  to  be,  Time's  burst  of  dawn."     [Applause.] 


ADDRESS 

OF  HON.  JAMES  M.  ASHLEY 


b:^for:^  the:  **  ohio  society  oe  new  york, 


At  its  Fifth   Annuai,  Banquet,   Wednesday   Evening, 
February  19,  1890. 


New  York,  February  20,  1890. 
My  Bear  Governor  Ashi^ey  : 

At  the  banquet  of  the  Ohio  Society  of  New  York  last 
evening-,  the  President  of  the  Society  was,  by  unanimous 
vote,  directed  to  ask  you  to  furnish  to  the  Society  for  publi- 
cation a  copy  of  your  admirable  paper  on  the  passag-e  throug-h 
the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  the 
Thirteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution.  In  performance 
of  this  duty,  I  beg"  leave  to  present  to  you  their  request. 

Let  me  add,  personally,  that  this  formal  expression  was 
supplemented  individually  by  every  one  of  those  present  with 
whom  it  was  my  fortune  to  converse.  I  am  sure  that  I  speak 
for  all  present  in  expressing-  my  individual  appreciation  of 
the  greatness  and  historic  value  of  that  action  of  which  you 
were  so  largely  the  inspiration,  and  in  which  you  were  the 
foremost  actor. 

Yours,  very  truly, 

"Wager  Swayne. 
Hon.  J.  M.  ASHI.EY. 

(692) 


—  693  — 


New  York,  February  21,  1890. 
Gen.  Wager  Swayne, 

President  Ohio  Society  of  New  York 
195  Broadway. 
My  Dear  Sir  : 

Herewith  please  find  copy  of  my  address  as  delivered  be- 
fore your  Society,  at  the  fifth  annual  banquet,  on  the  19th 
inst. 

It  g-ives  me  pleasure  to  comply  with  a  request  in  which 
is  conveyed  so  complimentary  an  approval  by  the  Society  and 
yourself  of  the  address. 

I  only  reg-ret  that  I  did  not  have  time  to  speak  more  in 
detail  of  the  personality  of  the  immortal  twenty-four  who 
voted  with  us,  and  thus  made  possible  the  passage  of  the 
Thirteenth  Amendment. 

Truly  yours, 

J.  M.  Ashley. 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Ohio  Society 
OE  New  York  :  The  official  acts  of  the  g-reat  actors  in  the 
conflict  of  civilization  with  the  barbarism  of  slavery,  are 
faithfully  recorded  in  the  nation's  archives,  and  open  to  the 
inspection  and  compilation  of  the  coming-  historian. 

You  will  not  expect  me  to-night  to  do  more  than  briefly 
notice  some  few  of  these  men,  with  whom  it  was  my  good 
fortune  to  be  associated  during  the  time  Congress  had  under 
consideration  the  propositions  to  abolish  slavery  at  the  nation- 
al capital  and  the  Thirteenth  Amendment. 

When  the  story  of  our  great  anti-slavery  conflict  shall 
have  been  written,  it  will  make  one  of  the  most  ideal  chap- 
ters in  our  matchless  history.  That  chapter  will  tell  the 
coming  generations  of  men  the  story  of  the  immortal  victory 
achieved  by  the  American  people  for  democratic  government 
and  an  undivided  Union  ;  a  victory  whose  far-reaching  con- 
sequences no  man  can  even  now  foresee. 

In  the  fullness  of  time,  to  every  nation  and  people  great 


—  694  — 

leaders  are  born,  and  some  one  or  more  of  these  earnest  lead- 
ers, by  the  utterance  of  a  simple  moral  truth  in  a  brief 
couplet  or  in  a  single  epigrammatic  sentence,  have  often  in 
the  world's  history  chang-ed  the  opinions  of  thousands. 

Especially  true  was  this  of  the  written  appeals   and 
public  addresses  of  the  great   anti-slavery  leaders  in  this 
country  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  before  the  re- 
bellion.    He  was  indeed  a  dull  and  insensible  man  who  dur- 
ing our  anti-slavery  crusade  did  not  grow  eloquent  and  be- 
come aggressive  when  writing  or  speaking  of  slavery  as  the 
great  crime  of  his  age  and  country.     To  me,  as  a  boy,  the 
men  who  made  up  this  vanguard  of  anti-slavery  leaders  al- 
ways appeared  to  be  exceptionally  great   men,    men   who 
walked  the  earth  with   unfaltering  faith  and  a  firm  tread, 
with  heads  erect,  so  that  their  prophetic  eyes  caught  the 
dawn  of  Freedom's  coming  morn.     They  were  brave,  strong, 
self-reliant  men,  whose  words  and  acts  all  testified  that  their 
great    hearts    *' burned  to  break  the  fetters  of  the  world." 
These  men  had  no  thought  of  witnessing  during  their  life- 
time the  triumph  of  the  cause  which  they  had  so  unselfishly 
espoused ;  they  were  tireless  and  invincible,  workers.      The 
alluring  promise  of  success  nowhere  held  out  to  them  hope 
of  political  reward.     To  an  unpopular  cause  they  gave  all 
they  had  of  time,  money  and  brains,  not  doubting  that  those 
who  should  come  after  them  would  be  able  to  command  and 
so  to  direct  the  moral  forces  of  the  nation  as  ultimately  to 
enact  justice  into  law  by  **  proclaiming  liberty  throughout 
all  the  land  to  all  the  inhabitants  thereof."     Under  this  ban- 
ner they  went  forth,  conquering  and  to  conquer,  and  in  al3 
their  impassioned  appeals  they    "sounded  forth  the  bugle 
that  never  called  retreat." 

To  have  voluntarily  enlisted  and  fought  with  this  liber- 
ating army  until  our  starry  banner  was  planted  in  triumph 
on  the  last  citadel  of  American  slavery,  is  an  honor  of  which 
the  humblest  citizen  and  his  children  may  justly  be  proud,  ar 
honor  which  will  grow  brighter  in  all  the  coming  years  of 
the  republic. 

I  was  so  young  when  I  enlisted  in  this  liberating  armj 
that  I  cannot  fix  the  date. 

At  the  home  of  a  neighbor,  a  Virginian  by  birth,  and  untr 


—  695  — 

the  close  of  his  manly  life  a  resident  of  Kentucky,  I  heard, 
with  wondering-  emotions,  the  first  song-  in  which  a  slave 
was  represented  as  appealing-  to  his  captors  for  his  freedom. 
I  was  but  nine  years  old,  but  that  song-  with  -its  story 
touched  my  heart,  and,  though  I  never  saw  it  in  print,  I 
never  forgot  it.  The  verse  of  this  song-  that  arrested  my  at- 
tention, and  remained  fixed  in  my  memory,  is  as  clear  to  me 
TO-NIGHT  as  it  was  more  than  half  a  century  ago. 

It  was  the  plaintive  appeal  of  an  escaped  slave,  in  simple 
rhyme,  such  as  slaves  often  sang-  to  tunes  with  which  all  are 
familiar  who  have  heard  the  old-fashioned  plantation  melo- 
dies. 

In  that  appeal  to  his  captors 

**He  showed  the  stripes  his  master  g-ave, 
The  branded  scars — the  sightless  eye. 
The  common  badg-es  of  a  slave. 
And  said  he  would  be  free  or  die." 

I  did  not  know  until  then  that  the  slave  master  had  the 
rig-ht  to  whip,  brand  and  maim  his  slave.  It  was  at  the 
home  of  this  venerable  anti-slavery  man  (who  made  the 
world  better  for  his  having- lived  in  it),  that  I  first  learned  this 
fact,  and  it  was  at  his  house  that  I  first  heard  repeated  many 
of  the  fiery  utterances  of  Cassius  M.  Clay,  of  Kentucky. 
After  showing-  an  appreciation  of  these  anti-slavery  senti- 
ments, I  was  frequently  lifted  on  a  chair  or  table  by  our  old 
anti-slavery  neighbor  and  taug-ht  to  declaim  from  the 
speeches  of  Cassius  M.  Clay  and  others.  I  was  so  fascinated 
by  a  parag-raph  from  a  speech  made  by  Governor  McDowell, 
of  Virg-inia,  that  it  always  g-ave  me  pleasure  to  speak  it,  as 
I  often  did,  with  such  earnestness  as  to  secure  me  as  honest 
applause  in  that  quiet  anti-slavery  household  as  any  I  ever 
commanded  on  the  platform  in  after  years. 

I  never  forg-ot  that  appeal  of  Governor  McDowell,  and 
often  used  it  after  I  grew  to  manhood,  and  quoted  it  in  one 
of  my  early  speeches  in  Congress,  as  I  again  quote  it  here : 

*'You  may  place  the  slave  where  3'ou  please,  you  may 
dry  up  to  your  uttermost  the  fountain  of  his  feelings,  the 


—  696  — 

spring's  of  his  thoug'ht,  you  may  close  upon  his  mind  every 
avenue  to  knowledge,  and  cloud  it  over  with  artificial  night, 
you  may  yoke  him  to  labor  as  an  ox — which  liveth  only  to 
work,  and  worketh  only  to  live  ;  you  may  put  him  under  any 
process  which  without  destroying-  his  value  as  a  slave,  will 
debase  and  crush  him  as  a  rational  being* — you  may  do  all 
this  ;  and  yet,  the  idea  that  he  was  born  free  will  survive  it 
all.  It  is  allied  to  his  hope  of  immortality — it  is  the  eternal 
part  of  his  nature  which  oppression  cannot  reach.  It  is  a 
torch  lit  up  in  his  soul  by  the  hand  of  Deity,  and  never 
meant  to  be  extinguished  by  the  hand  of  man." 

I  speak  of  these  seemingly  unimportant  incidents  of  my 
boyhood  to  confirm  what  I  said  in  opening,  touching  the  in- 
fluence which  one  brave,  truthful  man  can  exercise  over  thou- 
sands, and  to  illustrate  the  tremendous  power  a  single  thought 
may  often  have  over  the  acts  and  lives  of  reader  and  hearer. 

From  my  ninth  to  my  thirteenth  year  my  father  v/as 
preaching  on  a  circuit  in  the  border  counties  of  Kentucky 
and  West  Virginia,  and  afterwards  in  Southeastern  Ohio. 
During  our  residence  in  Kentucky  and  West  Virginia  I  did 
not  know  a  single  abolitionist  except  the  family  which  I  have 
described,  and  not  until  I  was  in  my  seventeenth  year  did  I 
meet  and  become  acquainted  with  Cassius  M.  Clay  and  John 
G.  Fee.  Some  time  afterwards  I  met  James  G.  Burney,  who 
became  the  abolition  candidate  for  President  in  1844. 

The  leaders  of  the  church  to  which  my  father  belonged, 
and,  indeed,  the  leaders  in  all  Southern  churches  in  those 
days,  publicly  affirmed  "that  slavery  per  sk  could  exist 
without  sin,"  a  doctrine  which  I  regarded  then,  as  I  do  now, 
as  a  perversion  of  the  teachings  of  Christ.  It  has  always 
been  a  source  of  satisfaction  to  me  that  my  mother,  who  was 
a  conservative  woman,  never  gave  in  her  adhesion  to  this 
rascally  defense  of  "the  sum  of  villainies." 

At  that  time,  in  all  the  border  counties  of  Kentucky, 
slavery  existed  in  a  milder  form  than  in  any  other  part  of  the 
Southwest,  and  the  slave  owners  whom  I  knew  were  much 
better  men  than  one  would  in  this  day  believe  possible  under 
any  slave  system. 

And  yet  the  system  in  its  practical  working  was  so  mon- 
strous that  before  I  had  grown  to  manhood  I  had  publicly 
pronounced  against   it,    and,    as   many   before  me  know,    I 


—  697- 

foug-ht   it  with  an  energy  which   never  tired,  and  a   faith 
which  never  faltered. 

While  entertaining-  the  anti-slavery  opinions  of  Jefferson 
and  the  men  of  1776,  and  everywhere  proclaiming  them 
without  concealment,  I  was  elected  to  Congress  in  1858,  when 
in  my  thirt3'-fourth  year,  and  for  the  first  time  took  my  seat 
in  a  deliberative  body  in  the  Thirty-sixth  Congress,  during" 
the  administration  of  Mr.  Buchanan. 

At  that  time  the  pro-slavery  conspirators  were  preparing- 
for  armed  rebellion,  and  for  the  desperate  attempt,  which 
they  soon  made,  to  establish  a  slave  empire  on  the  ruins  of 
the  republic. 

There  I  met  many  anti-slavery  leaders  of  age  and  expe- 
rience, to  whose  ranks  I  was  eagerly  welcomed. 

I  entered  upon  the  straight  and  narrow  path  that  led  to 
victory.  I  faltered  but  once.  That  was  on  the  vote  on  the 
Crittenden  Resolution  in  July,  1861.  The  vote  was  117  yeas  ; 
noes,  2 — Mr.  Potter  of  Wisconsin  and  Mr.  Riddle  of  Ohio 
voting-  No. 

I  had  been  appealed  to  by  almost  every  public  man  of  my 
acquaintance  in  Washing'ton  and  by  my  personal  and  political 
friends  to  vote  for  the  resolution,  and  not  assume  the  respon- 
sibility of  separating-  myself  at  such  a  time  and  on  so  im- 
portant a  matter  from  my  party.  When  my  name  was  called 
I  shook  my  head,  as  was  then  the  custom ;  my  name  was 
called  the  second  time,  and  I  again  shook  my  head,  the  blush 
of  shame  tingling  my  face,  as  it  has  every  time  I  have 
thought  of  that  act  or  looked  at  the  record  since  and  read, 
*'  Not  voting,  J.  M.  Ashley."  I  never  felt  the  sense  of  shame 
so  keenly  before  nor  since ;  and  turning  to  Mr.  Corwin,  my 
venerable  colleag-ue,  as  the  vote  was  announced,  I  said,  with 
emotion,  *' Governor,  that  is  the  most  cowardly  act  of  my 
life,  and  no  power  on  earth  shall  again  make  me  repeat  it.'* 
*'Why,  General,"  he  exclaimed,  with  evident  warmth,  **I 
VOTED  FOR  IT."  I  saw  that  I  had,  in  the  excitement  of  the 
moment,  offended  him,  and  I  made  haste  to  assure  him  that 
I  intended  nothing  of  the  sort,  as  all  would  have  done  who 
had  offended  so  lovable,  companionable  and  just  a  man  as 
Governor  Corwin.  I  promptly  extended  my  hand  and  said, 
**  Yes,  Governor,  but  you  do  not  see  things  as  I  do."     I  need 


—  698 


n 


hardly  add  that  after  this  I  did  not  ag-ain  refuse  to  vote  on  any 
question,  nor  did  I,  during-  my  entire  service,  give  a  sing-le 
vote  that  to-night  I  would  change. 

Great  occasions  produce  great  men.  The  State  of  Ohio 
furnished  her  full  quota  for  the  crisis  of  1861  : 

Joshua  R.  Giddings,  the  leader  of  the  *'old  guard,  one 
blast  upon  whose  bugle  horn  was  worth  a  thousand  men." 

Salmon  P.  Chase,  Senator,  Governor,  Cabinet  Minister 
and  Chief  Justice,  who  ranked  next  to  Lincoln  in  leadership. 

Thomas  Ewing,  profound  statesman,  great  lawyer,  and 
Cabinet  Minister  under  General  Harrison  in  1841. 

Edwin  M.  Stanton,  the  great  War  Secretary,  earnest, 
fearless,  tireless. 

Judge  McLean,  the  ideal  Judge,  representing  on  the 
bench  the  coming  civilization,  the  writer  of  the  dissenting 
opinion  in  the  Dred  Scott  case. 

Judge  Swayne,  judicial,  conscientious,  a  great  worker 
and  the  early  friend  and  confidant  of  Lincoln. 

Benjamin  F.  Wade,  bluff,  positive,  ready  to  meet  the 
enemy  in  the  field  or  forum. 

John  Sherman,  keen,  politic,  far-sighted  and  successful. 

In  the  House — Thomas  Corwin,  Delano,  Bingham,  Law- 
rence, Hutchins,  Spaulding,  Schellaberger,  Schenck,  Hayes 
and  Garfield. 

Our  War  Governors,  Dennison,  Todd  and  Brough,  un- 
equaled  as  organizers  and  in  administrative  power. 

On  the  Democratic  side  there  were  Senator  Thurman 
and  Representatives  Vallandigham,  Pendleton,  Cox  and 
Morgan,  with  many  able  men  in  private  life,  who  were  active 
in  demanding  our  "authority  and  precedents"  for  all  we 
proposed,  and  much  that  we  did  for  which  we  had  no  "  prec- 
edent, "li 

In  the  army  Ohio  eclipsed  the  world.  That  wonderful 
triumvirate  of  commanders.  Grant,  Sherman  and  Sheridan, 
were  without  models  and  without  equals.  And  then  we  had 
McPherson,  Garfield,  Steedman,  Swayne,  Cox  and  Buckland, 
and  hundreds  besides,  who,  on  the  field  and  in  the  forum, 
made  the  name  of  Ohio  everywhere  synonymous  with  great 
deeds  and  heroic  acts. 


—  699  — 

In  such   a  cause,  with  such  leaders,  success  was  foreor- 
dained. 

When  the  official  records  of  Congress  during-  the  adminis- 
tration of  Mr.  Buchanan  are  examined  by  the  historian  of 
the  future,  and  the  so-called  compromise  proposition  of  the 
Union-saving-  committee  of    thirty-three  (of  which  Charles 
Francis  Adams  of  Massachusetts  was  chairman)  is  compared 
with  the  Thirteenth  Amendment,  which  three  years  later 
became  part  of  our  national  Constitution,  it  will  be  difficult 
for  him  to  find  reasons  for  the  extraordinary  revolution  in 
public  opinion  which  these  two  proposed  amendments  to  our 
national  Constitution  present.     And  here  I  wish  I  could  walk 
backward  with  averted  gaze,  and  with  the  broad  mantle  of 
charity  cover  the    political  nakedness  of  our  own  beloved 
State,  which,  by  the  vote  of  its  Legislature,  committed  the 
indefensible   folly   of  ratifying  the  pro-slavery   amendment 
proposed  by  the  committee  of  thirty-three,  and  thus  officially 
consented  to  its  becoming  part  of  our  national  Constitution. 

To  me  the  propositions  of  the  so-called  "Peace  Con- 
gress, over  which  ex-President  John  Tyler,  of  Virginia,  pre- 
sided, were  preposterous  and  offensive,  and  the  *'  pledge"  of 
the  *' Crittenden  Resolution"  a  delusion  and  a  snare,  cun- 
ningly designed  to  paralyze  and  manacle  us. 

Every  sane  man  who  to-day  reads  the  numerous  proposed 
constitutional  amendments  with  which  Congress  at  that  time 
was  deluged,  will  recognize  the  fact  that  the}'  were  all  stu- 
diously and  deliberately  prepared  for  the  avowed  purpose  of 
protecting  slavery  by  new  and  more  exacting  guarantees. 

This  celebrated  Compromise  Committee  of  thirty-three 
reported  and  recommended  an  amendment  which  practically 
made  slavery  perpetual. 

It  was  in  these  words  : 

*'  Artici^k  12th.  No  amendments  shall  be  made  to  the 
Constitution  which  shall  authorize  or  give  Congress  the 
power  to  abolish  or  interfere  within  any  State  with  the  do- 
mestic institutions  thereof,  including  that  of  persons  held  to 
labor  or  service  by  the  laws  of  such  State." 

Imagine,  if  you  can,  what  the  other  propositions  were, 
if  THIS  was  the  most  favorable  which  the  Compromise  Com- 
mittee of  thirty-three  could  obtain  for  us. 


—  700  — 

Two  days  before  Mr.  Lincoln's  inaug-uration,  this  abase- 
ment  was  made  to  the  slave  barons  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of 
both  Houses  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
act  was  approved  by  President  Buchanan. 

I  do  not  believe  a  more  shameless  exhibition  on  the  part 
of  a  civilized  people  can  be  found  in  history. 

Prior  to  this  proposed  surrender  to  the  slave  barons,  a 
number  of  the  Southern  States  had  passed  ordinances  of  se- 
cession, and  defiantly  organized  a  government,  with  Jefferson 
Davis  as  President. 

That  such  humiliating  concessions  were  as  defenseless 
then  as  they  would  be  now,  and  as  offensive  to  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  nineteenth  century,  will  not  be  questioned. 

The  nation  had  not  then  learned  that  the  strength  of  a 
statesman  lies  in  his  fidelity  to  justice — not  in  his  concessions 
to  injustice. 

Our  official  records,  for  nearly  half  a  century  before  the 
Rebellion,  presented  one  unbroken  series  of  fruitless  compro- 
mises with  the  slave  barons,  until  in  their  pride  and  arro- 
gance they  believed  themselves  able  to  direct  successfully  any 
revolution  and  ride  with  safety  any  storm. 

At  last  we  came  to  know  that  all  our  concessions  were 
regarded  by  them  as  irrevocable  ;  that  nothing  but  new  con- 
cessions would  be  accepted  by  them,  and  that  they  would 
only  consent  to  remain  in  the  Union  on  the  express  condition 
that  we  should  bind  ourselves  for  all  time  to  record  their  pro- 
slavery  decrees  in  every  department  of  the  national  and  State 
governments. 

The  rebels  witnessed  our  efforts  at  an  adjustment  with 
shouts  of  derision  and  defiance,  and  said,  '*Now  we  have 
the  Yankees  on  a  down  grade,  and  on  the  run." 

They  learned  afterwards  to  their  sorrow  that,  however 
true  this  might  have  been  under  the  leadership  of  Buchanan, 
it  was  no  longer  true  under  the  leadership  of  Lincoln.  Yet, 
alas !  it  is  true,  that  immediately  after  the  election  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  and  before  his  inauguarion,  many  men  who  had 
been  active  anti-slavery  men  quailed  before  the  approaching 
storm,  which  their  own  brave  appeals  for  liberty  had  aided 
in  producing. 

They  comprehended  what  civil  war,  with  all  its  attend- 


—  701  — 

ant  horrors,  meant  to  a  civilized  people,  and  shrank  from  its 
terrible  consequences,  and  as  the  acts  of  their  representatives 
proved,  they  were  willing-  to  do  everything*  in  their  power  to 
avoid  it.  These  timid  anti-slavery  men  were  representatives 
of  the  wealth,  the  manufacturing-  industry,  the  commerce, 
the  peaceful  farm-life  of  the  North  and  West,  and  the  best 
civilization  of  the  ag-e.  They  were  for  peace  ;  they  believed 
in  an  appeal  to  the  conscience  and  heart  of  the  nation,  at  the 
ballot-box,  and  in  loyally  submitting-  to  the  verdict  when 
rendered.  They  never  would  have  appealed  from  the  ballot- 
box  to  the  cartridg-e-box.  The  great  heart  of  the  North  was 
still,  and  for  a  time  held  its  breath,  while  re-echoing-  with 
hope  the  sentiment  of  their  beloved  Quaker  Poet,  when,  just 
before  the  Rebellion,  he  uttered  this  sublime  prayer  : 


*'  Perish  with  him  the  thoug-ht. 
That  seeks,  throug-h  evil,  g-ood ; 
Long-  live  the  g-enerous  purpose 
Unstained  by  human  blood." 

While  I  did  not  adopt,  without  qualification,  the  mem- 
orable utterances  of  Daniel  O'Connell,  the  g-reat  Irish  leader, 
when  he  declared  ''that  no  revolution  was  worth  the  shed- 
ding- of  one  drop  of  human  blood,"  I  everywhere  proclaimed 
**that  in  this  country,  so  long-  as  the  press  was  free  and 
speech  was  free,  and  the  ballot  was  free,  no  revolution  was 
worth  the  shedding-  of  one  drop  of  human  blood." 

The  speeches,  appeals  and  acts  of  the  leaders  of  the  two 
sections  were  entirely  characteristic. 

The  Southern  leaders,  instead  of  quailing-  before  the 
storm  which  their  passionate  appeals  had  raised,  defiantly 
mounted  and  rode  the  storm,  fit  types  of  the  barbarism  which 
they  championed. 

When  the  North,  with  the  loyal  men  of  the  border  States, 
fully  comprehended  the  fact  that  there  could  be  no  peace  nor 
Union  unless  the  Rebellion  was  suppressed  by  force,  and 
slavery,  which  made  the  Rebellion  possible,  was  abolished, 
they  buckled  on  their  armor  and  went  forth  to  conquer. 

During  the  first  session  of  Congress,  after  Mr.  Lincoln 


—  702  — 

became  President,  I  introduced  a  bill  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  It  contained  but  one 
short  section,  and  simply  enacted  "that  slavery,  or  involun- 
tary servitude,  should  cease  in  the  District  of  Columbia  from 
and  after  the  passag-e  of  this  act."  I  sent  it  to  the  Commit- 
tee on  the  District  of  Columbia,  of  which  I  was  a  member, 
and  Roscoe  Conkling,  of  New  York,  was  chairman.  When 
the  bill  was  read  in  the  District  Committee,  it  was  by  com- 
mon consent  referred  to  me,  as  a  sub-committee  of  one.  The 
excitement  and  indig-nation  which  that  bill  caused  in  the 
District  Committee,  and  the  undisg-uised  disg-ust  entertained 
for  me  personally  by  the  pro-slavery  members  of  the  commit- 
tee, would  be  amusing-  now,  but  it  was  a  matter  of  serious 
moment  then. 

I  felt  certain  that  a  majority  of  that  committee  did  not 
intend  to  let  me  report  that  bill  or  any  other  of  like  character 
to  the  House  for  a  vote.  As  soon  as  it  was  known  that  I  had 
the  matter  in  charge,  by  direction  of  the  District  Committee 
Mr.  Chase  sent  for  me,  and  discussed  the  proposition  which 
I  had  introduced,  and  suggested  instead,  a  bill  which  should 
compensate  the  "loyal  slave  owners"  by  paying  them  a 
"  ransom,"  which  should  not  exceed  three  hundred  dollars  a 
head  for  each  slave,  and  enforced  his  argument  by  adding 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  seriously  considering  the  practica- 
bility of  compensating  the  border  States  if  they  would  take 
the  initiative  and  emancipate  their  slaves,  and  he  added,  "I 
want  you  to  see  the  President,  and  if  possible  prepare  a  bill 
which  will  command  the  necessary  votes  of  both  Houses  of 
Congress  and  the  active  support  of  the  Administration." 

I  saw  the  President  next  day  and  went  over  the  ground 
with  him,  substantially  as  I  had  with  Mr.  Chase,  and  finally 
agreed  that  I  would  ask  for  the  appointment  of  a  Senator  on 
the  part  of  the  Senate  District  Committee  to  unite  with  mc 
to  frame  a  bill,  which  the  Senate  and  House  committees 
would  report  favorably,  and  which  should  have  the  President's 
approval,  and  the  support  of  as  many  of  the  Resresentatives 
from  the  border  States  as  we  could  induce  to  vote  to  "  initiate 
emancipation,"  as  Mr.  Lincoln  expressed  it. 

Fortunately  for  the  success  of  the  compensation  policy, 
the  Senate  District  Committee  desisfnated  as  that  sub-corn 


—  703— 

mittee-man,  Lot  M.  Morrell,  of  Maine,  to  confer  with  me  and 
prepare  such  a  bill  as  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Chase  had  outlined. 

After  several  meetings  a  bill  was  finally  agreed  upon 
which  appropriated  one  million  dollars  to  pay  loyal  owners 
for  their  slaves  at  a  price  not  to  exceed  $300  each. 

This  bill  had  the  approval  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Chase  and 
other  anti-slavery  leaders,  before  it  was  submitted  to  the 
District  Committees  for  their  action  and  recommendation  to 
each  House  of  Congress. 

Personally,  I  did  not  agree  with  Mr.  Lincoln  in  his 
border  State  policy,  but  was  unwilling  to  set  up  my  judg- 
ment against  his,  especially  when  he  was  supported  by  such 
men  as  Chase,  Fessenden,  Trumbull,  and  a  large  majority  of 
Union  men  in  both  Houses  of  Congress.  I  therefore  yielded 
my  private  opinions  on  a  matter  of  policy,  for  reasons  which 
I  then  gave  and  will  presently  quote,  and  because  I  was 
determined  that  that  Congress  should  not  adjourn  until 
slavery  had  been  abolished  at  the  national  capital. 

I  did  not  want  to  appropriate  a  million  of  dollars  from 
the  national  Treasury  to  pay  the  slave  owners  of  the  District 
of  Columbia  for  their  slaves,  because  I  was  opposed  to  offi- 
cially recognizing  property  in  man,  and  for  the  additional 
reason  that  I  was  confident  that  before  the  close  of  the  war 
slavery  would  be  abolished  without  compensation.  And  I 
believed  then,  and  believe  now,  that  at  least  two-thirds  of  all 
the  so-called  **  loyal  slave  owners  "  in  the  District  of  Columbia 
who  applied  for  and  accepted  compensation  for  their  slaves, 
would  at  that  time  have  welcomed  Jefferson  Davis  and  his 
government  in  Washington  with  every  demonstration  of  joy. 

On  the  12th  of  March,  1862,  by  direction  of  the  Com- 
mittee for  the  District  of  Columbia,  I  reported  the  bill  to  the 
House  as  it  had  been  agreed  upon  by  Mr.  Morrell  and  my- 
self, with  the  approval  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  Mr.  Chase  and 
others. 

On  the  11th  of  April,  1862,  the  bill,  as  amended  by  the 
Senate,  passed  the  House  by  a  vote  of  92  for  to  38  against, 
and  at  once  received  the  signature  of  the  President. 

In  the  speech  which  I  delivered  that  day  I  said:  *'I  do 
not  believe  that  Congress  has  any  more  power  to  make  a 
slave  than  to  make  a  king,"  and  added,  "If  then  there  is, 


n 


704  — 


as  I  claim,  no  power  in  Congress  to  reduce  any  man  or  race 
to  slavery,  it  certainly  will  not  be  claimed  that  Congress  has 
power  to  leg-alize  such  regulations  as  exist  to-day  touching- 
persons  held  as  slaves  in  this  District  by  re-enacting- the  slave 
laws  of  Maryland,  and  thus  do  by  indirection  what  no  sane 
man  claims  authority  to  do  directly.  .  .  .  If  I  must  tax  the  loyal 
people  of  the  nation  a  million  of  dollars  before  the  slaves  at 
the  national  capital  can  be  ransomed  I  will  do  it.  I  will 
make  a  bridg-e  of  gold  over  which  they  may  pass  to  freedom 
on  the  anniversary  of  the  fall  of  Sumter,  if  it  cannot  be  more 
justly  accomplished." 

As  the  nation  had  been  guilty  of  riveting  the  chains  of 
all  the  slaves  in  the  District,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Chase, 
and  so  large  a  majority  of  the  friends  of  the  Union  desired 
the  passage  of  this  act,  believing  that  it  would  aid  them  in 
holding  the  border  s^ave  States,  I  yielded  my  own  opinions, 
and  voted  to  pay  the  loyal  owners  of  the  District  for  their 
slaves  and  thus  aided  Mr.  Lincoln  in  initiating  emancipation 
by  compensation.  But  events  were  stronger  than  men  or 
measures,  and  this  was  the  first  and  last  of  compensation. 

On  the  14th  of  December,  1863, 1  introduced  a  proposition 
to  amend  the  Constitution,  abolishing  slavery  in  all  the 
States  and  Territories  of  the  nation,  which,  on  my  motion, 
was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary.  In  a  speech 
during  that  session  of  Congress  urging  the  submission  of  such 
an  amendment,  I  said:  *'I  advocated  from  the  first  the 
emancipation  of  all  slaves,  because  I  believed  ideas  more 
formidable  than  armies,  justice  more  powerful  than  prejudice, 
and  truth  a  weapon  mightier  than  the  sword." 

The  fall  of  Vicksburg  and  the  great  victory  of  Gettys- 
burg had  solidified  the  Union  men  North  and  South,  and 
assured  them  of  ultimate  success. 

The  crushing  defeat  of  Hood  at  Nashville  by  Thomas, 
the  investment  of  Richmond  by  Grant,  and  Sherman's  trium- 
phant march  from  the  mountains  to  the  sea,  was  an  announce- 
ment to  the  world  that  all  armed  opposition  to  the  govern- 
ment was  approaching  its  end. 

It  now  only  remained,  that  the  statesmen  who  had 
provided  for  and  organized  our  great  armies  should  crown 
their  matchless  victories  with  unfading  glory,  by  engrafting 


—  705  — 

into  our  national  Constitution  a  provision  which  should  make 
peace  and  union  inseparable  by  removing"  forever  the  cause  of 
the  war,  and  making*  slavery  everywhere  impossible  beneath 
the  flag-  of  the  republic. 

On  the  15th  of  June,  1864,  the  House  voted  on  the  pro- 
posed constitutional  amendment,  and  it  was  defeated  by  a 
vote  of  94  for  it  and  64  ag-ainst  it.  I  thereupon  chang-ed  my 
vote  before  the  announcement  was  made,  as  I  had  the  rig-ht 
to  do  under  the  rules,  and  my  vote  was  recorded  with  the 
opposition  in  order  that  I  mig-ht  enter  a  motion  for  recon- 
sideration. 

In  the  Globe,  as  the  vote  stands  recorded,  it  is  93  for  to 
65  ag-ainst.  This  vote  disappointed,  but  it  did  not  discourag-e 
tne.  Had  every  member  been  present  and  voted,  it  would 
have  required  122  votes  to  pass  the  amendment,. whereas  we 
could  muster  but  94,  or  28  less  than  required. 

As  I  now  look  back,  and  review  with  calmer  emotions 
than  I  did  then  the  g-reat  battle  we  were  fighting-,  I  compre- 
hend more  fully  the  power  of  that  simple  and  sublime  faith 
which  inspired  all  the  living-  heroes  in  that  historic  hour. 

In  his  *' Twenty  Years  of  Cong-ress"  Mr.  Blaine  has 
given  me  credit,  in  full  measure,  for  introducing  and  pressing 
the  first  proposition  made  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  United  States  by  an  amend- 
ment of  the  national  Constitution,  and  for  effective  parlia- 
mentary work  in  securing  its  passage.  Personally,  I  never 
regarded  the  work  which  I  then  did  as  entitling  me  to  special 
recognition.  It  was  to  me  a  duty,  and  because  I  so  felt,  I 
have  never  publicly  written  or  spoken  about  my  connection 
with  it,  and  should  not  have  done  so  before  you  to-night  but 
for  the  pressing  invitation  of  our  President,  who  acts  as  if 
he  regarded  it  as  part  of  his  duty,  while  charged  with  the 
care  of  this  Society,  to  bring  every  modest  Ohio  man  to  the 
front. 

There  was  at  that  time  so  many  noble  and  unselfish  men 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  entitled  to  recognition  for 
effective  work  in  behalf  of  the  Thirteenth  Amendment,  that 
I  have  preferred  not  to  single  out  any  one  member  as  entitled 
to  more  credit  than  another.  I  certainly  did  not  expect  any 
45 


—  706  — 

such  complimentary  recog-nition  as  Mr.  Blaine  has  so  g-ener- 
ously  g-iven  me. 

Educated  in  the  political  school  of  Jefferson,  I  was  abso- 
lutely amazed  at  the  solid  Democratic  vote  ag-ainst  the  amend- 
ment on  the  15th  of  June.  To  me  it  looked  as  if  the  golden 
hour  had  come,  when  the  Democratic  party  could,  without 
apology,  and  without  regret,  emancipate  itself  from  the  fatal 
dogmas  of  Calhoun,  and  reaffirm  the  doctrines  of  Jefferson. 
It  had  always  seemed  to  me  that  the  great  men  in  the  Demo- 
cratic party  had  shown  a  broader  spirit  in  favor  of  human 
liberty  than  their  political  opponents,  and  until  the  domina- 
tion of  Mr.  Calhoun  and  his  States-rights  disciples,  this  was 
undoubtedly  true.  On  the  death  of  General  Harrison  in 
1841,  and  after  John  Tyler  became  the  acting  President,  I 
date  the  organized  conspiracy  of  the  slave  barons,  which 
culminated  in  the  Rebellion. 

A  man  of  singleness  of  purpose  and  disinterestedness, 
possesses  a  wonderful  power,  which  is  soon  recognized  by  his 
associates  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  The  lead- 
ing men  in  both  Senate  and  House,  and  in  nearly  all  the  exec- 
utive departments,  knew  that  my  only  ambition  was  to 
accomplish  the  task  with  which  (as  Mr.  Blaine  expresses  it) 
I  was  "by  common  consent,  specially  charged."  The  only 
reward  I  expected,  and  the  only  reward  I  ever  had,  or  shall 
ever  have,  is  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  I  did  my  whole 
duty,  nothing  more,  nothing  less.  I  at  once  gave  special 
care  to  the  study  of  the  characters  and  antecedents  of  thirty- 
six  of  the  members  who  did  not  vote  for  the  amendment  on 
the  15th  of  June,  and  made  up  my  mind  that  if  we  could 
force  the  issue  of  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  into  the  pend- 
ing presidential  contest,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  should  be  elected 
in  November,  that  the  requisite  number  of  liberal  Democrats 
and  border  State  Union  men  who  had  voted  against  and 
defeated  the  amendment  in  June  might  be  prevailed  upon  to 
vote  with  us  after  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  re-elected  on  that 
issue.  In  this  faith,  and  with  this  hope,  I  at  once  began  a 
systematic  study  of  the  characters  of  the  men  whose  co- 
operation and  votes  must  be  secured  as  a  condition  to  success. 

During  this  six  months'  experience  I  learned  something 
of  the  tremendous  power  of  the  single  man  when   making 


—  707  — 

earnest  appeals  to  his  colleag*ues.  One  source  of  ever  present 
embarrassment  to  me  was  the  fact  that  I  had  but  little  expe- 
rience in  legislation,  and  that  nearly  every  one  of  my  col- 
leagues to  whom  I  was  addressing"  myself  was  my  senior  in 
years.  In  this  great  work  I  had  the  earnest  support  of  the 
Administration,  the  great  majority  of  the  Republican  party, 
and  many  earnest  men  in  public  and  private  life. 

On  the  28th  of  June,  1864,  Mr.  Holman,  of  Indiana,  rose 
in  the  House,  and  said  '*  that  he  desired  to  know  whether 
the  gentleman  from  Ohio  ^Mr.  Ashley)  who  entered  the  mo- 
tion to  reconsider  the  vote  by  which  the  House  rejected  the 
bill  proposing  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  abolishing 
slavery  throughout  all  the  States  and  Territories  of  the 
United  States,  proposed  to  call  that  motion  up  during  the 
present  session."  In  reply,  I  said  that  I  did  not  propose  to 
call  that  motion  up  during  the  present  session  ;  **  but  as  the 
record  had  been  made  up,  we  would  go  to  the  country  on  the 
issue  thus  presented."  And  I  added;  '*  When  the  verdict  of 
the  people  shall  have  been  rendered  next  November,  I  trust 
this  Congress  will  return  determined  to  engraft  that  verdict 
into  the  national  Constitution."  I  thereupon  gave  notice 
that  I  would  call  up  the  proposition  at  the  earliest  possible 
moment  after  our  meeting  in  December  next  (see  Gi.obe, 
June  28th,  1864). 

Immediately  after  giving  this  notice,  I  went  to  work  to 
secure  its  passage,  and  it  may  not  be  uninteresting  if  I  out- 
line to  you  the  way  I  conducted  that  campaign. 

The  question  thus  presented  became  one  of  the  leading 
issues  of  the  presidential  campaign  of  1864. 

The  Administration — the  Republican  party — and  many 
men  who  were  not  partisans,  now  gave  the  measure  their 
warm  support. 

Knowing  that  Henry  Winter  Davis,  of  Maryland,  and 
Frank  P.  Blair,  of  Missouri,  would  vote  for  the  amendment 
whenever  their  votes  would  secure  its  passage,  I  went  to  them 
to  learn  who  of  the  border-State  members  were  men  of  broad 
and  liberal  views,  and  strong  and  self-reliant  enough  to  fol- 
low their  convictions,  even  to  political  death,  provided  they 
could  know  that  their  votes  would  pass  the  measure. 

The   following  is  the  list  of  the  names  of  the  border- 


—  708  — 

State  men,  as  made  up  within  two  weeks  after  the  defeat  of 
the  amendment,  in  June,  1864  :  James  S.  Rollins,  Henry  S. 
Blow,  Benjamin  F.  Loan,  ex-Gov.  King,  S.  H.  Boyd,  Frank 
P.  Blair  and  Joseph  W.  McClurg-  of  Missouri  ;  Green  Clay 
Smith,  Georg-e  H.  Yeaman,  Brutus  J.  Clay  and  Lucius  Ander- 
son of  Kentucky ;  John  A.  J.  Cresswell,  Gov.  Francis 
Thomas,  E.  H.  Webster  and  Henry  Winter  Davis  of  Mary- 
land ;  Kellian  V.  Whaley,  Jacob  P.  Blair  and  William  G. 
Brown  of  West  Virginia,  and  N.  B.  Smithers  of  Delaware. 
Of  the  19  thus  selected  13  voted  for  the  amendment,  and 
marched  to  their  political  death. 

After  conferring-  with  Reuben  E.  Fenton  and  Aug-ustus 
Frank  of  New  York,  I  made  up  the  following-  list  of  liberal 
Northern  Democrats,  whose  votes  I  hoped  to  secure  for  the 
amendment : 

Moses  F.  Odell,  Homer  A.  "Nelson,  John  A.  Griswold, 
Anson  Herrick,  John  B.  Steele,  Charles  F.  Winfield,  William 
Radford  and  John  Ganson,  of  New  York ;  S.  S.  Cox,  Warren 
P.  Noble,  Wells  A.  Hutchins,  John  F.  McKenney  and  Fran- 
cis C.  LeBlond  of  Ohio  ;  Archibald  McAllister  and  Alex.  H. 
Coifroth  of  Pennsylvania  ;  James  E.  Eng-lish  of  Connecticut, 
and  Augustus  C.  Baldwin  of  Michigan. 

Of  the  17  Northern  Democrats  thus  selected,  eleven 
voted  for  the  amendment,  two  were  absent,  and  one  who  had 
promised  me  to  vote  for  it  and  prepared  a  speech  in  its  favor, 
finally  voted  against.  Of  the  36  members  originally  selected 
as  men  naturally  inclined  to  favor  the  amendment,  and  strong 
enough  to  meet  and  repel  the  fierce  partisan  attack  which 
were  certain  to  be  made  upon  them,  24  voted  for  it,  two  were 
absent,  and  but  tkn  voted  against  it. 

Every  honorable  effort  was  made  by  the  Administration 
to  secure  the  passage  of  this  amendment. 

At  my  request  Tuesday,  January  31,  1865,  was  the  day 
fixed  for  the  vote  to  be  taken  on  the  amendment. 

A  faithful  record  of  the  final  act  of  the  38th  Congress 
on  this  question  will  be  found  on  pages  523  to  531  of  the 
Congressional  Globe. 

The  Speaker  stated  the  question,  and  announced  *'Thai 
the  gentleman  from  Ohio  was  entitled  to  the  floor,"  which 


—  70^)~ 

under  the  rules  gave  me   one   hour  in  which  to   close   the 
debate. 

Never  before,  and  certain  I  am  that  never  again,  will  I 
be  seized  with  so  strong*  a  desire  to  give  utterance  to  the 
thoughts  and  emotions  which  throbbed  my  heart  and  brain. 
I  knew  that  the  hour  was  at  hand  when  the  world  would 
witness  the  complete  triumph  of  a  cause,  which  at  the  begin- 
ning of  my  political  life  I  had  not  hoped  to  live  long  enough 
to  see,  and  that  on  that  da}^,  before  our  session  closed,  an  act, 
as  just  as  it  was  merciful  to  oppressor  and  oppressed,  was  to 
be  enacted  into  law,  and  soon  thereafter  became  a  part  of  our 
national  Constitution  forever. 

The  hour  and  the  occasion  was  an  immortal  one  in  the 
nation's  history,  and  memorable  to  each  actor  who  voted  for 
the  amendment. 

Kvery  available  foot  of  space,  both  in  the  galleries  and 
on  the  floor  of  the  House,  was  crowded  at  an  early  hour,  and 
many  hundreds  could  not  get  within  hearing.  Never  before, 
nor  afterwards,  did  I  see  so  brilliant  and  distinguished  a 
gathering  in  that  hall,  nor  one  where  the  feeling  was  more 
intense.  The  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  members  of 
the  Cabinet,  the  Vice-President  and  Senators,  most  of  the 
foreign  Ministers  and  all  the  distinguished  visitors  who 
could  secure  seats,  with  their  wives,  daughters  and  friends, 
were  present  to  witness  the  sublimest  event  in  our  national 
life. 

You  will  readily  understand  that  this  was  an  occasion  to 
inspire  any  man  of  my  temperament  with  a  strong  desire  to 
speak,  and  yet  it  was  beyond  question  my  duty  to  yield  all 
my  time  to  gentlemen  of  the  opposition,  who  had  promised 
to  vote  for  the  amendment,  and  desired  to  have  recorded  in 
the  official  organ  of  the  House  the  reasons  for  the  vote  which 
they  were  about  to  give. 

The  first  gentleman  to  whom  I  yielded  was  the  Hon. 
Archibald  McAllister  of  Pennsylvania,  an  old-fashioned 
Democrat  of  the  Jackson  school.  He  was  not  a  speaker,  and 
the  brief  **  statement,"  as  he  called  it,  which  he  sent  to  the 
Clerk's  desk  to  be  read  for  him  as  he  stood  on  the  floor,  with 
every  eye  in  that  great  hall  fixed  on  his  tall  form,  is  so  charac- 
teristic, and  withal  expresses  so  tersely  the  reasons  which 


—  710- 

impelled  him  and  thousands  of  other  loyal  and  conservative 
men  to  demand  the  immediate  abolition  of  slavery,  that  I 
quote  what  he  said  entire. 

I  will  read  it  to  you,  and  repeat  what  he  said,  as  nearly 
as  I  can,  with  the  same  intonation  of  voice  and  manner  as  he 
read  it  to  me  in  my  committee-room  that  morning",  a  few 
minutes  before  the  House  convened. 

He  said  "That  it  was  due  to  his  constituents  that  they 
should  know  why  he  changed  his  vote,  and  that  he  could  not 
make  a  speech,  that  he  was  so  nervous  that  he  daje  not  even 
trust  himself  to  read  what  he  had  written,  and  asked  me  if  I 
would  yield  him  the  floor  long-  enoug-h  to  allow  him  to  send 
to  the  Clerk's  desk,  and  have  read  what  he  desired  to  say  to 
his  constituents."  I  never  was  more  anxious  to  yield  the 
floor  to  any  man  than  I  was  to  him,  and  answered,  "Cer- 
tainly, I  will  be  g-lad  to  yield  you  all  the  time  you  ask."  He 
then  read  me  this  short,  and  now  historic  speech,  and  I  said 
to  him  then,  as  I  say  to  you  now,  that  it  was,  under  all  the 
circumstances,  the  best  and  most  eloquent  speech  delivered 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  favor  of  the  Thirteenth 
Amendment.  This  is  the  speech,  and  the  way  he  read  it  tp 
me : 

"When  this  subject  was  before  this  House  on  a  former 
occasion,  I  voted  against  the  measure.  I  have  been  in  favor 
of  exhausting-  all  means  of  conciliation  to  restore  the  Union 
as  our  fathers  made  it.  I  am  for  the  whole  Union  and  utterly 
opposed  to  secession,  or  dissolution  in  any  shape.  The  result 
of  all  the  peace  missions,  and  especially  that  of  Mr.  Blair, 
has  satisfied  me  that  nothing  short  of  the  recog-nition  of 
their  independence  will  satisfy  the  Southern  Confederacy. 
It  must  therefore  be  destroyed,  and  in  voting-  for  the  present 
measure,  I  cast  my  vote  against  the  corner-stone  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy,  and  declare  eternal  war  ag-ainst  the 
enemies  of  my  country." 

As  soon  as  he  had  finished  reading-  it,  I  g-rasped  his  hand 
with  enthusiasm,  and  heartily  cong-ratulated  him,  and  said, 
"Mr.  McAllister,  that  is  a  better  and  more  telling-  speech  by 
far  than  any  which  has  been  made  for  the  amendment,  and 
I  believe  that  it  will  be  quoted  hereafter  more  than  any 
speech  made  in  Cong-ress  in  its  favor." 

When  the  Clerk  of  the  House  finished  reading-  this  brief 


—  711  — 

speech  of  this  plain,  blunt  man,  it  called  forth  general  ap- 
plause on  the  floor  and  in  the  g-alleries,  and  when  I  after- 
wards read  it  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  Chase  and  others,  they  were 
then  as  pronounced  in  its  endorsement  as  I  am  now. 

To  the  end  that  there  should  be  no  pretext  for  "fili- 
bustering-" (as  I  knew  the  amendment  might  be  defeated  in 
that  wajO*  I  determined  from  the  start  to  so  conduct  the 
debate  that  every  gentleman  opposed  to  the  amendment  who 
cared  to  be  heard  should  have  ample  time  and  opportunity. 

After  the  previous  question  had  been  seconded,  and  all 
debate  ordered  closed,  there  could  be  but  two  roll-calls  (if 
there  were  no  filibustering)  before  the  final  vote. 

The  first  roll-call  was  on  a  motion  made  by  the  opposi- 
tion, to  lay  my  motion  to  reconsider  on  the  table.  Such  a 
motion  is  generally  regarded  as  a  test  vote. 

Hundreds  of  tally  sheets  had  been  distributed  on  the 
floor  and  in  the  galleries,  many  being  in  the  hands  of  ladies. 
Before  the  result  of  the  first  roll-call  was  announced,  it  was 
known  all  over  the  House  that  the  vote  was  two  less  than 
the  necessary  two-thirds,  and  both  Mr.  Stevens  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  Mr.  Washburn  of  Illinois  excitedly  exclaimed: 
*' General,  we  are  defeated."  **No,  gentlemen,  we  are  not," 
was  my  prompt  answer.  The  second  vote  was  on  my  motion 
to  reconsider,  which  would  bring  the  House,  at  the  next  roll- 
call,  to  a  direct  vote  on  the  passage  of  the  amendment. 

The  excitement  was  now  the  most  intense  I  ever  wit- 
nessed; the  oldest  members,  with  the  Speaker  and  the  re- 
porters in  the  galleries,  believed  that  we  were  defeated. 
"When  the  result  of  the  second  vote  was  announced,  we 
lacked  on:e  votb  of  two-thirds,  whereupon  many  threw  down 
their  tally  sheets  and  admitted  defeat.  I  now  arose  and 
stood,  while  the  roll  was  being  called  on  the  final  vote  and 
said  to  those  around  me,  that  we  would  have  not  less  than 
four  (4),  and  I  believed  seven  (7)  majority  over  the  necessary 
two-thirds. 

As  the  roll  was  completed,  the  Speaker  directed  that  his 
name  be  called  as  a  member  of  the  House,  and  when  he  voted 
he  announced  to  an  astonished  assemblage,  "that  the  yeas 
were  119,  and  the  nays  56,  and  that  the  bill  had  received  the 
two-thirds  majority  required  by  the  Constitution."     It  was  a 


—  712  — 

moment  or  two  before  the  House  or  the  g-alleries  recovered 
from  their  surprise  and  recog-nized  the  fact  that  we  had 
triumphed.  When  they  did,  a  shout  went  up  from  the  floor 
and  g-alleries,  and  the  vast  audience  rose  to  their  feet,  many 
members  jumping-  on  their  desks,  with  shouts  and  waving-  of 
hats  and  handkerchiefs,  and  g-ave  vent  to  their  feelings  by 
every  demonstration  of  joy.  It  was  a  scene  such  as  I  had 
never  before  witnessed,  and  can  never  be  witnessed  ag-ain. 

Mr.  Ingersoll,  of  Illinois,  said:  ''Mr.  Speaker,  in  honor 
of  this  sublime  and  immortal  event,  I  move  that  this  House 
do  now  adjourn,"  which  motion  was  carried. 

When  this  vote  was  taken,  the  House  had  but  183  mem- 
bers, 94  of  whom  were  Republicans,  64  Democrats,  and  25 
border-State  Union  men. 

If  the  vote  is  analyzed,  it  will  be  seen  that  of  the  119 
votes  recorded  for  the  amendment  13  were  by  men  from  the 
border  States,  and  eleven  (11)  were  by  Democrats  from  the 
free  States.  If  but  3  out  of  the  24,  who  voted  with  us,  had 
voted  against  the  amendment,  it  would  have  failed.  If  but 
four  (4)  of  the  eight  members  who  were  absent  had  appeared 
and  voted  against  it,  it  would  have  been  lost.  Had  all  the 
Northern  Democrats  who  supported  the  amendment  voted 
against,  it  would  have  been  defeated  by  26  votes.  Had  all 
the  border-State  men  who  voted  for  it  voted  ag-ainst,  it 
would  have  failed  by  32  votes. 

If  the  border-State  men  and  Northern  Democrats  who 
voted  for  the  amendment  had  voted  ag-ainst,  it  would  have 
failed  by  65  votes. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  especially  delig-hted  at  the  vote  which 
the  amendment  received  from  the  border  slave  States,  and 
frequently  cong-ratulated  me  on  that  result. 

Bancroft,  the  historian,  has  drawn  with  a  g-raphic  pen 
the  characters  of  many  of  the  able  and  illustrious  men  of  the 
Revolution  which  achieved  our  independence.  In  writing  of 
George  Mason,  of  Virg-inia,  he  said  :  ' '  His  sincerity  made 
him  wise  and  bold,  modest  and  unchanging-,  with  a  scorn  for 
anything  mean  and  cowardly,  as  illustrated  in  his  unselfish 
attachment  to  human  freedom."  And  these  identical  quali- 
ties of  head  and  heart  were  pre-eminently  conspicuous  in  all 


Members  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives 
who  voted  for  the  Thirteenth  Amendment. 


—  713  — 

the  border  statesmen  who  voted  for  the  Thirteenth  Amend- 
ment. 

It  would  be  difficult  in  any  ag-e  or  country  to  find  g^rand- 
er  or  more  unselfish  and  patriotic  men  than  Henry  Winter 
Davis  and  Governor  Francis  Thomas  of  Maryland,  or  James 
S.  Rollins,  Frank  P.  Blair  and  Governor  King-  of  Missouri,  or 
Georg-e  H.  Yeaman  of  Kentucky,  or  N.  P.  Smithers  of  Dela- 
ware, and  not  less  worthy  of  mention  for  their  unchang-ing- 
fidelity  to  principle  are  all  the  Northern  Democrats  who  voted 
for  the  amendment,  prominent  among-  whom  I  may  name 
Governor  Eng-lish,  of  Connecticut  ;  Judge  Homer  A.  Nelson 
and  Moses  S.  Odell,  of  New  York  ;  Archibald  McAllister,  of 
Pennsylvania ;  Wells  A.  Hutchins,  of  Ohio,  and  A.  C.  Bald- 
win, of  Michigan. 

Of  the  twenty-four  border-State  and  Northern  men  who 
made  up  this  majority  which  enabled  us  to  win  this  victory, 
all  had  defied  their  party  discipline,  and  had  deliberately  and 
with  unfaltering  faith  marched  to  their  political  death. 
These  are  the  men  whom  our  future  historians  will  honor> 
and  to  whom  this  nation  owes  a  debt  of  eternal  gratitude. 

But  seven  of  this  twenty-four  are  now  living,  the  others 
have  gone  to 

* '  Join  the  choir  invisible 
Of  those  immortal  dead,  who  live  again 
In  minds  made  better  by  their  presence  ;  live 
In  pulses  stirred  to  generosity. 
In  deeds  of  daring  rectitude,  in  scorn 
r  For  miserable  aims  that  end  with  self." 


ADDRESS 

OF  HON.  J.  M.  ASHLEY, 


At  MEMORiAi.iHAi,L,  T01.KDO,  Ohio,  Junk  2,  1890. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THE  GREAT  REBELLION — CALHOUN,    SEWARD 

AND   LINCOLN. 


Memorial  Hall,  Toledo,  O.,  June  2, 1890. 
General  James  M.  Ashley,  Toledo,  Ohio. 

Dear  Sir:  The  undersig-ned,  on  behalf  of  the  Toledo 
Branch  Society  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  and  the  Veteran 
Association  of  Battery  H,  1st  O.  V.  Light  Artillery,  do 
hereby  most  heartily  thank  you  for  your  able,  instructive  and 
eloquent  address  this  evening-  delivered  at  Memorial  Hall, 
and  earnestly  solicit  a  copy  of  the  same,  with  your  consent 
that  it  be  published  in  the  public  journals  and  in  such  more 
permanent  and  enduring-  form  as  may  be  deemed  best. 

Hoping-  for  and  awaiting-  your  favorable  reply,  we  are 
Your  obedient  servants, 
J.  C.  Lee,  L.  F.  Lyttle, 

Chas.  M.  Montgomery,  N.  Houghton, 

D.  P.  Chamberlin, 
For  the  Toledo  Branch  Society  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
Wm.  Corlett,  J.  L.  Pray, 

Wm.  E.  Parmelee,  John  H.  Merrell, 

W.  G.  Pierce, 
For  the  Veteran  Association  of  Battery  H,  1st  O.  V.  Light 
Artillery 

(714) 


715 


TOI.EDO,  Ohio,  June  3,  1890. 
Genti^emen:     It  g-ives  me  pleasure  to  comply  with  the 
wishes  of  the  societies  which  you  represent. 

Herewith  please  find  copy  of  my  address  as  requested. 
It  is  proper  to  state  that  the  major  portion  of  the  address, 
touching-  the  relation  of  Calhoun,  Seward,  and  Lincoln  to  the 
War  of  the  Rebellion,  was  put  in  type  and  the  historic  quota- 
tions verified  before  its  delivery. 

The  extemporary  part  of  the  address  was  so  faithfully 
reported  that  but  few  corrections,  as  3'ou  see,  were  required. 

Truly  yours, 

J.  M.  Ashley. 
To  General  John  C.  Lee, 

William  Corlett  and  others. 

Committee. 


Mr.  President,  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  :  I  need 
not  tell  you  how  welcome  your  cordial  greeting-  is  to  me  to- 
nig-ht.  You  can  all  see  that.  In  ag-ain  meeting  so  many  of 
my  old  friends  face  to  face,  I  remember  with  pride  the  greet- 
ings which  I  have  received  on  like  occasions,  when  making 
public  addresses  here  at  home.  And  as  I  stand  here  and 
recognition  follows  recognition,  my  pulse  beats  are  quicker, 
and  I  am  glad  that  I  accepted  the  invitation  of  your  com- 
mittee. At  first  I  felt  that  I  could  not  take  the  time,  and  I 
certainly  should  not  have  done  so  but  for  the  worthy  object 
which  your  committee  represented  to  me  you  had  in  hand. 
The  surroundings  in  this  hall ;  the  beautiful  display  of  flags 
— with  the  quartet  singing,  and  the  thoughts  and  emotions 
of  the  hour,  stir  my  heart  to  its  very  depths,  and  carries  me 
back  to  the  historic  scenes  and  heroic  acts  of  1861,  and  I 
feel  that  I  am  again  but  thirty-six  years  old.  In  my  mind's 
eye  there  is  now  passing  before  me  panorama  after  panorama, 
the  like  of  which  the  world  had  never  seen,  and  of  which 
many  before  me  formed  a  part.  And  though  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century  has  elapsed,  I  can  see  to-night,  as  I 
then  saw,  the  advancing,  resistless  power,  which  glowed  in 


—  716  — 


I 


face  and  eye  and  step,  as  the  volunteer  soldiers  of  the  repub- 
lic, in  the  faith  and  hope  and  strength  of  youth,  marched 
forth  to  victory  or  death. 

Four  years  later,  I  saw,  as  I  now  see,  passing-  in  review  be- 
fore the  acting-  President,  his  Cabinet  and  Generals,  at  the 
national  capital,  the  survivors  of  that  invincible  army,  with 
war-worn  faces  and  torn  and  tattered  banners,  returning- 
victorious  to  their  homes  amid  the  acclamations  of  a  g-rate- 
ful  people,  and  as  long-  as  I  live  (and  listen  as  now)  I  shall 
hear  the  measured  and  triumphal  tread  of  their  immortal 
feet.      [Applause.] 

But  I  fear  to  trust  myself  as  of  old,  on  an  occasion  like 
this  ;  and  I  have  put  in  cold  type  what  I  propose  to  say  to  you 
to-nig-ht,  except  such  anecdotes  as  I  may  interject. 

Mr.  President :  The  annals  are  yet  largely  unwritten  of 
the  men  who,  prior  to  and  during  the  War  of  the  Rebellion, 
molded  and  directed  public  opinion ;  raised,  organized  and 
equipped  armies  for  the  defense  of  the  nation's  life  and  led 
them  to  victory.  But  the  facts  will  soon  be  eagerly  gleaned 
from  the  records  of  the  past,  and  woven  into  some  of  the 
most  thrilling  and  instructive  chapters  of  our  national 
history. 

So  also  must  the  unwritten  history  of  the  master  con- 
spirators in  the  slaveholders'  rebellion  be  compiled  and  writ- 
ten by  impartial  and  conscientious  historians  who  "  shall  a 
round,  unvarnished  tale  deliver,  nor  set  down  aught  in 
malice." 

As  one  of  the  actors  in  the  national  Congress,  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end  of  that  unprovoked  rebellion,  it  is  to- 
night my  duty,  in  addressing  you,  to  speak  dispassionately 
of  men  and  facts  from  my  personal  recollection,  refreshed  by 
such  offi-cial  and  other  authenticated  records  as  I  can  com- 
mand. 

Within  the  limits  of  such  an  address,  I  can  only  present 
to  you  in  brief  such  facts  as  are  within  my  memory,  or  can 
be  verified  from  accepted  sources,  touching  the  opinions  and 
movements  of  public  men,  parties  and  churches,  which  paved 
the  way  for  and  made  possible  the  rebellion  of  1861. 

Had  not  my  library,  which  I  had  for  many  years  been 
collecting,  with  all  my  private  and  political  papers  (includ- 


—  717  — 

ing-  many  letters  both  from  leading-  abolitionists  ana  seces- 
sionists) been  destroyed  by  fire  in  1871,  I  should  have  given 
you  some  orig-inal  reading-  to-nig-ht. 

Beg-inning-  active  systematic  work  as  an  abolitionist  when 
but  eig-hteen,  I  spared  neither  time  nor  labor  to  learn  and 
thoroughly  understand  the  position  and  tendency  of  every 
public  man  of  note  or  prominence  in  the  South,  and  also  the 
exact  status  of  as  many  of  the  men  of  intellect  in  that  sec- 
tion who  were  not  in  public  life,  as  could  be  induced  to  an- 
swer my  letters,  especially  clergyman. 

Like  most  boys,  I  was  a  worshiper  of  great  men,  partic- 
ularly military  men ;  and  before  I  was  fifteen  I  made  a  pil- 
grimage to  the-  **  Hermitage"  to  see  the  idol  of  my  heart, 
General  Jackson. 

Before  that,  I  had  seen  at  Fleming  Springs  (a  fashion- 
able Kentucky  resort  in  those  days),  Colonel  Richard  M. 
Johnson,  Vice  President ;  General  Leslie  Coombs,  Henry  Clay, 
Cassius  M.  Clay  and  Mr,  Corwin  of  Ohio ;  all  of  whom  I 
then  regarded  as  among  the  greatest  men  in  the  world. 

In  February,  1841,  I  went  to  Washington  to  witness  the 
inauguration  of  General  Harrison  on  the  4th  of  March,  and 
especially  to  see  Mount  Vernon  and  the  tomb  of  Washington. 
When  I  visited  the  gallery  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
the  first  man  I  asked  to  have  pointed  out  to  me  was  ex-Presi- 
dent John  Quincy  Adams,  **  the  old  man  eloquent,"  as  he  was 
called.  I  then  looked  upon  Mr.  Adams  as  one  of  the  most 
extraordinary  men  in  this  country,  and  especially  admired  the 
way  in  which  he  handled  the  **  slave  barons." 

The  fact  that  he  was  the  only  ex-President  who  had  ever 
served  as  a  member  of  Congress  added  to  my  esteem  for  his 
character,  and  this  admiration  remains  as  strong  and  fresh 
to-day  as  it  was  then. 

You  will  all  remember  that  he  was  stricken  down  in  the 
House,  and  fell  with  his  face  to  the  foe,  fighting  the  slave 
conspirators,  when  he  was  over  eighty  years  old. 

While  in  Washington,  and  before  the  inauguration  of 
General  Harrison,  Colonel  Johnson,  the  outgoing  Vice-Presi- 
dent (who  was  a  friend  of  my  father),  introduced  me  to  Pres- 
ident Van  Buren  at  the  White  House.  I  then  regarded  my 
presentation  to  Mr.  Van  Buren  as  the  most  important  event 


m 


-718  — 


of  my  life.  I  was  also  delig-hted  to  be  introduced  to  John  M. 
Botts  and  Henry  A.  Wise,  leading-  Virginia  Whig-s,  and  to 
R.  M.  T.  Hunter,  a  leading-  Democrat,  each  of  whom  were 
members  of  the  House,  and  were  regarded  by  their  friends  at 
that  time  as  remarkable  men. 

Four  years  later  I  attended  the  Democratic  National 
Convention  at  Baltimore  in  May,  184^  (although  not  a  voter), 
and  through  the  friendship  of  ex-Vice-President  Johnson  had 
a  seat  on  the  floor  of  the  convention  with  the  Kentucky  dele- 
gation ;  I  then  favored  the  nomination  of  Van  Buren  and 
Johnson,  the  anti-Calhoun  ticket,  which  had  been  defeated  in 
1840. 

Before  the  Baltimore  convention  assembled,  I  visited 
Washington,  to  study  the  situation.  (Imagine  a  boy  of 
twenty  studying  the  situation.)  Mr.  George  M.  Bibb,  of 
Kentuck}^,  at  that  time  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  introduced 
me  to  President  John  Tyler,  who  was  openly  a  candidate  for 
the  Democratic  nomination  at  Baltimore. 

Mr.  Bibb  also  introduced  me  to  the  great  nullifier,  John 
C.  Calhoun,  then  Mr.  Tyler's  Secretary  of  State. 

After  the  convention  at  Baltimore  had  nominated  James 
K.  Polk  of  Tennessee  for  President,  and  George  M.  Dallas  of 
Pennsylvania  for  Vice-President,  I  returned  to  Washington, 
and  while  there  called  on  Mr.  Calhoun  twice  to  look  at  and 
study  the  man.  Personally  Mr.  Calhoun  was  to  me  the  most 
pleasing  man  I  have  ever  met,  and  the  memory  of  my  inter- 
views, and  the  letters  which  I  afterwards  received  from  him, 
will  always  be  a  source  of  pleasure.  I  was  an  ardent  ad- 
mirer of  General  Jackson,  and  knew  that  the  old  General 
hated  the  great  nullifier,  and  had  expressed  a  wish  to  hang 
him ;  but  notwithstanding  this  fact,  each  time  I  talked  with 
Mr.  Calhoun  he  charmed  me  by  the  frankness  and  freedom 
of  his  manner,  and  the  dignity  and  courtesy  of  his  bearing. 

If  I  could  have  accepted  his  pro-slavery  and  his  States'- 
rights  opinions,  I  should  certainly  at  that  time  have  followed 
his  leadership  as  enthusiastically  as  thousands  of  young 
Southern  men  of  that  day  followed  him  faithfully,  and  ad- 
hered to  his  political  heresies  and  fatal  dogmas  until  death, 
or  the  defeat  of  the  Rebellion,  buried  them  in  a  common 
grave  forever.     I  afterwards  came  to  know  that  Mr.  Calhoun 


—  no- 
had  been  the  master  conspirator  in  defeating"  the  nomination 
of  Mr.  Van  Buren  at  Baltimore,  and  that,  as  Secretary  ol 
State,  he  officially  committed  the  President-elect  (James  K. 
Polk),  one;  day  before  his  inauguration,  to  the  unjust  and  in- 
defensible war  with  Mexico. 

I  state  these  facts  about  myself  that  you  may  know  how, 
through  correspondence  and  personal  acquaintance,  I  was 
enabled  in  1861  to  clearly  comprehend  the  power  and  purpose 
of  the  conspirators,  and  the  danger  which  menaced  the 
Nation's  life. 

For  thirty  years  or  more  prior  to  the  Rebellion,  the  slave 
conspirators  worked  like  **  sappers  and  miners"  in  their 
preparation  for  it.  They  were  tireless,  cunning  and  un- 
scrupulous in  all  they  proposed  or  did.  If  I  should  now  un- 
dertake to  present  in  their  historic  order  but  one  in  ten  of 
their  so-called  '*  peace  and  compromise  propositions,"  it 
would  require  all  the  time  which  I  propose  to  give  to  my  ad- 
dress. 

One  of  their  earliest,  boldest  and  most  objectionable  acts 
was  to  deny  the  right  of  any  citizen  to  *' petition  Congress 
on  the  subject  of  slavery."  The  presentation  of  such  pe- 
titions by  John  Quincy  Adams  of  Massachusetts,  Mr.  Gid- 
dings  of  Ohio  and  Mr.  Blade  of  Vermont  was  the  pretext  for 
a  majority  of  the  **  slave  barons"  in  the  House  to  threaten 
to  withdraw  unless  the  North  **  accepted  in  good  faith  as  a 
peace  offering  and  compromise"  the  adoption  of  a  **  gag- 
rule"  which  they  at  once  formulated,  and,  with  the  aid  of 
Northern  allies,  they  had  adopted. 

From  the  hour  of  the  adoption  of  the  **  gag-rule"  until 
the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  the  *' slave-barons"  were  practi- 
cally the  nation's  political  masters. 

On  the  24th  of  November,  1832,  Calhoun  and  his  co-con- 
spirators in  South  Carolina  passed  an  ordinance  of  secession, 
using  the  tariff  as  a  pretext,  and  then  and  there  an  organ- 
ized scheme  of  a  slave  empire  took  form  and  shape.  General 
Jackson's  proclamation  against  nullification,  and  his  message 
to  Congress,  were  patriotic  and  able  State  papers.  The  his- 
tory of  that  formidable  conspiracy  ought  to  be  impressed  on 
every  child  of  the  republic,  to  the  end  that  General  Jackson's 
noble  and  manly  bearing  might  the  better  be  contrasted  with 


—  720  — 

President  Buchanan's  weak  and  humiliating-  surrender  to  th 
demands  made  by  the  rebel  conspirators  of  1860  and  1861. 

In  1836  Calhoun  inaug-urated  the  Texas  annexatioi 
scheme,  and  attempted  to  force  it  into  the  presidential  elec 
tion  of  that  year. 

In  his  *' Thirty  Years'  View,"  Senator  Benton,*  whe: 
speaking- of  this  Texas  annexation  plot,  declared  that  "  th 
Calhoun  conspirators  had  organized  and  revived  the  nullifica 
tion  and  disunion  plot  of  1832,  and  revived  it  under  circun: 
stances  more  dang-erous  than  ever,  since  coupled  with  a  poj 
ular  question  which  g-ave  the  plotters  the  honest  sympathie 
of  the  patriotic  millions." 

*'I  have  often,"  he  added,  "intimated  it  before,  but  noT 
proclaim  it.  Disunion  is  at  the  bottom  of  this  long-  conceale 
Texas  machination.  Intrigue  and  speculation  co-operatt 
and  I  denounce  it  to  the  American  people." 

"Under  the  pretext  of  getting  Texas  into  the  Unior 
the  scheme  is  to  get  the  South  out  of  it.  A  separate  cor 
federacy,  stretching  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Californias,  i 
the  cherished  vision  of  disappointed  ambition  [pointing  t 
Calhoun],  and  for  this  consummation  every  circumstance  ha 
been  carefully  and  artfully  contrived." 

This  speech  by  Senator  Benton  was  made  before  oi 
unjust  war  with  Mexico,  and  of  course  before  the  acquisitio 
of  California  and  Mexican  territory,  or  the  completion  of  tt 
Texas  annexation  plot,  and  shows  how  clearly  the  grej 
Senator  understood  the  conspirators. 

In  that  same  speech  he  declares  "  that  he  intends  to  sa*\ 
himself  for  the  day  when  the  battle  for  the  disunion  of  thee 
States  is  to  be  fought ;  not  in  words,  but  with  iron,  and  f( 
the  hearts  of  traitors,  who  will  appear  in  arms  against  the 
country." 

These  were  prophetic  words  of  warning,  uttered  by  oi 
of  our  greatest  Senators  ;  but  they  were  unheeded. 

Mr.  John  Tyler,  who  had  been  elected  Vice-President ; 
a  Whig  with  General  Harrison  in  1840,  became  the  actir 
President  on  the  death  of  the  President  in  1841,  one  mom 
after  his  inauguration. 


*  See  Senator  Benton's  speeches  in  the  United  States  Senate  prior  to  the  Mexic 
War. 


At  first  secretly,  and  then  openl}-,  Tyler  abandoned  the 
Whig-  party  which  elected  him,  and  identified  himself  with 
the  Calhoun  nullification  wing"  of  the  Democratic  party. 
As  Benton,  in  his  "  Thirty  Years'  View"  states  it :  "The 
Texas  annexation  scheme  now  became  an  intrig-ue  on  the  part 
of  some  for  the  Presidency,  and  a  plot  to  dissolve  the  Union 
on  the  part  of  others,  and  a  Texas  scrip  and  land  speculation 
scheme  with  many,"  and  he  openly  denounced  it.* 

Prior  to  making-  an  official  move  for  the  consummation  of 
the  Texas  annexation  plot,  it  became  necessary  to  g-et  Mr. 
Webster,  who  was  Secretary  of  State,  out  of  Tyler's  Cabinet, 
and  the  conspirators  were  equal  to  the  task.  Mr.  Webster 
was  without  much  trouble  bowed  out  of  the  Cabinet,  and 
Mr.  Leg-are  of  South  Carolina  selected  for  his  place. 

In  a  short  time  Mr.  Legare  died  and  Mr.  Upshur  of  Vir- 
ginia, an  ardent  disciple  of  Calhoun,  and  a  personal  friend, 
was  made  Mr.  Legare's  successor  as  Secretary  of  State. 

Within  a  few  months  Mr.  Upshur  was  killed  by  the  ex- 
plosion of  a  big  gun  on  board  the  Princeton,  and  Mr. 
Calhoun  was  made  his  successor.  The  Texas  annexation  and 
secession  plot  now  took  form  and  shape  under  the  direction 
of  the  original  conspirator. 

One  of  the  earliest  and  most  extraordinary  official  acts  of 
Mr.  Calhoun,  after  assuming  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State, 
was  to  write  and  publish  the  first  and  most  elaborate  official 
State  paper  ever  issued  by  this  Government  in  favor  of  the 
maintenance  and  propagation  of  slavery.  Mr.  Benton  sa3^s 
**that  Mr.  Calhoun  did  not  permit  this  document  to  be  pub- 
lished until  all  hope  for  the  success  of  his  intrigue  for  the 
Democratic  nomination  at  Baltimore  in  1844  had  been  aban- 
doned and  a  conspiracy  to  form  a  separate  republic  consisting 
of  Texas  and  some  Southern  States  had  become  the  object" 
of  Calhoun  and  -his  followers. f 

In  a  short  time  after  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  for 
renomination  at  Baltimore  in  1844  by  the  selection  of  Polk,  a 
mass  convention  was  held  in  South  Carolina,  at  which  reso- 
lutions were  adopted  "in  favor  of  a  convention  of  all  the 

*See  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View,  Vol.  II.,  chapter  on  Texas  Annexation. 
tSee  Benton's  "  Thirty  Years'  View." 
46 


—  722  — 

slaveholding-  States,  to  demand  the  prompt  annexation  of 
Texas,  with  or  without  war,"  and  if  refused  by  the 
North,  on  such  terms  as  the  Calhoun  conspirators  dictated, 
*'  the  Southern  States  should  proceed  pkackfui^ly  and  calm- 
ly to  dissolve  the  Union  and  annex  Texas  to  the  Southern 
Confederacy." 

Conventions  of  a  like  character  were  also  held  in  a  num- 
ber of  Southern  States  immediately  after  the  South  Carolina 
manifesto  was  issued,  at  which  Southern  conventions,  reso- 
lutions such  as  I  have  just  quoted  were  enthusiastically 
adopted. 

Two  days  before  the  inauguration  of  Polk,  the  Texas 
annexation  plot,  with  its  scrip  and  land-jobbing-  scheme, 
was  practically  consummated  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  as  Secretary 
of  State,  and  the  unjust  war  with  Mexico  followed  as  the 
conspirators  intended. 

President  Polk  could  have  defeated  the  Calhoun-Texas 
annexation  prog"ramme  had  he  been  a  man  of  ability  and 
honestly  ag^ainst  the  plot.  But,  as  he  was  a  weak  and  vain 
man,  the  conspirators  easily  captured  him,  and  the  war, 
boldly  inaug-urated  for  slave  conquest  and  domination,  ended 
in  the  acquisition  of  California  and  one-third  of  Mexico. 

When  Mexico,  a  sister  republic,  lay  prostrate,  weak  and 
bleeding-  at  the  feet  of  the  United  States,  and  her-  officials 
were  forced  to  execute  an  unjust  treaty,  relinquishing-  all 
claim  to  any  part  of  Texas,  and  also  cede  to  us  California 
and  what  is  now  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Utah  and  Nevada, 
and  all  the  territory  north  of  the  southern  boundary  as  now 
desig-nated  on  our  maps,  except  the  Gadsden  purchase  (about 
ONE-THIRD  of  her  entire  territorial  area),  her  Peace  Commis- 
sioner sought  to  have  a  clause  inserted  in  the  treaty  which 
should  provide  *' that  the  United  States  should  engage 

NOT    TO    PERMIT    THE    ESTABLISHMENT    OF    SLAVERY    IN    AN\ 
PART  OP  THE  TERRITORY  THUS  CEDED." 

In  a  communication  of  September  4,  1847,  from  Mr.  Trist, 
our  Minister  to  Mexico,  to  Mr.  Buchanan,  Secretary  of  State, 
he  writes  that  the  Mexican  Commissioner  said  to  him  :  "  If  i1 
were  proposed  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  part  witt 
a  portion  of  their  territory  in  order  that  the  Inquisitior 
should  be  established  there,  it  would  excite  no  stronger  feel- 


ing"  of  abhorrence  than  those  awakened  in  Mexico  by  the 
prospect  of  the  introduction  of  human  slavery  in  any  terri- 
tory parted  with  by  her."* 

Mr.  Trist,  when  communicating*  the  above  proposition  to 
this  Government  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Buchanan,  said  that  he 
answered  the  Mexican  Commissioner  as  follows  : 

"The  bare  mention  of  such  a  treaty  is  impossible.  No 
American  President  would  dark  present  such  a  treaty  to  the 
Senate.  I  assured  him  that  if  it  were  in  their  power  to  offer 
me  the  whole  territory  described  in  our  project,  increased 

TEN-FOLD  IN  VALUE  AND  IN  ADDITION  COVERED  A  FOOT 
THICK  WITH  PURE  GOLD,  ON  THE  SINGLE  CONDITION  THAT 
SLAVERY  SHOULD  BE  EXCLUDED  THEREFROM,  I  COULD  NOT 
ENTERTAIN  THE  OFFER  FOR  A  MOMENT,  NOR  EVEN  THINK  OF 
COMMUNICATING  IT  TO  WASHINGTON." 

Now,  g-entlemen,  you  see  the  kind  of  men  we  had  to  fight. 

The  historian  will  find  no  difficulty  in  determining  why 
the  slave  barons  confided  so  implicitly  in  Mr.  Buchanan 
when  President.  His  conduct  while  Senator  and  Secretary 
of  State,  and  Minister  to  Great  Britain  was  a  guarantee  of 
his  subservient  co-operation. 

As  I  now  look  back  upon  that  cold-blooded  crime,  and 
see  a  small,  weak,  struggling  sister  republic,  not  claiming 
to  rank  with  us  in  wealth,  culture  or  civilization,  crushed 
beneath  the  iron  heel  of  power,  without  the  shadow  of  a  pre- 
text— not  only  without  a.  pretext,  but  in  the  face  of  an  official 
falsehood,  pleading  that  the  territory  and  people  which  she 
is  forced  to  cede  to  us  shall  not  be  cursed  with  human  slavery, 
I  feel  the  blush  of  shame  tingle  my  cheek. 

You  all  know  how  the  slave  conspirators  treated  this 
manly  and  pathetic  appeal  of  the  Mexican  Commissioner. 
And  what  must  the  honest  American  historian  say  of  this  ap- 
palling and  indescribable  crime  ? 

The  annexation  of  Texas  was  now  an  accomplished  fact; 
the  ten  millions  or  more  of  worthless  "  Texas  scrip"  (as  it  was 
called)  then  afloat,  most  of  which  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
conspirators,  now  became  valuable,  and  the  land  ''certifi- 
cates" at  once  commanded  a  ready  market.  The  slave  barons 
thus  triumphed  politically  and  financially  at  the  expense  of 

*  Wilson's  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Powar. 


—  724  — 

more  than  two  hundred  millions  (the  cost  of  the  war)  from 
the  public  Treasury,  the  loss  of  over  twenty  thousand  lives 
of  American  soldiers,  and  the  sacrifice  of  our  national  honor. 
The  discussion  which  followed  the  proposition  to  pro- 
hibit slavery  by  law  in  all  the  territory  acquired  from  Mexi- 
co, ag-ain  shook  the  nation  politically  from  centre  to  circum- 
ference, during-  which  Mr.  Calhoun,  for  the  first  time  in  our 
history,  in   an  elaborate  speech,  **  denied  that   Congress 

HAD  THE  POWER  UNDER  THE  CONSTITUTION  TO  PROHIBIT 
SI.AVERY  IN  THE  TERRITORIES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  AC- 
QUIRED BY  THE  COMMON  BLOOD  AND  TREASURE  OP  THE  NA- 
TION." You  will  note  that  Mr.  Calhoun  now  denies,  for  the 
first  time,  a  power  which  had  been  exercised  under  Jefferson 
and  all  the  earlier  Presidents  without  question  down  to  that 
day. 

Ag-ain  the  slave  barons  threatened  to  dissolve  the  Union, 
unless  their  imperious  demands  were  complied  with,  and,  as 
a  result,  a  series  of  so-called  compromise  measures  were 
patched  up,  by  which  California  was  admitted  as  a  free 
State,  the  Territories  left  open  to  slavery  south  of  36  deg-. 
30  min.,  and  a  new  and  more  exacting-  fugitive-slave  law  was 
passed,  than  which  there  never  was,  in  the  history  of  any 
civilized  people,  a  more  infamous  enactment. 

In  1846,  the  Supreme  Court,  which  had  been  deliberately 
packed  by  the  slave  barons,  decided,  in  the  Van  Zandt  case, 
that  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States  recog-- 
nized  property  in  man,  and  the  United  States  Marshal  for  the 
District  of  Columbia  soon  after  advertised  two  colored  women 
for  sale,  and  after  selling-  them  at  public  auction  deposited 
the  money  in  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  at  Washing- 
ton.* The  Dred  Scott  decision  soon  followed,  and  the  repub- 
lic of  Washington  and  Jefferson  was  thus  practically  trans- 
formed into  a  slave  despotism. 

In  the  Presidential  election  of  1852  both  the  Whig  and 
Democratic  parties  resolved,  in  their  platforms,  to  abide  by, 
and  maintain  in  perpetuity,  the  compromise  measures  of  1850, 
including  the  fugitive-slave  law  ;  and  pledged  themselves  to 


*  Wilson's  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power 


—  725—      ' 

discountenance  all  discussion  of  the  slavery  question  in  Con- 
gress or  out  of  it. 

Many  well-meaning"  but  weak  men  in  the  North  imagined 
that  this  was  to  be  the  last  and  final  demand  of  the  slave 
barons.     They  were  doomed  to  disappointment. 

In  1854  a  new  crisis  was  precipitated  upon  a  long-suffer- 
ing and  confiding  country.  It  will  be  observed  that  whenever 
a  *'  crisis"  was  needed,  the  conspirators  always  had  one  ready 
at  hand. 

The  slave  barons  now  demanded  as  a  condition  of  re- 
maining in  the  Union,  that  the  ''Missouri  Compromise" 
should  be  repealed,  to  the  end  that  they  could  take  their 
slaves  into  Kansas,  and  thus  make  a  slave  State  out  of  a 
Territory  which  by  their  own  votes  had  been  dedicated  to 
freedom,  as  a  compromise  to  get  Missouri  into  the  Union  as 
a  slave  State. 

To  this  insulting  demand  a  majority  of  the  old  Whig 
party  in  the  North,  and  many  members  of  the  Democratic 
party,  entered  strong  and  vigorous  protests. 

During  this  disgraceful  controversy  nearly  all  the  Whig 
members  of  Congress,  both  Senators  and  Represen.tatives 
from  the  slave  States,  held  a  secret  caucus  in  Washing- 
ton without  conferring  with,  or  notifying,  their  Northern 
political  associates,  at  which  secret  caucus  a  majority  of  the 
Southern  Whigs  attending  it  decided  to  support  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  compromise,  as  proposed  by  Douglas. 

This  caucus,  and  the  secret  action  of  the  Southern 
Whigs,  terminated  the  very  existence  of  the  old  Whig  party. 
All  will  remember  that  Mr.  Douglas'  Kansas-Nebraska  bill 
became  law,  and  that  the  Republican  party  was  then  born. 
As  a  people  we  had  now  reached  a  point  in  our  moral  descent 
and  political  abasement  from  which  nothing  but  a  baptism 
of  fire  and  blood  could  have  redeemed  and  held  us  together 
as  a  free  people,  and  saved  us  from  the  decay  and  death  that 
had  been  the  fate  of  all  the  slaveholding  empires  of  the 
world. 

The  **  slave  barons"  were  everywhere  rampant  and  de- 
fiant, the  National  Government  subservient  and  obedient, 
and  the  Southern  churches  either  silent,  apologetic  or  open 
defenders. 


—  726  — 

I  have  thus  traced  the  steps  by  which,  in  the  land  of 
Washing-ton  and  Jefferson,  the  g-overnment  which  they  es- 
tablished became  a  despotism  completely  dominated  in  all  its 
parts  by  an  imperious,  slaveholding*  olig"archy. 

As  a  historical  fact,  we  find  that  our  democratic  repub- 
lic had  been  completely  transformed,  except,  in  name,  and 
was  then  being*  administered  in  the  interest  of  an  insolent 
and  unscrupulous  privileg-ed  class. 

The  national  Constitution,  which  prohibited  the  importa- 
tion of  slaves  after  the  year  1808,  and  the  laws  and  treaties  of 
the  United  States  which  made  the  slave  trade  on  the  hig-h 
seas  "piracy,"  were  trampled  in  scorn  under  their  feet. 

While  the  slave  conspirators  in  political  life  were  mold- 
ing- and  directing-  parties,  and  throug-h  them  administering" 
the  National  Government,  and  on  their  own  motion  making- 
war  and  conquering-  new  territory  for  slavery,  at  the  expense 
of  the  blood  and  treasure  of  the  nation,  the  slave  barons  were 
co-operating-  commercially,  by  defiantly  and  actively  engag-ing- 
in  the  African  slave  trade,  which  was  by  law  and  treaties 
with  all  civilized  nations  declared  piracy,  and  the  result  on 
conviction,  death.  In  the  year  1858,  the  year  in  which  I 
was  first  elected  to  Cong-ress  from  this  district,  the  flag-  of 
the  United  States  actually  covered  more  pirate  ships  eng-ag-ed 
in  the  African  slave  trade  than  the  flag's  of  all  the  other  civil- 
ized nations  of  the  world  combined.  DeBow's  Southern 
Revikw  states  in  1857  *'that  forty  slavers  were  annually 
fitted  out  in  the  ports  of  New  York  and  the  East,  and  that 
the  traffic  yielded  their  owners  an  annual  net  profit  of  seven- 
teen million  dollars." 

In  November,  1853,  the  Southern  Standard  said  :  "We 
can  not  only  preserve  domestic  servitude,  but  can  defy  the 
power  of  the  world.  With  firmness  and  judgment  we  can 
open  up  the  African  slave  immig-ration  ag-ain,  and  people 
this  noble  reg-ion  of  the  tropics.' 

The  New  York  Evening  Post  published  a  list  of  names 
of  85  vessels,  fitted  out  in  the  port  of  New  York  between  the 
1st  of  February,  1859,  and  the  15th  of  July,  1860,  for  the 
African  slave  trade. 

The  New  York  Leader,  at  that  time  a  Tammany 
paper,  asserted  "  that  on  an  averag-e  two  vessels  each  week 


—  727  — 

cleared  out   of  our  harbor  bound  for  Africa  and  a  human 
cargo." 

The  New  York  World  declared  that  *'from  thirty  to 
sixty  thousand  slaves  a  year,  under  the  American  flag-,  are 
taken  from  Africa,  by  vessels,  sailing-  from  the  single  port 
of  New  York." 

I  remember  when  a  yacht  called  the  Wanderer  ran 
into  a  harbor  near  Brunswick,  Georg"ia,  in  broad  daylig-ht,  in 
December,  1858,  and  landed  a  human  cargo  of  some  three 
hundred  or  more  slaves  direct  from  Africa.  This  fact  was 
duly  chronicled  at  the  time  by  the  Southern  newspapers,  and 
some  of  the  blacks  were  dressed  up  in  flaming  toggery,  and 
driven  in  carriages  through  the  public  streets,  as  a  menace 
and  defiance  to  the  National  Government. 

If  the  ''  slave  barons  "  could  have  held  possession  of,  and 
administered  the  National  Government  for  another  four  years, 
as  they  had  for  the  ten  preceding  years,  there  is  no  question 
but  that  a  majority  of  the  Southern  States  would  have  passed 
laws  authorizing  incorporated  companies,  and  individual  citi- 
zens of  their  respective  States,  to  import  direct  from  Africa, 
China,  or  elsewhere,  such  persons  as  might  be  apprenticed 
to  said  corporations  or  citizens,  for  a  term  of  service  not  to 
EXCEED  TWENTY-ONE  YEARS.  That  such  a  Scheme  was  dis- 
cussed in  1857  and  1858  I  know,  and  that  it  had  the  approval 
of  many  slave  barons  and  many  more  who  hoped  to  become 
**  slave  barons,"  if  such  laws  should  be  enacted  by  their  States, 
I  also  know.  Of  course  it  was  not  intended  nor  expected  that 
ONE  in  a  thousand  of  such  apprentices  would  live  long  enough 
(even  if  they  lived  fifty  years)  to  see  the  end  of  their  serv- 
itude. 

The  statutes  of  nearly  all  the  Southern  States  provided 
for  the  arrest  and  sale  into  perpetual  slavery  of  free  negroes 
for  petty  offenses,  which  oftener  than  otherwise  were  not 
offenses  in  fact,  under  which  laws,  the  kidnapping  and  sale  of 
free  men,  from  the  Northern  as  well  as  the  Southern  States, 
were  encouraged  and  protected. 

And  the  Southern  law  reports  and  advertisements  of  run- 
away slaves  furnish  ample  testimony  that  **  slavery  wasn't 
of  nary  color,"  as  Hosea  Bigelow  put  it. 

I  have  SEEN  a  number  of  persons,  held  as  slaves,  who 


728  — 


I 


were  beyond  all  question  pure  white,  without  a  drop  of  Afri- 
can or  mixed  blood  in  their  veins,  and  have  seen  hundreds,, 
such  as^the  newspapers  describe  as  ''runaways,"  and  '*so 
white,  that  they  would  readily  pass  for  white  persons.'* 
Slaves  of  this  description  were  often  the  children  of  the  slave- 
master. 

I  knew  many  Southern  men,  and  served  with  some  of 
them  in  Cong-ress,  who  openly  proclaimed  that  "  the  natural 
and  normal  condition  of  capital  and  labor  was  that  in  which 
capital  owned  the  labor  as  slaves." 

In  1858  and  1859  the  domination  in  the  National  Govern- 
ment of  the  slave  barons  and  kidnappers  at  home  and  of  the 
African  slave  pirates  on  the  hig-h  seas  was  complete. 

On  every  ocean  our  flag-  practically  gave  the  slave  pirates 
immunity  from  search  or  seizure.  At  home,  no  one  of  the 
thousands  who  were  notoriously  engaged  in  this  infernal 
traffic  had  ever  been  convicted,  while  hundreds  of  well-known 
Christian  citizens,  both  men  and  women,  who  had  obeyed 
the  Divine  command  to  give  a  cup  of  cold  water  or  crust  of 
bread  to  an  escaped  bondman,  fleeing-  to  Canada,  were  ar- 
rested, convicted  and  punished  by  long,  cruel  and  unjust  im- 
prisonment. 

It  is  conceded  that  not  less  than  half  a  million  slaves 
were  imported  direct  from  Africa  and  sold  in  this  country  af- 
ter the  slave  trade  had  been  declared  *'  piracy"  by  law,  and 
by  treaty  with  all  civilized  nations,  and  yet  but  one  si^avk 
PIRATE  was  ever  convicted  and  hang-ed  in  the  United  States. 
His  name  was  Captain  Nathaniel  Gordon,  and  he  was  ex- 
ecuted in  New  York  City,  February  28,  1862. 

I  declined  to  sign  a  petition  for  his  pardon,  and  told  Mr, 
Lincoln  it  was  about  time  somebody  was  hung-  for  slave  piracy. 

THE  DEFEAT  OP  DOUGLAS. 

The  deliberate  and  successfully-executed  plot  of  the  con- 
spirators to  defeat  Mr.  Douglas  for  President  in  1860  g-ave 
ample  proof  of  their  consolidated  power  and  indicated  unmis- 
takably their  ultimate  purpose.  Their  last  and  crowning- 
political  move  was  the  one,  in  which  they  had  convened  in 
Washington,  what  they  called  a  "Peace  Congress." 


—  729  — 

When  I  tell  you  that  ex-President  John  Tyler,  the  mere 
creature  of  the  Texas  annexation  conspirators  of  1845,  was 
selected  for  its  President,  you  can  without  much  effort  g-et  at 
the  intellectual  and  political  status  of  nine  out  of  ten  of  the 
men,  who  fussed  and  fumed  and  amazed  the  country  by  the 
stupidity  and  folly  of  their  so-called  *' peace  propositions." 

When  the  future  historian  comes  to  summarize  the  facts 
of  which  I  have  spoken,  he  will  write:  **  Politically,  from 
1843  to  1861,  this  was  the  rottenest  so-called  civilized  govern- 
ment on  earth  ;  morally  it  was  a  lazar-house  full  of  dead 
men's  bones ;  financially  it  was  bankrupt,  and  the  conspira- 
tors for  its  overthrow,  through  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
were  borrowing  money  at  12  per  cent."  And  he  will  add,  to 
the  glory  of  our  volunteer  army,  of  which  you  formed  a  part, 
that  *'the  madness  of  secession  and  the  baseness  of  slave 
baron  conspiracies  at  home,  and  slave  piracy  under  our  flag 
on  the  high  seas,  was  then  stamped  out,  and  made  impossible 
forever." 

In  the  midst  of  this  moral  and  political  abasement  and 
national  degradation  of  which  I  have  spoken,  Abraham  Lin- 
coln was  called  by  his  countrymen  to  the  office  of  President. 

Congress  convened  in  extra  session  on  his  proclamation. 
All  the  laws  necessary  for  the  organization  of  an  army  were 
enacted.  Full  power  was  given  him  in  his  discretion  to  or- 
der and  direct  the  army  ;  and  for  four  years,  which  I  need  not 
undertake  to  summarize  to-night,  he  so  administered  the 
government  as  at  every  step  to  command  the  profound  admi- 
ration not  only  of  the  great  men  of  this  country,  but  of  the 
great  men  of  the  world. 

I  did  not  want  Mr.  Lincoln  to  invite  either  Mr.  Seward 
or  Mr.  Chase  to  seats  in  his  Cabinet.  I  was  anxious  to  have 
them  both  in  the  Senate,  as  I  looked  on  them  as  great  Sena- 
tors. And  then,  I  did  not  feel  certain  that  Mr.  Chase  (who 
up  to  that  time  had  given  no  evidence  of  financial  ability) 
would  make  a  successful  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ;  while  as 
a  Senator  I  was  certain  he  would  stand  with  the  foremost,  as 
he  had  done,  during  his  first  term  in  that  body.  The  legisla- 
ture of  Ohio  had  just  elected  him  for  six  years,  and  in  view 
of  the  approaching  storm,  I  felt  confident  he  would  make  no 
personal  or  party  mistake  in  the  Senate,  while  he  might  fail 


—  730  — 

as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  It  was  generally  rumored, 
early  in  January,  that  Mr.  Seward  was  to  be  Secretary  of 
State,  and  when  I  met  Mr.  Lincoln  soon  after  he  reached 
Washington,  and  this  announcement  was  confirmed  by  him, 
I  simply  said  :  **Mr.  President,  I  cannot  tell  you  how  much 
I  regret  it."  He  expressed  some  surprise,  and  wanted  to 
know  my  objections.  I  answered  that  it  was  too  late  now  to 
talk  about  it,  but  that  my  objections  were  the  same  as  those 
I  had  against  Mr.  Seward's  nomination  at  Chicago,  and 
that  the  unsatisfactory  speech  which  he  had  just  made  in  the 
Senate,  was  an  additional  objection. 

I  suggested  but  one  name  for  his  Cabinet,  and  that  was 
Edwin  M.  Stanton,  of  Ohio,  for  Secretary  of  War  (then  a 
member  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  Cabinet).  I  had  known  Mr. 
Stanton  quite  intimately  from  my  boyhood,  and  recognized 
his  great  ability  and  tireless  energy.  In  addition  to  this,  I 
had  repeatedly  called  at  Mr.  Stanton's  house  to  confer  with 
him  after  he  became  a  member  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  Cabinet, 
and  found  him  to  be  heart  and  soul  against  the  conspirators  ; 
that  he  fully  understood  their  movements,  and  was  ready  and 
anxious  to  defeat  their  plots. 

One  night  after  a  protracted  interview  he  walked  to  the 
door  with  me,  and  as  he  bade  me  good-night,  grasped  my 
hand  and  said  :  "Stand  firm  ;  you  men  have  committed  no 
blunder  yet."  When  I  repeated  these  words  to  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, and  related  in  substance  other  interviews  of  a  like 
character,  and  told  him  something  of  Mr.  Stanton's  early  life 
in  Ohio,  I  saw  that  I  had  made  an  impression  on  Mr.  Lincoln 
quite  favorable  to  him. 

But  when  the  Cabinet  was  announced,  I  was  about  as 
disappointed  as  any  man  in  Washington,  because  there  was 
but  one  man  in  it  for  whom  I  would  have  voted,  as  a  first 
CHOICE,  and  for  him  only  because  he  was  from  a  border  slave 
State,  and  that  man  was  Mr.  Bates  of  Missouri,  for  Attorney 
General. 

Of  course  I  was  delighted  when  later  on,  Mr.  Lincoln 
made  Mr.  Stanton  Secretary  of  War. 

All  the  objections  I  then  had  to  Mr.  Seward,  as  Secretary 
of  State,  and  many  more,  soon  became  patent  to  the  ordinary 
observer. 


—  731  — 

I  had  never  regarded  Mr.  Seward  as  a  practical  man,  nor 
a  safe  party  leader,  except  for  a  party  in  the  minority.  His 
speech  of  January  12, 1861,  in  the  Senate,  after  it  was  known 
he  had  been  selected  by  Mr.  Lincoln  for  Secretary  of  State, 
and  his  official  blunders  after  he  became  Secretary,  tell  the 
story  of  his  utter  inability  to  safely  and  successfully  lead  a 
g-reat  part}^  charged  with  the  administration  of  a  government 
such  as  ours,  during  the  dark  days  from  1861  to  1865. 

He  who  now  reads  that  speech  of  Mr.  Seward,  in  the 
light  of  history,  will  fully  comprehend  that  his  leadership 
was  like  the  blind  leading  the  blind. 

That  speech  was  prepared  by  Mr.  Seward  with  more 
than  his  usual  care,  as  it  should  have  been,  before  its  delivery 
in  the  Senate  by  the  man  soon  to  become  Prime  Minister. 

After  it  had  been  written  and  put  in  type,  it  was  reviewed 
and  recast,  and  conned  over  and  over  again,  not  only  by  Mr. 
Seward,  but  by  more  than  one  friend  of  ability  and  position, 
and  every  word  or  line  that  made  it  mean  anything  defi- 
nite was  stricken  out,  and  every  word  or  suggestion  was  de- 
liberately added,  that  could  possibly  make  it  more  foggy  or 
nebulous. 

The  day  of  its  delivery  in  the  Senate  was  a  solemn  and 
memorable  one,  not  only  in  Washington,  but  throughout  the 
country.  The  great  heart  of  the  nation  was  still  and  heavy 
with  apprehension.  Every  loyal  citizen  expected  and  longed 
to  have  pointed  out  to  him  the  way  to  preserve  the  national 
unity  and  national  life  without  dishonor.  Never  in  our  his- 
tory has  there  been  such  an  occasion  for  a  statesman,  and 
never  before  was  there  such  a  failure. 

Mr.  Stevens,  of  Pennsylvania,  then  an  old  man  (and  by 
far  the  ablest  man  with  whom  I  served  in  Congress),  walked 
over  with  me  from  the  House  to  the  Senate  Chamber.  We 
both  had  seats  in  the  aisle,  a  little  in  front  of  Mr.  Seward's 
desk,  and  could  hear  him  distinctly.  I  need  not  say  that  we 
listened,  as  did  every  one  in  that  vast  audience  and  in  the 
entire  nation,  for  one  word  or  thought  that  would  stir  our 
hearts  or  give  us  hope.  But  no  such  word  or  suggestion 
came  in  that  speech  from  the  man  who  was  so  soon  to  be 
charged  with  the  most  delicate  and  responsible  office  in  Mr. 
Lincoln's  Cabinet. 


732  — 


I 


I  have  more  than  once  seen  both  the  Senate  and  House 
in  mourning-,  but  never  did  I  see  so  sad  an  audience  quit  the 
Senate  Chamber  as  on  that  day. 

While  walking-  back  with  Mr.  Stevens  towards  the 
House,  I  said  :  **  Mr.  Stevens,  what  do  jou  say  to  all  that  ?'' 
His  answer  was  short,  sharp  and  characteristic.  He  said  : 
"I  have  listened  to  every  word,  and  by  the  living  God,  I 
have  heard  nothing."  After  going  with  Mr.  Stevens  to  his 
committee-room,  I  immediately  returned  to  the  Senate  to  get 
the  opinion  of  the  Senators  with  whom  I  was  intimate. 
Taking  Mr.  Wade  by  the  hand,  I  said  :  *'  Well,  Mr.  Senator, 
what  have  you  to  say  ?"  And  he  answered  :  **  If  we  follow 
such  leadership  we  will  be  in  the  wilderness  longer  than  the 
children  of  Israel  under  Moses."  Mr.  Sumner  said:  '*I 
knew  what  was  coming,  but  confess  that  I  am  sad."  Zac. 
Chandler  did  not  wait  for  my  question,  but  as  I  approached 
him,  raised  his  hands  and  exclaimed  :  **  Great  God  !  how  are 
the  mighty  fallen  I" 

And  this  was  the  judgment  of  a  majority  of  our  friends, 
in  both  the  Senate  and  House,  with  whom  at  that  time  I  ex- 
changed opinions  about  the  speech.  It  was  reluctantl}^  ad- 
mitted that  it  meant  a' backdown  to  the  conspirators. 

And  this,  alas  1  was  the  best,  and  all,  the  new  Prime 
Minister  had  to  offer  us.  Instead  of  pointing  out  the  path 
of  duty  and  safety  as  a  statesman  should  have  done,  he  led 
us  into  the  wilderness,  enveloped  in  a  cloud  of  words  and 
metaphors,  and  there  left  us. 

I  was  anxious  from  the  day  of  the  delivery  of  that  speech 
until  the  Republican  Senators,  with  but  one  dissenting  vote, 
requested  Mr.  Lincoln  to  dismiss  Mr.  Seward  from  his  Cabi- 
net. And  though  the  President  did  not  comply  with  that  re- 
quest of  the  Republican  Senators,  as  I  then  thought  and  now 
think  he  should  have  done,  I  felt  confident  that  we  should 
from  that  time  on  have  less  of  Mr.  Seward's  amazing  as- 
sumption, that  (when  in  his  hand)  '*  the  pen  is  mightier 
than  the  sword."  Mr.  Lincoln's  position  and  leadership  was 
unquestioned  from  this  date. 

SEWARD. 

Immediately  after  entering  upon  his  duties  as  Secretary 


/0»5- 


of  State,  Mr.  Seward  assumed  to  direct  all  departments  of 
the  Government,  substantially  as  if  he  were  a  British  Prime 
Minister  and  Mr.  Lincoln  but  the  nominal  Executive. 

Without  consulting-  either  the  President,  the  Secretary 
of  War,  or  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Mr.  Seward  undertook, 
secretly  and  on  his  own,  responsibility,  to  direct  the  move- 
ments of  military  and  naval  officers  as  if  he  were  in  fact 
President.  He  caused  the  rebel  authorities  in  Charleston  to 
be  notified  by  teleg-raph  that  the  **  Administration  had  given 
a  confidential  order  to  feinforce  Fort  Sumter,"  to  which  Mr. 
Seward  was  opposed,  as  a  matter  of  policy,  and  therefore  se- 
cretly resolved  to  defeat  it.  The  next  day  he  notified  Judg-e 
Campbell,  a  notorious  secessionist,  then  on  the  Supreme 
Bench,  that  '*  faith  as  to  Fort  Sumter  has  been  kept,  wait 
and  see."  No  one  claims  that  Mr.  Seward  did  this  as  a  dis- 
loyal man,  but  as  a  theorist,  who  honestly  believed  that  in 
his  hand  '*the  pen  was  mig-htier  than  the  sword."  Mr. 
Seward  was,  in  theory,  a  centralist,  rather  than  a  disunionist, 
and  yet  he  was  absolutely  without  any  fixed  or  clearly  defined 
policy  when  the  Rebellion  broke  out.  He  simply  drifted  on 
an  unknown  sea.  His  efforts  at  delay  resulted  in  desperate 
expedients,  and  led  him  to  send  out  secret  ag-ents  to  obstruct, 
mislead  and  delay  all  military  and  naval  movements,  for  fear 
that  actual  war  would  falsify  his  prophetic  utterances  and 
defeat  his  negotiations. 

Over  and  over  again  he  had  declared  that  **  within  ninety 
days  there  would  be  peace,"  that  "  harmony  and  reconciliation 
would  come  within  ninety  days." 

How  peace  and  harmony  were  to  be  secured  he  never 
clearly  made  known.     He  simply  predicted  it . 

In  his  speech  of  January  12th  in  the  Senate  he  proposed 
to  meet  "exaction  with  concession,"  and  "violence  with 
peaceably  submitting-  to  the  doctrine  of  coercion,  and  quietly 
evacuating  all  the  forts,  and  abandoning  all  the  public 
property    in    the    rebel  States,  except  where   authority 

COtTLD   BE   exercised  WITHOUT  WAGING  WAR." 

He  and  General  Scott  had  made  up  their  minds  "to  let 
the  wayward  sisters  depart  in  peace." 

By  pursuing  this  policy,  he  hoped  in  some  mysterious 


734  — 


way  ultimately  to  bring  each,  seceded  State  back  into  the 
Union. 

In  that  speech  he  said:  *'I  am  willing"  to  vote  for  an 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  declaring"  that  it  shall  not, 
by  any  future  amendment,  be  so  altered  as  to  confer  on  Con- 
gress power  to  abolish  or  interfere  with  slavery  in  an}' 
State." 

I  say  nothing  of  Mr.  Seward  s  damaging  dispatches  to 
Mr.  Adams,  our  Minister  to  Great  Britain,  nor  of  his  blun- 
ders with  other  powers;  I  simply  state  that  it  was  among  our 
great  misfortunes  that  he  was  called  into  tjie  Cabinet.  In 
the  Senate  he  would  have  been  both  usEFui,  and  harmi^ess. 

I  saw  Mr.  Lincoln  early  the  next  morning  after  the 
Senatorial  Committee  called  on  him  to  ask  for  Mr.  Seward's 
removal. 

It  was  a  characteristic  interview.  The  President  asked 
me  *' what  I  would  do  if  I  were  in  his  place."  This  was  a 
way  in  which  he  often  put  questions  to  men.  I  answered 
him  *'that  what  he  would  do  or  what  I  would  do  was  not  a 
fair  way  to  put  it,"  ''  but  that  if  I  was  in  his  place  and  held 
his  opinions,  I  would  accept  the  resignations  of  Mr.  Seward 
and  Mr.  Chase  instanter;  and  at  once  appoint  Mr.  Collamer^ 
of  Vermont,  Secretary  of  State,  and  Mr.  Fessenden  of  Maine, 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury." 

The  suggestion  pleased  Mr.  Lincoln  very  much,  espe- 
cially the  naming  of  Mr.  Collamer  for  Secretary  of  State. 

Mr.  Collamer  had  been  in  General  Harrison's  Cabinet  in 
1841,  and  was  recognized  as  an  able  lawyer,  as  well  as  the 
most  conservative  Republican  Senator  in  the  Senate.  Mr. 
Collamer  had  acted  as  chairman  of  the  Senatorial  Committee 
which,  had  called  on  the  President  to  demand  Mr.  Seward's 
dismissal  from  the  Cabinet,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  saw  at  once  that 
such  an  appointment  would  strike  the  extreme  conservative 
wing  of  the  Republican  party  very  favorably,  and  he  was  all 
the  more  pleased  with  the  suggestion  because  it  came  from 
so  pronounced  a  radical  as  I  was,  and  a  recognized  friend  of 
Chase.  He  said  two  or  three  times:  '*  Why,  Ashley,  Colla- 
mer would  make  a  first-class  Secretary ; "  and  added,  **  and 
how  it  would  surprise  the  Senate  I " 


—  735  — 


GENERAL    SCOTT. 


The  day  the  first  advance  of  our  army  marched  across 
the  long"  bridge  at  Washing-ton  will  always  be  a  memorable 
one  to  me.  I  had  never  before  seen  such  a  military  display. 
I  went  directly  to  the  White  House  to  see  the  President,  but 
found  that  he  had  gone  over  to  General  Scott's  office;  I  fol- 
lowed and  described  with  enthusiasm  the  marching*  of  our 
soldiers,  singing-  '*01d  John  Brown,"  and  said:  **Mr.  Presi- 
dent, if  our  armies  fight  under  the  inspiration  of  that  song", 
the  g-ates  of  hell  cannot  prevail  ag"ainst  us."  General  Scott 
(who  was  a  Virginian)  astonished  me  by  saying-  *' that  he 
regretted  to  strike  his  mother."  I  replied  with  much  warmth 
"that  he  who  struck  that  flag  [pointing  to  it]  struck  my 
mother  and  deserved  death,"  and  unceremoniously  walked 
out,  indignant  at  such  an  utterance  from  the  commanding 
general  of  our  armies.  This  incident  tells  the  story  of  our 
national  demoralization.  General  Scott,  the  commander  of 
our  armies,  had  at  that  time,  unknown  to  Mr.  Lincoln  or  the 
public,  reached  the  amazing  conclusion  that  it  was  best  to 
'*  let  the  wayward  sisters  depart  in  peace." 

General  Scott  soon  afterwards  (under  the  manipulation 
of  Seward)  recommended  the  surrender  of  Fort  Sumter  and 
Fort  Pickens.  As  the  President,  with  the  approval  of  the 
Cabinet,  had  before  this  ordered  reinforcements  and  provisions 
to  Fort  Sumter,  this  sudden  and  unlooked-for  change  on  the 
part  of  General  Scott  shook  the  faith  of  the  President  in  him, 
and  he  immediately  began  the  search  for  a  younger  and  more 
reliable  commander. 


THE  ARMY. 

I  do  not  care  to  introduce  or  dwell  on  the  disasters  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  until  General  Grant  assumed  com- 
mand, nor  will  I  attempt  to  criticise  its  defeated  generals.  I 
am  not  a  military  man,  and  therefore  not  competent  for  such 
a  task. 

That   Generals  McDowell,  McClellan,  Burnside,  Hooker 


—  736 


^m 


and  Pope   did   the  best   they  could,  no  one  now  questions; 
That  they  did  not  do  better  was  the  nation's  misfortune. 

-  The  rank  and  file  of  our  army  both  North  and  South 
were  made  up  of  as  g*ood  material  as  the  world  ever  saw.  In 
some  respects  the  Southern  soldier  for  a  time  had  the  advan- 
tage. First,  every  slave-master  was  born  and  trained  to 
command;  he  became  self-reliant  and  confident  from  youth 
up;  he  was  an  accomplished  horseman,  accustomed  to  out- 
door life  and  the  use  of  firearms.  These  qualities,  with  a 
fiery  temperament  and  splendid  physical  org-anization,  made 
him  the  most  formidable  soldier  in  the  world;  and  when  you 
add  to  this  the  fact  that  he  was  fig-hting-  on  his  own  chosen 
ground,  surrounded  by  friends,  and  with  natural  positions 
for  defense,  you  have  a  soldier  of  whom  any  general  might 
well  be  proud.  The  Northwestern  soldier  had  many  of  these 
admirable  qualities,  especially  did  he  have  the  advantage 
which  an  out-door  and  frontier  life  gives  in  educating  men  to 
be  self-reliant  and  accustomed  to  the  use  of  horses  and  fire- 
arms. 

The  soldiers  from  the  Kast  did  not  have  the  out-door 
life  of  their  Western  comrades,  and  it  required  a  year  or  more 
of  active  training  in  the  field  to  make  them  equal  in  this  re- 
gard to  Western  men.  But  when  the  Eastern  and  Western 
soldiers  were  united  under  General  Grant,  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  proved  itself  to  be  the  equal  of  the  soldiers  in  the 
Southern  army,  and  from  the  day  General  Grant  took  com- 
mand of  that  army  no  more  was  heard  about  the  inefficiency 
or  want  of  valor  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

And  I  might  say  here,  in  order  to  estimate  men's  char- 
acters, some  little  incident  in  their  lives  will  often  tell  you 
the  kind  of  men  they  are.  That  is  especially  true  in  civil 
life.  You  go  into  a  congress  of  three  hundred  men  and  you 
will  see  the  timid  men  coming  together,  you  will  see  the 
reckless  men  together,  and  you  will  see  the  profound 
men  together.  And  so  in  the  army;  you  will  find  all  the 
fighting  men  gravitate  together,  as  if  they  understood  and 
had  confidence  in  each  other. 

When  General  Grant,  on  the  evening  of  the  first  day's 
battle  at  Shiloh  (which  had  been  a  defeat),  was  told  by  his 
quartermaster  that  if  again  defeated  to-morrow  he  would  not 


—  737  — 

have  transportation  enoug-h  to  carry  the  troops  (65,000  itt 
number)  across  the  river,  the  General  inquired: 
"  How  many  can  you  handle  ?  " 

**  Ten  thousand,"  the  quartermaster  answered. 

**Well,"  said  the  General,  quietly,  **if  we  are  defeated 
you  will  be  able  to  carry  all  that  are  left. 

This  incident  admirably  illustrates  General  Grant's 
determination  of  character.  He  simply  determined  to  win  or 
be  annihilated. 

While  talking-  about  soldiers,  my  mind  recurs  to  Thomas, 
the  g-randest  fig-ure  to  me  of  all  the  war.  You  will  remember 
what  he  said  to  General  Steedman  when  he  ordered  him  to 
make  a  charg-e.  Steedman  started  at  once  to  execute  his 
order,  but  impulsively  turning-  back,  said:  '*  General,  where 
shall  I  find  you  after  the  charg-e  ?  " 

*' Right  here,  sir;"  pointing-  to  the  spot  on  which  he 
stood. 

That  told  the  story  of  General  Thomas's  character.  It 
is  also  beautifully  told  in  one  of  Mrs.  Sherwood's  war  poems. 

Sheridan,  when  he  came  East,  was  assig-ned  by  Grant  to 
Meade's  command.  Meade  told  Sheridan  to  go  out  with  his 
cavalry  and  reconnoiter,  but  to  be  very  careful  about  Stuart, 
as  he  was  a  troublesome  fellow.  Sheridan's  blood  was  up  in 
a  minute,  and  he  said  with  some  strong-  words,  that  he  could 
knock  hell  out  of  him,  if  he  could  get  at  him.  General 
Meade,  who  was  a  very  quiet  man,  when  he  saw  Grant  said: 

**  Well,  General,  that  man  Sheridan  that  you  sent  me  is 
rather  insubordinate." 

The  General  says:  "  How  is  that  ?  what  did  he  do  ?  " 

General  Meade  repeated  what  Sheridan  had  said. 

**  Did  Sheridan  say  that  ?  "  inquired  Grant. 

*' Yes,  sir;  he  did,"  rejoined  Meade,  with  emphasis. 

"Why  didn't  you  tell  him  to  go  and  do  it?"  was  all 
Grant  said. 

Meade  went  back,  took  the  hint,  gave  the  order  to 
Sheridan,  and  Stuart  never  troubled  him  afterwards. 

I  went  down  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  v/ith  a  letter 
from  Mr.  Lincoln  to  Grant.     I  had  become  quite  anxious  for 
fear  the  Sixth  rebel  corps  stationed  at  Petersburg  might  be 
47 


—  738  — 

detached,  and  attack  Sherman's  rear,  when  he  was  marching 
from  Atlanta  to  the  sea.  I  kept  talking-  to  the  President 
about  it  until  he  sent  me  down  to  Grant's  headquarters,  and 
I  stayed  there  ten  days.  The  night  before  I  started  back  I 
looked  at  the  map  on  the  table,  and  said  to  the  General:  "I 
wish  you  would  show  me  the  situation;  I  want  to  tell  the  best 
story  I  can  to  the  President  to-morrow;  I  am  going  up  to- 
night." I  had  .been  complaining  about  the  dead  cattle  and 
dead  mules  and  horses,  and  wanted  the  camp  cleared  up  for 
fear  of  a  pestilence.  The  General  gave  me  satisfactory 
answers,  and  pointed  out  the  situation  on  the  map,  and  said 
to  me: 

*' For  every  three  men  of  ours  dead,  five  of  theirs;  for 
every  three  of  our  cattle  dead,  five  of  theirs." 

Picking  up  some  paper  on  the  table  and  crushing  it  in 
his  hand,  he  says: 

*'  Tell  the  President  I  have  got  them  like' that !  " 

It  made  the  cold  chills  run  over  me.  But  as  I  neared 
Washington,  and  caught  sight  of  the  flag  floating  from  the 
dome,  it  kept  welling  up  in  me,  *'Tell  the  President  I  have 
got  them  like  that ! "  It  told  the  character  of  the  man. 
When  I  repeated  what  he  said  to  the  President  and  others, 
they  all  felt  exactly  as  I  did.  But  after  all  it  cheered  us, 
and  we  all  involuntarily  exclaimed,  "  I  have  got  them  like 
that ! " 

And  right  here  I  might  say  that  we  of  Northwester! 
Ohio  never  think  of  the  army  without  thinking  of  the  ok 
Fourteenth,  the  bravest  of  the  brave,  and  of  General  Steed 
man,  its  gallant  commander.  But  I  want  to  say  that  the 
hundred-day  men  deserve  honorable  mention.  The  patriotic 
impulse  that  carried  the  hundred-day  men  into  the  army  an( 
to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  with  Colonel  Phillips  at  thei 
head,  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Faskins  and  Richard  Wait 
among  the  captains,  and  John  J.  Barker  among  the  lieuten 
ants,  was  as  patriotic  as  that  which  carried  the  three-yea 
men  to  the  nation's  rescue. 

I  remember  well  their  march  through  the  streets  c 
Washington,  and  the  speech  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  them  from  th 
steps  of  the  White  House,  and  my  address  to  them  at  th 
front. 


—  739  — 

These  men  were  a  part  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and 
although  the}'  were  there  but  one  hundred  days,  those  one 
hundred  days  were  eventful  days  to  us  and  to  them,  and 
they  have  a  right  equally  with  the  veterans  to  the  inheritance 
which  comes  from  victories  bravely  won;  Especially  is 
honor  due  to  the  men  who  so  g-allantly  marched  to  battle 
when  they  were  exempt  by  age  from  military  duty. 


WNCOLN. 

It  will  not  be  claimed,  even  by  partisan  friends,  that  any 
one  of  our  greatest  statesmen  or  generals  were  faultless  and 
committed  no  blunders. 

Young  and  inexperienced  as  I  was,  I  felt  confident  that  I 
knew  as  much  about  the  secret  purposes  of  the  conspirators 
and  their  plots  as  many  of  our  oldest  leaders ;  but  I  knew 
also  that  if  so  great  a  Senator  as  Mr.  Benton  of  Missouri, 
who  had  served  in  the  Senate  for  thirty  years  from  a  slave 
State,  could  not  command  the  attention  of  the  country  when 
specially  and  publicly  calling  attention  to  the  designs  of  the 
slave  conspirators,  a  young  and  unknown  abolitionist  from  a 
free  State  like  myself,  could  not  hope  to  do  so. 

I  therefore  deferred  to  such  men  as  Seward,  Sumner  and 
Fessenden  in  the  Senate,  and  Stevens,  Washburn,  Grow  and 
others  in  the  House,  and  also  to  such  men  as  Chase  and 
Stanton  in  the  Cabinet,  and  to  Greeley,  Wendell  Phillips 
and  others  in  private  life. 

Before  the  Rebellion  broke  out  I  came  to  know  that 
Seward  was  a  "dreamer,"  who  always  lived  high  up  in  the 
clouds  ;  that  Sumner  with  all  his  ability  was  pre-eminently 
a  man  of  "books,"  and  that  Chase  practically  did  not  know 
men,  and  might  be  associated  in  the  Senate  for  years  with 
the  chief  conspirators,  and  be  entirely  ignorant  of  their 
movements  or  their  plots. 

As  I  now  look  back  and  review,  more  calmly  than  I 
could  then,  the  words  and  acts  of  our  greatest  men,  Lincoln 
stands  forth  pre-eminent  among  them  all. 

Without  experience,  and  confronted  by  trials  and  respon- 
sibilities greater  than  any  President  who  had   preceded  him, 


740  — 


I 


he  proved  equal  to  every  enierg-ency,  and  never  failed  in  the 
most  trying-  and  difficult  hour. 

Surrounded  on  every  hand  by  traitors,  and  often  misin- 
formed by  real  but  mistaken  friends  and  betrayed  by  pre- 
tenders, he  faced  a  million  rebels  in  arms,  and  never  quailed 
nor  faltered  ;  he,  more  than  all  others,  secured  the  loyal  co- 
operation of  the  border  slave  States ;  he  was  the  one  great 
leader  of  the  Republican  party,  and  more,  of  all  men  of  what- 
ever party  who  hoped  for  the  triumph  of  the  Union,  and  he 
occupied  this  position  because  he  was  fitted  by  nature  for  the 
great  task  imposed  upon  him.  His  leadership  was  gentle 
but  firm,  cautious  yet  persistent.  He  was  the  one  man  of  all 
the  men  I  knew  in  those  days  of  trial  and  danger,  best  fitted 
for  the  place  he  filled  so  well.  As  tender  as  a  woman  to 
suffering  and  sorrow,  he  stood  forth  during  the  entire  rebel- 
lion, a  colossus  among  men. 

'*  Like  the  oak  of  the  mountain,  deep-rooted  and  firm, 
Erect  when  multitudes  bent  to  the  storm." 

No  man  can  depict  the  humiliations  and  catastrophies 
which  this  nation  escaped  by  having  Abraham  Lincoln  for 
President  in  1861  instead  of  William  H.  Seward. 

Back  of  Lincoln  and  Congress  stood  the  rank  and  file  of 
the  army,  to  whom  the  greatest  credit  is  due.  And  back  of 
the  army,  there  was  a  patriotic  sentiment  for  national  unity 
and  national  glory,  which  represented  the  moral  force  of  an 
overwhelming  majority  of  the  nation.  This  sentiment  molded 
and  directed  Lincoln  and  her  statesmen,  and  inspired  her 
generals  and  the  army  with  the  necessity  of  union  and  the 
hope  of  victory. 

Without  this  united  moral  force  Congress  would  not 
have  acted,  the  President  would  have  been  powerless,  and  the 
republic  of  Washington  and  Jefferson  would  have  been  di- 
vided, dismembered  and  destroyed,  and  on  its  ruins  two  or 
more  discordant  and  hostile  governments  erected,  which 
would  have  been  a  perpetual  menace  to  each  other  and  to  the 
peace  of  the  world. 


—  741  — 


TRUE   STATESMANSHIP. 


We  have  now  reached  a  time  (so  far  have  we  advanced 
in  a  single  generation)  where  we  can  form  a  proper  estimate 
of  the  statesmen  who  ruled  this  nation  from  1836  to  1860. 

Even  the  ordinary  observer  of  to-day,  no  longer  recognizes 
their  pretensions  to  statesmanship.  Plain,  practical  common- 
sense  Americans  who  believe  in  a  "  government  of  the  peo- 
ple, by  the  people,  for  the  people,"  will  in  the  future  declare, 
as  they  do  now,  that  true  statesmanship  does  not  enact  in- 
justice INTO  LAW  —  that  that  is  not  a  democratic  or  repub- 
lican government,  which  affirms  the  legal  right  to  property 
in  man,  or  which  authorizes  or  permits  the  enslavement  of 
men  by  fraud  or  force.  At  a  time  when  the  moral  sentiment 
of  mankind  the  world  over,  was  practically  a  unit  against  the 
enslavement  of  any  race,  and  when  the  imperial  governments 
of  Russia  and  Brazil  were  emancipating  their  slaves,  and  all 
the  great  nations  of  the  world  were  joining  hands  to  attempt 
the  civilization  of  the  dark  continent  of  Africa,  to  the  end 
that  they  might  make  slave  piracy  impossible,  the  so-called 
statesmen  of  this  country  were  conspiring  to  destroy  the 
freest  and  best  government  on  earth,  and  making  war  on 
their  own  kindred  in  order  that  they  might  establish  one 
or  MORE  petty  governments  whose  corner-stone  should  be 
human  slavery. 

The  folly  and  crimes  of  the  secession  leaders  and  their 
allies  of  the  North  can  never  be  repeated  again ;  even  the 
memory  of  them  will  soon  have 

**  Gone  glimmering  through  the  gleam  of  things  that  were — 
A  school-boy's  tale,  the  wonder  of  an  hour." 

Never  again  shall  there  be  witnessed  in  the  land  of 
Washington  and  Lincoln,  the  blasphemy  of  religious  teachers 
preaching  that  saint  and  sinner  alike  must  see  to  it  '*that 
servants  obey  their  masters  in  ai.i,  things  because  acceptable 
in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,"  and  that  when  escaping,  it  was  the 
duty  of  the  public  to  provide  for  returning  slaves  to  their 


—  742  — 

slave-masters  at  the  nation's  expense,  and,  crowning-  all,  by 
boldly  affirming-  the  divinity  of  slavery. 

The  conspirators  and  their  apologists  may  write  thou- 
sands of  volumes  in  defense  of  their  dogma  of  secession  and 
state  rights,  and  fill  them  with  long-drawn-out  logic  and 
quotations  from  the  Bible  and  from  pretended  Christian 
teachers  affirming-  the  divinity  of  slavery;  they  may  build 
monuments  of  marble,  brass  or  iron  to  their  lost  cause  and 
its  dead  leaders,  and  do  what  they  may  to  justify  or  excuse 
their  blunders  and  their  crimes,  and  yetj  the  time  is  coming, 
and  NOW  is,  in  which  no  sane  man  will  read  their  writings 
except  to  learn  from  their  own  pens  the  height  and  depth  of 
their  amazing-  folly.  And  a  g-eneration  of  men  shall  not 
have  passed  away  before  all  who  stand  in  front  of  their  monu- 
ments, will  be  asking-  themselves  whether  the  leaders  of  the 
"Whiskey  rebellion,  the  schemers  of  the  Hartford  Convention 
plot,  or  Aaron  Burr  and  his  conspirators  are  not  better  entitled 
to  commemoration,  in  brass  or  iron,  than  the  leaders  of  the 
slaveholders'  rebellion. 

I  have  not  spoken  personally  of  any  of  the  leaders  of  the 
rebellion,  because  they  were  all  the  followers  and  satellites 
of  Calhoun,  from  Jefferson  Davis  down  to  Senator  Wigfall 
of  Texas,  who  was  dubbed  by  his  fellow-conspirators  * '  one 
of  the  most  eloquent  fools  on  the  continent." 

To  me  there  are  inseparably  connected  with  the  history 
of  the  rebellion  three  men  in  civil  life,  who  stand  out  more 
prominently  than  their  associates  —  Calhoun,  the  great  con- 
spirator ;  Seward,  the  dreamer ;  and  Lincoln,  the  statesman. 
Calhoun,  able,  ambitious,  logical  and  persistent,  and  as  un- 
yielding- as  death ;  Seward,  the  philosophical  dreamer, 
political  prophet  and  presidential  aspirant,  the  coiner  of 
beautiful  and  high-sounding  phrases,  with  no  practical 
ability  for  a  crisis,  such  as  the  rebellion  of  1861.  When  the 
hour  of  action  and  trial  came,  he  sug-gested,  in  his  speech  of 
January  12th,  '*that  we  meet  prejudice  with  conciliation, 
exaction  with  concessions,  violence  with  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship,"  and  surrender  to  the  rebels  all  the  public 
property  of  the  nation  in  their  States,  **  except  where  the 

AUTHORITY    OF    THE     UNITED     STATES    COULD    BE    EXERCISEr 

To  crown   all,  he  offered  to   vote   for   an 


—  743- 

amendment  to  the  Constitution  which  would  preserve  slaver}' 
forever,  and  thus  make  the  **  irrepressible  conflict"  perpetual, 
so  long"  as  a  single  State  elected  to  maintain  the  institution 
of  slavery  in  its  borders. 

The  world  recognizes  when  it  reads  Mr.  Lincoln's  state- 
ment of  the  **  irrepressible  conflict,"  that  he  was  the  practical, 
just  and  far-seeing  statesman. 

In  his  great  speech  at  Spring-field,  Illinois,  in  1858,  he 
said : 

"  A  house  divided  ag-ainst  itself  cannot  stand.  I  believe 
that  this  government  cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave 
and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved.  I 
do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall,  but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease 
to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other. 
Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread 
of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the 
belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction,  or  its 
advocates  will  push  it  forward  till  it  shall  become  alike  law- 
ful in  all  the  States,  old  as  well  as  new.  North  as  well  as 
South." 

This  great  speech  made  Mr.  Lincoln  President.  After 
his  inaug^uration,  he  followed  logically  and  with  fidelity  the 
doctrine  announced  in  that  speech. 

And  when  he  declared  in  his  inaug-ural  address,  that  his 
oath  and  duty  alike  required  him  to  see  that  the  laws  were 
impartially    and    honestly     executed;     and    added:     *'The 

POWER  CONFIDED  IN  ME  WILI.  BE  USED  TO  HOLD,  OCCUPY  AND 
POSSESS  THE  PROPERTY,  AND  ENFORCE  THE  LAWS  OF  THE  GOV- 
ERNMENT," a  practical  and  patriotic  people  knew  what  that 
declaration  meant.     They  knew  that  Mr.  Lincoln  intended 

*'THAT  THE   HOUSE   SHOULD  NOT  BE  DIVIDED  NOR   FALL,"  but 

that  the  Union  should  be  maintained  forever  —  and  be  all 
one  thing  —  all  free.  And  to  the  accomplishment  of  that 
great  work  he  consecrated  his  life. 

Mr.  Seward  would  not  only  have  been  dismissed  from 
office  by  any  other  government,  but  would  have  been  arrested 
for  usurpation  of  power  —  and  for  holding  secret  and  un- 
authorized communication  with  the  public  enemy.  And  I 
do  not  believe  that  any  President  who  had  preceded  Mr. 
Lincoln  would  have  continued  Mr.  Seward  in  his  Cabinet  for 
a  single  day,  after  the  formal  and  unanimous  request  of  the 
Republican  members  of  the  Senate,  for  his  removal. 


—  744  — 

It  was  Mr.  Lincoln's  hopefulness  and  faith  in  man  that 
made  him  so  long-sufFering-  in  his  dealings  with  Seward, 
Chase  and  McClellan,  and  hundreds  of  others,  myself  in- 
cluded. 

I  think  he  was  in  that  respect  one  of  the  most  wonderful 
of  men.  I  can  remember  two  instances,  one  of  which  was 
with  reference  to  myself;  the  other,  Senator  Schurz.  Schur^ 
was  in  the  army,  and  was  restless,  as  nervous  men  usually  are, 
and  fired  a  letter  of  sixteen  pag-es  over  the  head  of  his 
commander  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  an  act  which,  as  a  military 
matter,  was  not  to  be  tolerated.  Afterward  he  thought  better 
of  it,  and  wrote  Mr.  Lincoln  an  apology  for  having  commit- 
ted this  breach  of  military  discipline.  The  President  wrote 
him  and  kindly  said:  '* Never  mind;  come  and  see  me.'* 
When  Schurz  came  and  met  him,  he  began  to  apologize. 

* '  Never  mind,  Schurz, "  said  Mr.  Lincoln.  ' '  I  guess  before 
we  get  through  talking,  you  won't  think  I  am  so  bad  a  man 
as  some  people  say  I  am." 

Kindness,  of  course,  captivated  Mr.  Schurz,  just  as  it 
had  other  men. 

I  went  up  to  see  him  at  one  time  about  McClellan  —  got 
there  early  in  the  morning.  He  hadn't  got  into  his  room. 
"When  he  came  in  he  expressed  some  surprise  at  seeing  me 
there  so  early.     He  hesitated  a  moment  and  said: 

*' Well,  General,  what  are  you  doing  here  so  early  ?" 

'*  I  came  here  to  see  you." 

"What  can  I  do  for  you  ?  " 

"Nothing,  sir."  I  closed  my  lips  as  firmly  as  I  could, 
and  emphasized  sharply  what  I  said. 

"You  have  come  up  to  see  about  McClellan  ?  " 

"Yes,  sir." 

"Well,"  said  he,   "  that  reminds  me  of  a  story." 

I  was  determined  to  have  a  solid  talk  with  him.  So  I 
said,  rising  to  my  feet:  "Mr.  President,  I  beg  your  pardon, 
but  I  didn't  come  this  morning  to  hear  a  story." 

He  looked  at  me  and  said,  with  such  a  sad  face:  "  Ashley, 
I  have  great  confidence  in  you,  and  great  respect  for  you,  and 
I  know  how  sincere  you  are.  But  if  I  couldn't  tell  these 
stories,  I  would  die;  Now  you  sit  down  !  "  So  he  ordered  a 
cup  of  coffee  and  we  discussed  the  situation. 


—  745  — 

That  was  the  peculiar  manner  of  the  man. 

I  saw  him  one  day  grant  a  pardon  for  a  soldier  sentenced 
to  be  shot.  The  mother  of  the  soldier  and  some  women  of 
his  household  were  in  the  room.  When  he  did  it,  of  course 
there  was  a  scene.  Tears  came  to  the  eyes  of  many.  The 
President  said:  **Well,  I  have  made  one  family  happy,  but  I 
don't  know  about  the  discipline  of  the  army  ! " 

That  act  was  characteristic  of  the  man,  and  because  of 
his  tenderness  and  love  of  justice,  he  held  together  the  dis- 
cordant elements  —  held  together  the  border  States;  and  I 
think  carried  us  to  victory  better  than  any  man,  certainly 
better  than  any  public  man  of  whom  I  have  any  knowledge. 
I  don't  know  of  any  man  in  this  country  that  I  would  rather 
have  had  for  President,  considering  it  now,  after  all  is  over 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  than  Abraham  Lincoln. 

That  the  historian  of  the  future  will  accord  the  highest 
order  of  statesmanship  to  Abraham  Lincoln  and  soldierly 
qualities  to  the  Union  Army  of  1861-65,  I  do  not  doubt. 

A  practical  world  will  judge  public  men  by  what  they 
accomplish,  not  by  what  they  profess.  Soldier  and  states- 
man alike  must  be  judged  by  this  simple  standard. 

From  this  point  of  view  the  historian  will  show  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  found  the  Government  disrupted  and  bankrupt, 
with  a  hostile  government  organized  by  conspirators  on  its 
supposed  ruins.  He  will  show  that  Mr.  Lincoln  and  a  Union 
Congress  proceeded  at  once  to  secure  its  political  unity  and 
territorial  integrity;  that  they  raised,  organized  and 
equipped  armies  and  crushed  the  rebellion;  that  they 
amended  the  national  Constitution  prohibiting  slavery  for- 
ever; that  they  were  both  merciful  and  forgiving  as  con- 
querors never  were  before;  that  all  laws  and  constitutional 
amendments  were  impartial  in  their  character,  and  operated 
on  the  North  and  South  alike.  He  will  show  that  under 
their  State  governments,  as  reorganized  by  them,  the  South 
has  prospered  and  increased  in  wealth  as  never  before;  that 
the  census  of  1890  confirmed  all  we  hoped  and  promised  when 
we  declared  that  her  increase  in  cotton,  sugar,  tobacco,  rice, 
iron  and  manufactures  would  more  than  double  in  value 
between  1860  and  1890,  and  that  her  plantation  and  city 
property  would  be  increased  in  value  threefold;  and  that  a 


—  746  — 

National  Government,  with  amnesty  and  impartial  sufFrag-e, 
found  a  complete  vindication,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 
And  knowing-  this,  as  each  Union  soldier  and  Union  citizen 
who  took  part  in  the  great  drama  of  1861  *' folds  the  drapery 
of  his  couch  about  him,  and  lies  down  to  pleasant  dreams," 
he  will  know  that  his  sacrifices  have  not  been  in  vain. 

There  are  men  before  me  to-nig-ht  who  bore  aloft  and 
followed  that  flag-  at  Shi^loh  and  Stone  River,  at  Murfrees- 
boro,  Missionary  Ridg-e  and  Nashville,  and  from  Chicka- 
maug-a  to  Chattanoog-a  and  to  the  top  of  Lookout  Mountain, 
and  from  Atlanta  through  Georgia  on  to  Washington,  as 
they  carried  it  in  triumph  back  to  their  homes  prior  to  plac- 
ing it  here  within  the  shrine  of  Memorial  Hall.  And  because 
it  has  been  riddled  by  shot  and  shell  and  has  been  baptized 
with  the  blood  of  the  living  and  the  dead,  it  is  all  the  more 
sacred  to  us. 

Mr.  President,  that  flag  means  more  to  you  and  to  m( 
to-night  than  ever  it  did  before. 

To  us,  as  Americans,  and  to  every  civilized  people  be 
neath  the  sun,  it  symbolizes  the  unity  and  strength  of  th( 
greatest  and  freest  commonwealth  on  earth.  It  means  in 
vincible  power  and  enlightened  progress.  It  means  hop' 
and  happiness  to  all  the  coming  generations  of  men  enti 
tied  to  its  protection.  It  means  that  never  again,  on  the  Ian* 
or  on  the  sea,  can  it  be  a  flag  of  "  stripes"  to  any  of  God' 
children,  however  poor  or  however  black.  It  means  th 
sovereignty  of  an  indissoluble  Union  —  and  a  prophecy  of  th 
coming  continental  republic. 


ADDRESS 


OF  HON.  J.  M.  ASHLEY, 


At  thb  Fourth  Annual  Banquet  of  the  Ohio  Republican 

League,  held  at  Memorial  Hall,  Toledo,  Ohio, 

February   12,  1891. 


Toastmaster :    Gen.  Wm.  H.  Gibson,  Tiffin,  Ohio. 
First  Toast : 

ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

**How  humble,  yet  how  hopeful  he  could  be; 
How  in  good  fortune  and  in  ill  the  same ; 
Nor  bitter  in  success,  nor  boastful  he. 
Thirsty  for  gold,  nor  feverish  for  fame." 

Tom  Taylor  in  "London  Punch.** 
Response  by 

Hon.  J.  M.  Ashley,  Toledo,  Ohio. 


Mr.  President  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  :  At  Alton, 
Illinois,  in  October,  1858,  I  first  met  Abraham  Lincoln.  It 
was  on  the  day  he  closed  the  historic  joint  debate  of  that 
year,  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas. 

My  anxiety  to  see  and  hear  the  man  whose  great  speech 
at  Springfield  in  June  had  electrified  the  entire  country  was 
so  intense  that  immediately  after  our  election  in  Ohio  I  ran 
down  over  the  Wabash,  and  saw  and  heard  Mr.  Lincoln  and 
Mr.  Douglas  in  their  closing  debate  at  Alton. 

I  returned  home  at  once,  so  as  to  be  present  and  celebrate 
my  first  election  to  Congress. 

(747) 


—  748  — 

I  had  accepted  an  invitation  from  the  Republican  Com- 
mittee of  Illinois  to  accompany  Governor  Chase  and  speak  at 
several  points  in  that  State  and  remain  until  the  close  of  the 
campaig-n  in  November. 

The  plan  for  the  Illinois  campaig-n  was  discussed  and 
agreed  upon  at  the  Tremont  House  in  Chicago.  Here  we 
met  John  "Wentworth,  EHhu  B.  Washburn,  Owen  Lovejoy 
and  Joseph  Medill  (then  as  now,  editor  of  the  Chicago 
Tribune)  and  many  others. 

This  was  a  memorable  meeting,  and  from  the  date  of 
that  campaign,  Mr.  Lincoln's  nomination  for  the  Presidency 
in  1860  became  a  probability. 

I  gave  this  meeting  an  enthusiastic  account  of  the  debate 
at  Alton,  and  when  I  stated  that  although  the  election 
for  members  of  the  legislature  might  not  result  in  the  choice 
of  Mr.  Lincoln  as  Senator,  yet  his  speeches  had  made  it 
impossible  for  Mr.  Douglas  to  be  elected  President,  and  that 
a  great  leader  had  arisen,  I  commanded  the  attention  of  eager 
listeners. 

Mr.  Lincoln  came  to  Ohio  in  the  fall  of  1859  to  take  part 
in  the  gubernatorial  campaign,  and  delivered  memorable 
speeches  at  Columbus  and  Cincinnati.  Under  the  leadership 
of  Judge  Swayne  a  distinct  Lincoln  party  arose  in  Ohio, 
which  in  a  few  nionths  became  a  great  factor  in  Mr.  Lincoln's 
nomination  for  the  Presidency  in  1860. 

NORTHERN  PRO-SI<AVERY  CHAMPIONS. 

From  1844  until  1861  the  slave  barons  were  so  entrenched 
in  the  government  that  they  demanded  as  a  condition  to  the 
political  recognition  of  any  Northern  leader  that  thej 
publicly  commit  themselves  by  deeds  as  well  as  words  to  theii 
service.  They  demanded  that  all  Northern  aspirants  to  ihi 
Presidency  should,  in  addition  to  their  general  subserviency, 
give  undoubted  evidence  of  their  fidelity  and  fitness  for  s( 
exalted  a  position,  by  causing  to  be  captured  and  returned  t( 
the  South,  any  fugitive  slaves  who  might  be  found  in  tht 
cities  of  their  residence. 

Whereupon,  the  partisans  of  Fillmore  (then  the  acting 
President),  who  after  approving  the  fugitive-slave  bill  was  in 


—  749  — 

• 

trig-uinof  for  the  Whig-  presidential  nomination  in  1852, 
caused  the  ofS.cials  of  Fillmore's  own  appointment,  to  seize  at 
his  home  in  Buffalo,  and  return  a  fug-itive  slave  in  order  that 
the  slave  barons  mig-ht  know  that  their  recently  enacted 
slave-catching-  law,  could  be  executed  in  the  city  of  Fillmore's 
residence,  and  so  executed,  that  they  could  be  eye-witnesses 
to  the  subserviency  of  their  allies,  who  everywhere  in  that  day 
abounded  throug-hout  the  North.  The  manner  in  which  that 
disgraceful  act  was  performed  at  Buffalo  was  so  shocking-  in  its 
brutality,  that  after  Fillmore's  retirement  from  the  Presi- 
dency, he  drifted  into  obscurity  and  died  unwept  and  un- 
lamented. 

Webster's  friends  in  Boston  joined  with  alacrity  in  send- 
ing- Sims  back  to  slavery,  hoping-  by  this  shameful  act  of 
abasement,  to  commend  their  g-reat  political  idol  to  the  slave 
barons  for  President.  He  did  not  get  a  single  vote  from  them 
in  the  nominating  convention,  and  soon  afterwards  retired 
to  his  home  in  Marshfield  and  saw,  as  did  Belshazzar  of  old, 
the  handwriting  on  the  wall.  Wherever  he  turned  his  eyes 
there  appeared  the  sentence  of  doom,  as  out  of  the  darkness 
came  the  hand  with  index  finger  pointing  to  the  words, 
**  The  7th  of  March." 

Mr.  Webster  died  a  disappointed  and  humiliated  man, 
with  the  personal  knowledge  that  the  slave  barons  could  be 
as  exacting  and  false  to  him,  as  to  one  of  their  own  bondmen. 

The  pulpit  was  but  little,  if  any,  behind  in  its  base  sub- 
serviency. A  fire-bell  at  night  could  not  empty  a  fashion- 
able church  in  Boston  or  New  York  quicker  than  it  would 
then  have  been  emptied,  if  its  parson  had  honestly  prayed  or 
preached  for  the  liberation  of  the  slave.  So  debasing  and 
brutal  was  this  infernal  spirit,  that  the  Rev.  Dr.  Dewey,  of 
Boston,  publicly  declared  '*  that  if  the  Constitution  required 
it,  he  would  send  his  own  mother  back  into  slavery."  And 
yet,  this  self-righteous  worshiper  of  Mammon  and  the  Consti- 
tution claimed  to  be  an  American  citizen  and  a  descendant  of 
the  Puritans ! 

After  such  a  statement  of  our  moral  condition  as  a  nation, 
you  will  not  be  surprised  when  I  tell  you  that  this  reverend 
individual  was  but  an  exaggerated  type  of  a  whole  genera- 
tion of  vipers,  who,  in  1861,  rolled  up  their  eyes  in  holy  hor- 


—  750  — 

TOT  and  demanded  peace  at  any  price  and  our  absolute  sub- 
mission to  the  terms  of  the  slave  barons;  everywhere  crying" 
out:  ''Give  us  the  Constitution  as  it  is,  and  the  Union  as  it 
was."  And  many  so-called  statesmen  in  the  North  lifted  up 
their  voices  in  chorus  and  wept  and  said  —  Amen. 


MR.  LINCOI.N  AS  H:^  APPEARKD  ON  THK  PLAINS  OF  II.T.INOIS. 

I  present  you  this  dark  and  sad  picture,  in  order  that  I 
may  show  you  more  distinctly,  the  colossal  form  and  plain 
but  manly  face  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Behold  him,  as  at  the 
tomb  of  the  martyred  Lovejoy  and  on  the  plains  of  Illinois, 
he  emerg-es  unheralded  from  the  shadow  of  this  national 
deg-radation  and  national  dishonor,  and  with  the  words  of 
truth  and  soberness  on  his  lips,  proclaims:  "  A  house  divided 
against  itself  cannot  stand."  "I  believe  this  government 
cannot  endure  permanently,  half  slave  and  half  free."  That 
was  the  keynote  which  touched  the  hearts  and  anointed  the 
eyes  of  millions.  It  was  in  that  dark  hour  the  fitly  spoken 
word,  and  like  an  eternal  ray  of  light  it  illuminated  the  dim 
and  shadowy  future. 

THK   I.INGOI,N-DOUGi:.AS  JOINT  DEBATES. 

In  this  spirit,  and  on  this  elevated  moral  plane,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln met  Mr.  Douglas  and  conducted  his  great  campaign  in 
Illinois,  and  successfully  drove  him  from  every  controverted 
position.  Subsequently,  in  his  desperation,  Mr.  Douglas 
declared  "that  he  did  not  care  whether  slavery  was  voted  up 
or  voted  down." 

Mr.  Lincoln  did  care,  the  great  heart  of  the  nation  cared, 
every  honest  man  in  the  world  cared  whether  slavery  was 
voted  up  or  down.  And  when  I  heard  Mr.  Lincoln  proclaim 
at  Alton  "  that  it  was  a  question  between  right  and  wrong,'" 
his  face  glowed  as  if  tinged  with  a  halo,  and  to  me  he  looked 
the  prophet  of  hope  and  joy,  when  with  dignity  and  empha- 
sis he  said:  "  That  is  the  real  issue.  That  is  the  issue  that 
will  continue  in  this  country  when  these  poor  tongues  oi 
Judge  Douglas  and  myself  shall  be  silent.     It  is  the  eternal 


—  751  — 

struggle  between  these  two  principles,  right  and  wrong, 
throughout  the  world.  They  are  the  two  principles  that 
have  stood  face  to  face  from  the  beginning  of  time,  and  will 
ever  continue  to  struggle,  until  the  common  right  of  human- 
ity shall  ultimately  triumph." 

The  tongues  of  these  two  great  men  have  been  silent  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century.  The  one  who  did  care  "whether 
slavery  was  voted  up  or  voted  down  "  will  live  in  the  grateful 
remembrance  of  his  countrymen  and  mankind;  while  he  who 
declared  *'that  he  did  not  care"  will  only  be  remembered  as 
the  man  whom  Abraham  Lincoln  defeated  for  President. 


RESULT  OF  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION  IN   1860. 

Two  years  after  his  defeat  for  Senator,  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
nominated  and  elected  President,  receiving  180  electoral  votes 
and  Judge  Douglas  but  12  electoral  votes.  Breckenridge  of 
Kentucky  received  72  votes,  and  Bell  of  Tennessee  39  votes. 

If  Mr.  Lincoln  had  not  received  a  majority  of  all  the 
electoral  votes  cast,  the  choice  of  a  President  would,  as  pro- 
vided by  that  indefensible  and  anti-democratic  provision  of 
our  Constitution,  have  devolved  on  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, each  State  having  one  vote  (except  where  the  Con- 
gressional delegation  was  equally  divided),  in  which  event 
its  vote  would  be  lost.  The  choice  of  a  President  at  that 
time  by  the  House  would  have  been  limited  to  either  Lincoln, 
Breckenridge  or  Bell.  The  conspirators  put  Breckenridge 
electoral  tickets  in  the  Northern  States  with  the  deliberate 
purpose  of  excluding  Douglas  from  the  three  highest,  and 
thus  keeping  him  out  of  the  contest  in  the  House. 

An  election  by  the  House  of  Representatives  of  a  Presi- 
dent for  1860-1861  was  part  of  the  original  programme  of 
the  conspirators  when  they  deliberately  divided  the  Demo- 
cratic party  at  Charleston  and  Baltimore  and  determined  to 
defeat  Douglas.  Nothing  is  more  certain,  had  that  election 
gone  into  the  House  of  Representatives,  than  that  Mr.  Lin- 
coln would  not  have  been  chosen  President,  as  the  Republi- 
cans could  not  have  commanded  the  votes  of  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  States  to  elect  him. 


—  752  — 


I 


With  Mr.  Buchanan  in  the  President's  office,  to  obey  the 
orders  of  the  conspirators  until  they  had  accomplished  their 
purpose,  the  result  would  have  been  a  so-called  compromise 
and  the  election  of  Breckinridg-e. 

In  the  lig-ht  of  all  that  has  happened,  no  mortal  man  can 
even  nov7  presage  what  would  have  been  the  ultimate  result, 
had  Breckinridg-e  at  that  time  been  clothed  with  the  power 
of  the  presidential  office. 

That  this  country  would  have  become  a  consolidated 
slave  empire  during*  the  administration  of  Breckinridg-e  is 
more  than  probable.  The  pro-slavery  amendment  to  our 
national  Constitution,  which  was  submitted  by  the  Northern 
compromisers  of  the  Thirty-sixth  Cong-ress  (and  ratified  by  the 
vote  of  Ohio),  would  have  been  engrafted  into  the  national 
Constitution,  and  slavery  thus  entrenched  could  not  have 
been  abolished  except  by  the  consent  of  every  State,  thus 
practically  making*  slavery  constitutional  and  perpetual, 
with  no  remedy  for  its  abolition  but  armed  revolution. 
Fortunately  for  the  future  of  the  republic,  Mr.  Lincoln's 
election  defeated  this  deeply  laid  plot  of  the  pro-slavery  con- 
spirators, and  their  subsequent  mad  rebellion  and  war  on  the 
Union  enabled  him  and  tjie  national  Congress  to  abolish 
slavery   and    make   the   nation   AI.1.   frke:   instead   of  all 

SLAVE. 

From  the  day  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  inauguration  until  the 
tragic  close  of  his  eventful  life,  no  one  who  did  not  know  and 
often  see  him,  can  portray  the  tremendous  mental  and  physi- 
cal strain  under  which  he  labored,  nor  can  human  tongue 
describe  the  innumerable  petty  annoyances  to  which  he  was 
subjected,  nor  the  intrigues  and  conspiracies  which  he  en- 
countered and  mastered. 


MR.  LINCOLN  AND  THE  RADICAL  WING  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN 

PARTY. 

While  Mr.  Lincoln  was,  beyond  all  question,  as  deeply 
impressed  with  the  necessity  of  saving  the  Union  as  any  one 
of  the  great  men  with  whom  I  served,  there  were  often  radi- 
cal differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  best  means  to  be  adopted 


—  753-- 

to  that  end.  This  was  in  larg-e  part  the  result  of  early 
political  training",  and  political  affiliation  of  the  men  who 
were  leaders  in  the  Republican  party. 

The  advanced  or  radical  wing-  of  the  Republican  party 
was  made  up  largely  of  men  who  had  been  the  recognized 
leaders  of  the  anti-slavery  wing  of  the  Democratic  party. 
Such  men  as  Rantoul,  Sumner  and  Boutwell,  of  Massachusetts; 
Hannibal  Hamlin,  of  Maine;  Hale,  of  New  Hampshire;  David 
Wilmot,  of  Pennsylvania;  General  Dixand  Governor  Fenton, 
of  New  York;  Chase  and  others  in  Ohio;  Julian,  of  Indiana; 
Trumbull,  of  Illinois;  Doolittle,  of  Wisconsin;  Bingham  and 
Beaman,  of  Michigan;  Frank  P.  Blair  and  Gratz  Brown,  of 
Missouri,  and  many  others  whom  I  need  not  name. 

These  men  were  all  trained  in  the  school  of  Jefferson, 
and  our  personal  and  political  affiliations  had  been  with  the 
anti-slavery  wing  of  the  Democratic  party. 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  trained  in  the  old  Whig  party,  and 
Henry  Clay,  its  great  compromising  chief,  was  his  early  politi- 
cal leader,  and  he  voted  for  General  Scott  for  President  in 
1852,  notwithstanding  the  platform  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 
I  voted  that  year  for  Hale  and  Julian,  because  of  the  offensive 
Democratic  platform,  which  was  no  more  objectionable  than 
that  of  the  Whigs. 

I  have  not  read  either  of  those  platforms  since  1852,  but 
if  young  students  of  political  history  will  go  into  any  library 
and  read  them  they  will  be  found  practically  duplicates,  and 
so  subservient  to  the  slave  barons,  as  to  make  the  cheek  of 
every  true  American  blush  with  shame  to-day. 

When  Mr.  Lincoln  came  into  the  Presidency  he  had  not 
advanced  as  far  beyond  the  old  party  platforms  as  Sumner 
and  Chase,  Hale  and  Wilmot,  and  the  men  who  had  crossed 
the  Rubicon  and  voted  for  Hale  and  Julian  in  1852.  But 
within  two  years  he  was  abreast  of  them,  and  before  the  close 
of  his  life  they  recognized  him  as  their  leader. 

What  wonder,  then,  that  at  the  outset  our  differences 
with  Mr.  Lincoln  should  have  been  marked  and  pronounced 
on  some  of  the  most  important  questions  which  confronted 
us? 

We  were  disappointed,  to  begin  with,  in  the  make-up 
48 


—  754  — 

of  his  Cabinet.  I  wanted  Fessenden  of  Maine,  or  Collamer 
of  Vermont,  for  Secretary  of  State,  Governor  Morgan  of  New- 
York  or  Zack  Chandler  of  Michigan,  for  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  Edwin  M.  Stanton  of  Ohio,  for  Secretary  of  War, 
Henry  Winter  Davis  of  Maryland,  for  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
George  W.  Summers  of  West  Virginia,  for  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  James  Speed  of  Kentucky,  Postmaster-General, 
and  Edmund  Bates  of  Missouri,  for  Attorney  General. 

These  men  were  all  old  line  Whigs,  except  Mr.  Stanton, 
and  not  one  of  the  border  slave  States  had  voted  for  Mr.  Lin- 
coln. 'I  proposed,  as  a  matter  of  expediency,  to  strengthen 
the  Union  sentiment  in  the  border  slave  States  by  loading 
their  conservative  Union  Whig  leaders  with  the  honors  and 
patronage  of  the  government.  And  then,  I  did  not  think  it 
expedient  to  take  Seward  or  Chase  or  Cameron  out  of  the 
Senate. 

Instead  of  75,000  men  for  three  months,  I  wanted  the  call 
issued  for  500,000  men  for  the  war.  Instead  of  committing 
ourselves  in  any  way  on  the  question  of  slavery  and  the  status. 
of  slaves,  we  thought  that  the  proclamation, should  simply 
promise  that  all  persons  who  were  loyal  to  the  government 
and  gave  it  their  support  should  receive  the  protection  of  the 
government.  I  wanted  the  war  to  be  conducted  strictly 
according  to  the  laws  of  war,  and  the  army  to  be  moved  not 
in  conformity  with  party  platforms  or  the  decree  of  any  court, 
which  might  be  presided  over  by  some  timid  or  disloyal 
judge.  Ll  wanted  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  suspended  wher- 
ever, within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  the  local 
police  authorities  could  not  enforce  the  law,  and  the  public 
safety  required  it.  In  short,  I  wanted  the  war  conducted  as 
if  we  were  in  earnest,  and  determined  to  preserve  the  Union 
at  whatever  cost;  and  I  believed  then,  as  we  all  believe  now, 
that  the  only  way  at  that  time  to  secure  an  enduring  peace 
was  to  destroy  the  slave  power  and  make  such  a  rebellion 
forever  impossible  in  the  future. 

The  entire  radical  wing  of  the  party  were  opposed  to  the 
authority  which  Mr.  Lincoln  assumed  to  reorganize  the  rebel 
State  governments.  Our  discussions  on  this  subject  were 
often  set  and  sharp.  We  finally  told  him  that  if  he 
attempted  to  carry  out  his  programme  without  the  consent 


—  755  — 

or  approval  of  Congress,  that  the  House  of  Representatives 
would  refuse  to  count  the  electoral  votes  even  if  they  should 
be  cast  for  him  by  Tennessee  and  Louisiana,  and  we  did  so 
refuse  to  permit  their  votes  to  be  counted. 

And  3^et,  throug-h  all  these  earnest  discussions,  sometimes 
waxing-  warm,  as  they  of  necessity  did,  there  never  was  any 
estrang-ement  between  us,  nor  an  unkind  act  to  be  recalled  or 
regretted. 


MR.  LINCOI^N'S  MENTAI,  CONSTITUTION. 

There  was  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  mental  constitution  a  mar- 
velous blending-  of  sunshine  and  shadow,  of  earnestness  and 
innocent  fun,  of  profound  thoug^ht  and  delig-htful  humor,  of 
hopeful  prophecy  and  inexorable  log"ic. 

In  estimating-  the  mental  and  moral  qualities  of  any  man 
of  mark,  it  is  due  to  him,  not  less  than  to  ourselves,  that  we 
form  a  rational  judg-ment  by  a  careful  analysis  of  all  the 
peculiar  traits  and  moods  which  g-o  so  larg-ely  to  make  up  the 
life  and  character  of  every  such  man. 

This  analysis  I  made  for  myself  when  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
President,  and  while  I  shall  express  freely  and  frankly  my 
deliberately  formed  opinion  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  character,  I  will 
be  warranted  in  presenting-  a  few  of  his  striking-  utterances. 
and  well-authenticated  acts,  so  that  you  may  form  an  inde- 
pendent opinion  for  yourselves. 

Before  such  an  assembly  and  on  an  occasion  like  this,  I 
may  properly  relate  two  or  three  occurrences  which  will  illus- 
trate the  masterly  manner  in  which  he  managed  all  kind.?, 
and  conditions  of  men. 


THE  WAY  MR.    I^INCOLN  MANAGED  MR.    GRKELKY. 

During-  the  war  the  number  of  volunteer  peace  neg-otia- 
tors  who  made  pilg-rimag-es  to  Washing-ton,  and  occupied  the 
time  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  members  of  Cong-ress,  were  leg-ion. 

This  brigade  of  budding  Talleyrands  was  made  up  largely 
of  peace  cranks.  Confederate  sympathizers,  gentlemen  ambi- 
tious  of   distinguishing  themselves  by  playing   the  role   of 


—  756  — 

mediators,  and  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  political  schemers, 
who  kept  the  President  and  all  public  men  in  Washing-ton 
who  would  listen  to  them,  awake  at  nig-ht,  as  they  poured  into 
their  unwilling  ears  their  visionary  schemes. 

It  was  a  time  for  fig-hting  and  supplying  the  sinews  of 
war  to  our  armies,  and  not  for  the  game  of  diplomacy,  except 
so  far  as  such  diplomacy  tended  to  support  armies  in  the 
field  and  maintain  peace  abroad,  until  treason  was  destroyed 
at  home. 

We  were  particularly  anxious  that  no  act  should  be  done 
by  the  President  which,  by  any  possibility,  could  be  distorted 
by  European  nations  into  a  recognition  of  the  Confederate 
Government. 

Mr.  Greeley  was  one  of  those  who  had  worried  the 
President  by  insisting  on  opening  negotiations  with  the  Con- 
federate Commissioners  at  Niagara  Falls,  with  the  view  of 
securing  an  early  peace. 

The  world  and  Mr.  Greeley  were  alike  surprised  one 
morning  by  the  public  announcement  that  the  President  had 
authorized  Mr.  Greeley  to  proceed  to  Niagara  Falls  and  see 
what  he  could  do  as  an  apostle  of  peace.  This  was  a  "com- 
mission" which  Mr.  Greeley  did  not  expect  and  had  nol 
sought.  But,  after  all  he  had  said  and  written,  he  could  no' 
very  well  decline  it.  Everybody  was  up  in  arms  against  in- 
trusting any  one  with  such  a  mission,  and  of  all  other  met 
the  guileless  philosopher  of  the  Tribune.  Of  course,  I  wa5 
among  the  first  at  the  White  House  to  protest.  Mr 
Lincoln  explained  to  me  why  he  did  it,  and  added,  **Don' 
3'ou  worry;  nothing  will  come  of  it,"  and  there  did  not 
Mr.  Greeley  accomplished  nothing,  and  was  supremely  dis 
gusted  with  himself  for  what  he  had  said  and  done  in  th' 
matter  of  peace  negotiations  at  Niagara  Falls,  and  neve 
again  troubled  the  President  in  that  direction. 

This  humorous  stroke  of  diplomacy  on  the  part  o 
Mr.  Lincoln  nipped  in  the  bud  the  ambitious  schemes  o 
scores  of  would-be  negotiators,  and  gave  him  and  all  publi 
men  at  Washington  comparative  peace  from  their  impoi 
tunities. 


—  757  — 


Julian's  story  of  lovejoy  and  stanton. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  manner  of  dealing-  with  men  of  fiery 
temperaments  is  well  illustrated  in  a  story  told  by  Hon. 
George  W.  Julian,  of  Indiana,  in  a  mag-azine  article  some 
four  or  five  years  ag"o.  Mr.  Lovejoy,  of  Illinois,  at  the  head 
of  some  self-appointed  committee,  had  called  on  the  Presi- 
dent, and  after  explaining-  the  scheme  which  they  had  in 
hand,  looking-  to  an  increase  in  the  efficiency  of  the  Western 
soldiers,  procured  an  order  from  Mr.  Lincoln  on  the  Secretary 
of  War  for  its  execution.  Lovejoy  and  his  committee 
repaired  at  once  to  the  War  Department,  and  after  explaining- 
the  matter,  Mr.  Stanton  peremptorily  refused  to  comply 
with  it.  ''But,"  said  the  impulsive  Lovejoy,  "we  have  the 
President's  order  here  with  us,  sir."  "  Did  Lincoln  g-ive  you 
an  order  of  that  kind?"  roared  the  irate  Secretary.  "He 
did,  sir,"  answered  Lovejoy.  "Then  he  is  a  damned  fool," 
said  the  fiery  Stanton.  "  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  the  Presi- 
dent is  a  damned  fool  ?"  asked  the  bewildered  Lovejoy. 
"Yes,"  ag-ain  roared  the  Secretary,  **if  he  gave  you  such 
an  order  as  that."  The  amazed  Congressman  and  his  com- 
mittee immediately  returned  to  the  White  House  and  reported 
in  full  the  result  of  their  visit. 

"Did  Sti^nton  say  I  was  a  damned  fool?"  asked  the 
President,  and  Lovejoy  and  his  committee  joined  in  affirming 
that  he  did.  After  a  moment  or  two,  the  President  said, 
"Well,  gentlemen,  if  Stanton  said  I  was  a  damned  fool, 
there  must  be  something  wrong  about  this,  for  Stanton  is 
nearly  always  right.  I  must  see  the  Secretary  about  it  before 
anything  can  be  done."  Only  a  great  man  could  have  so 
borne  himself. 

NASBY  quoted   on   ASHLEY. 

On  no  one  subject  did  we  disagree  with  Mr.  Lincoln  so 
radically  as  that  of  .  reconstruction.  It  was  a  subject  ever 
present  with  me,  from  the  day  I  laid  before  my  committee  the 
first  reconstruction  bill  which  I  prepared  and  had  ready  for 
presentation  on  the  meeting  of  the  extra  session  of  Congress, 
in  July,  1861. 


—  758  — 

I  assumed  from  the  first  that  we  should  put  down 
rebellion,  and  that  the  question  of  questions  would  be 
reorganization  of  constitutional  g-overnments  in  the  sece 
States,  as  a  condition  to  their  representation  in  Cong-ress 

Had  Mr.  Lincoln  lived,  I  believe  he  would  eventu: 
have  adopted  the  views  held  by  a  majority  of  the  Republic 
in  Cong-ress. 

After  an  unusually  long  and  warm  discussion  one  m< 
ing"  on  this  subject,  I  rose  to  go,  quite  dissatisfied  with 
result  of  my  interview  and  exhibiting  a  little  more  fee' 
than   I   ought,   when  the    President   called   out,    and   s 
"Ashley,  that  was  a  great  speech  you  made  out  in  Ohio 
other  day."     I  turned,  and,  I  fear  with  some  irritation  in  1 
manner  and  voice,  said:   "I  have  made  no  speech  anywl: 
Mr.  President,  and  have  not  been  out  of  Washington." 
laughed   and  said:  *'Well,  I  see  Nasby  says  that  in  cc 
quence   of   one   speech  made  by  Jim   Ashley,   four  hun 
thousand  niggers  moved  into  Wood  County  last  week,  a: 
must   have  taken  a  great  speech  to  do  that."     Of  cou 
joined  in  the  laugh,  and   then  Mr.    Lincoln,  in   his   ki 
manner,  said:  *'Come  up  soon,  Ashley,  and  we  will  tal 
reconstruction  again." 

By  the  gentlest  of  methods,  this  great  leader  hel 
gether  all  the  discordant  elements  in  the  Republican  p 
both  in  Congress  and  the  country.  » 

juDGK  holman's  testimony. 

I  could  relate  from  personal  knowledge  incidents  ^ 
would  illustrate  his  unaffected  simplicity  and  tender 
But  instead  of  telling  one  of  my  own  I  will  relate  one 
is  fresher  to  me,  and  may  be  to  you.  I  read  it  on  th 
while  on  my  way  home.  It  was  told  only  a  day  or  tw 
by  Judge  Holman,  of  Indiana,  long  a  leading  Demo 
member  of  Congress,  and  one  of  the  best  men  with  w 
served.     This  is  his  testimony: 

*'I  can  see  how  Lincoln  erred  on  the  side  of  hum 
His  nature  was  essentially  humane.  That  was  the  ch; 
his  character.  But  he  was  an  able  man,  too.  You  z 
if  I  have  not  seen  a  good  many  men  like  Lincoln  in  soi 


—  759- 

Indiana  and  Illinois.  I  at  first  thoug-lit  I  should  say  yes, 
that  I  knew  four  or  five,  but  not  one  of  these,  though  he  may 
have  had  a  superficial  resemblance  to  Lincoln,  had  anything- 
of  Lincoln's,  reality.  He  was  such  a  plain  person  that  people 
often  misconceived  him  and  thoug-ht  him  to  be  artful.  He 
was  polite,  but  his  plainness  was  also  a  genuine  endowment. 
I  recall  when  I  went  to  see  him  about  a  boy,  the  son  of  a  post- 
master, who  had  opened  a  letter,  and  in  it  was  some  money  and 
he  took  the  money.  His  parents  were  overwhelmed  with  shame 
and  sorrow,  for  the  boy  had  never  done  anything  wrong  before. 
Judge  Sweet  of  our  State  sent  by  me  to  Mr.  Lincoln  an  ap- 
peal for  the  boy's  pardon.  It  seems  that  under  the  war  pres- 
sure they  had  been  in  the  habit  in  that  post-office  of  opening 
the  mails  to  see  what  the  rebels  on  the  Kentucky  shore  were 
about.  The  boy  had  seen  them  open  the  letters  of  other  peo- 
ple, and  the  example  had  infected  him,  and  this  letter  having 
some  money  in  it  he  took  the  money  from  fright  or  from  some 
other  reason.  I  went  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  he  said:  'Sweet 
is  an  awful  rebel,  but  Sweet  is  an  honest  man  if  there  ever 
was  one.  I  know  his  handwriting.  He  is  a  bad  rebel,  but 
he  won't  tell  a  lie.  If  Sweet  says  that  this  boy  ought  to  be 
pardoned,  I  reckon  it  will  have  to  be  so.'  So  he  pardoned 
the  boy.  Now,  a  man  from  my  part  of  the  world  could  under- 
stand that  to  be  natural  and  not  artful.  Lincoln  was  able, 
shrewd,  but  above  all  tender." 

THE   wade;   and   DAVIS  MANIFESTO. 

The  first  time  I  called  at  the  "White  House,  after  Senator 
"VVade  and  Henry  Winter  Davis  issued  their  celebrated  mani- 
festo against  Mr.  Lincoln,  the  President,  as  he  advanced  to 
take  my  hand,  said:  **  Ashley,  I  am  glad  to  see  by  the  papers 
that  you  refused  to  sign  the  Wade  and  Davis  manifesto." 
**Yes,  Mr.  President,"  I  answered,  "I  could  not  do  that," 
and  added,  for 

**  Close  as  sin  and  suffering  joined 
We  march  to  fate  abreast." 

It  was  a  picture  as  we  thus  stood,  my  lips  quivering  with 
emotion,  while  tears  stood  in  the  eyes  of  both. 

On  many  occasions  during  the  darkest  hours  of  our 
great  conflict,  men  who  were  in  accord  were  often  in  such 
close  touch  with  each  other,  that  each  could  feel  the  pulse- 
heat  of  the  other's  heart. 


—  760  — 

This  incident  tells  its  own  story.  Mr.  Lincoln  reg-ardc 
both  Mr.  Wade  and  Mr.  Davis  as  able  and  honest  men,  at 
he  knew  they  were  my  warm  personal  friends.  He  also  kne 
that  nothing-  but  a  sense  of  public  duty  could  have  separat( 
me  from  them.  No  one  regretted  their  mistake  more  thar 
did ;  and,  knowing-  my  close  relations  to  them,  Mr.  Linco 
did  not  hesitate  to  speak  to  me  of  their  mistake  in  tl 
kindest  spirit. 


THE)    EMANCIPATION    PROCI.AMATION. 

Eig'hteen  hundred  and  sixty-two  was  like   1890,  an  c 
year  for   Republicans.      After  my  election  in   1862,    I   w 
invited  by  teleg-raph  to  come  to  Washing-ton.     When  I  call 
on  the  President,  he  cong-ratulated  me  on  my  triumph,  ai 
said:     "How  did  you   do  it?"     I  answered,   "It  was  yo 
emancipation  proclamation,  Mr.  President,  that  did  it." 
a  few  moments  he  said,  * '  Well,  how  do  you  like  the  proc! 
mation?"     I  answered  that  I  liked  it  as  far  as  it  went,  a 
added,  "but,  Mr.  President,  i*f  I  had  been   Commander-: 
Chief,  I  should  not  have  g-iven  the  enemy  one  hundred  da 
notice  of  my  purpose  to  strike  him,  at  the  expiration  of  tl 
time,  in  his  most  vulnerable  point,  nor  would  I  have  offei 
any   apolog-y  for   doing-   so   g-reat  and   noble   an   act." 
laughed  and  enjoyed  my  hit,   and   after  a  moment's  pat 
said,  "Ashley,  that's  a  centre  shot." 


MR.    LINCOI.N   AT   HAMPTON   ROADS. 

No  one  event  during  the  entire  War  of  the  Rebell 
alarmed  us  so  much  as  the  meeting  at  Hampton  Roads, 
tween  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  R.  M.  T.  Hunter  and  Ju 
Campbell,  formerly  of  our  United  States  Supreme  Court, 
the  President  and  Mr.  Seward. 

The  night  I  learned  that  "Blair's  scheme,"  as  it 
called,  was  about  to  be  attempted,  I  went  to  the  White  He 
and  protested  against  it.     When  it  became  known  that 
Seward   had   actually  gone  down  to  Hampton  Roads  al< 
every  loyal  man  in  Washington  was  white  with  indignat 


—  761  — 

and  the  demand  was  made  that  the  President  should  go 
down  at  once  unless  Mr.  Seward  was  recalled.  Mr.  Lincoln 
went  down,*and  again  nothing"  was  done.  Mr.  Lincoln  suc- 
cessfully handled  the  wily  Confederate  Commissioners  at  this 
meeting  —  put  them  thoroughly  in  the  wrong,  and  so  de- 
feated their  last  desperate  effort  to  extricate  themselves  from 
the  fate  that  all  men  of  judgment  then  knew  to  be  inevitable, 
if  the  Union  men  of  the  nation  but  did  their  duty. 

Before  Mr.  Lincoln  started  for  Hampton  Roads  he  said 
to  a  friend  of  mine  "that  nothing  would  come  of  it,"  and 
when  he  returned  to  Washington  we  knew  that  the  end  of 
the  Confederacy  was  near,  and  that  the  Union  was  to  remain 
unbroken. 

Constitutionally  cautious,  and  by  political  training  a 
conservative,  Mr.  Lincoln  nevertheless  kept  abreast  of  pub- 
lic opinion,  and  in  his  last  annual  message  to  Congress  an- 
nounced with  a  clearness  of  statement  which  could  not  be 
misinterpreted,  and  with  an  impressiveness  befitting  the 
dignity  of  his  great  office,  that  — 

**In  presenting  the  abandonment  of  armed  resistance  to 
national  authority  on  the  part  of  the  insurgents  as  the  only 
indispensable  condition  to  ending  the  war  on  the  part  of  the 
government,  I  retract  nothing  heretofore  said  as  to  slavery. 
I  repeat  the  declaration  made  a  year  ago,  that  while  I  remain 
in  my  present  position  I  shall  not  attempt  to  retract  or 
modify  the  emancipation  proclamation,  nor  shall  I  return  to 
slavery  any  person  who  is  free  by  the  terms  of  that  procla- 
mation or  by  any  of  the  acts  of  Congress. 

*'If  the  people  should,  by  whatever  mode  or  means, 
make  it  an  executive  duty  tore-enslave  such  persons,  another, 
and  not  I,  must  be  the  instrument  to  perform  it," 


GREAT  EVENTS  DEVEI.OP  GREAT  MEN. 

Seldom  in  the  history  of  mankind  have  great  men  pro- 
duced great  events.  It  is  great  events  which  develop  great 
men.  But  for  the  rebellion  our  matchless  generals.  Grant 
and  Thomas,  Sherman  and  Sheridan,  would  have  been  un- 
known in  history  as  great  soldiers,  and  not  one  nor  all  of 
them  could  have  produced  such  a  rebellion.  But  for  that 
attempted  revolution,  scores  of   men  in  civil  life   who   will 


—  762  — 

appear  in  history  as  among-  our  leading-  statesmen,  would  in 
all  probability  have  been  unknown  in  the  councils  of  the 
republic ;  they  would  have  passed  their  lives  in  domestic  or 
business  pursuits,  had  not  the  opportunity  been  g-iven  them 
of  service  in  the  great  conflict  for  saving  the  nation's  life. 
And  Mr.  Lincoln  himself  had  not  that  kind  of  leadership, 
which  could  conspire  and  plot  and  surround  himself  with 
followers  to  inaugurate  a  revolution.  He  was  pre-eminently 
fitted  by  nature  to  be  the  representative  of  law  and  order,  to 
g-roup  and  bind  tog-ether  all  citizens  of  the  republic  who 
were  desirous  of  peace  and  union,  and  to  preserve  liberty  and 
constitutional  government.  As  an  historical  figure  he  was, 
in  fact,  a  product  of  the  great  anti-slavery  revolution  of 
which  he  became  the  recognized  leader.  But  for  the  slave 
barons'  rebellion  it  might  never  have  been  his  lot 

**The  applause  of  listening  senates  to  command; 
The  threats  of  pain  and  ruin  to  despise; 
To  scatter  plenty  o'er  a  smiling  land. 
And  read  his  history  in  a  nation's  eyes." 


MR.    I.INCOI.N  AS    EXECUTIVE,    DIPI^OMAT    AND    MII.ITARY    COM- 
MANDER. 

Mr.  President :  It  was  my  privilege  in  boyhood  and 
early  manhood  to  meet  and  to  know  a  number  of  the  able 
statesmen  of  this  country  who  were  in  power  prior  to  the 
War  of  the  Rebellion. 

During  my  service  in  Congress  I  came  to  know  more  inti- 
mately the  men  who  were  in  public  life  during  the  Presidency 
of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  I  often  compared  them  with  the  idols  of 
my  boyhood.  I  need  not  tell  you  that  I  am  better  able  now 
to  judge  character  than  I  was  then,  and  to  compare  them 
with  Mr.  Lincoln. 

As  an  executive,  charged  with  the  care  and  responsi- 
bility of  a  great  government  during  the  War  of  the  Rebel- 
lion, and  with  the  organization  and  direction  of  great 
armies,  he  was,  as  I  estimate  men,  an  abler  and  safer  Presi- 
dent than  Webster  or  Clay,  or  Chase  or  Seward  would  have 


—  763  — 

been  under  like  conditions  and  surrounded  by  like  environ- 
ments. 

As  a  diplomat,  he  was  the  superior  of  Talleyrand,  for 
without  duplicity  or  falsehood  he  molded,  and  conquered 
with  truth  as  his  weapon  and  candor  for  his  defensive  armor. 

As  a  military  strategist  and  commander,  he  was  the 
equal,  if  not  the  superior,  of  his  great  generals. 

As  a  man  he  was  merciful  and  just  and  absolutely  with- 
out pride  or  arrogance  ;  and  to  crown  all,  there  was  an  atmos- 
phere surrounding  his  daily  life,  which  made  friendships  that 
last  beyond  the  grave. 

"He  was  a  man,  take  him  for  all  in  all, 
I  shall  not  look  upon  his  like  again." 

JACKSON   ON   HORSKBACK   AND   LINCOLN    ON    FOOT. 

During  the  last  half  of  the  first  century  of  the  republic 
two  men  filled  the  presidential  office  whose  personality  stands 
out  pre-eminently  conspicuous  above  those  who  immediately 
preceded  or  followed  them  in  that  office.  Every  one  who 
hears  me  will  know  to  whom  I  refer  before  I  can  pronounce 
the  names  of  Andrew  Jackson  and  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Both  Southern  born,  they  were  unquestionably  the  two 
most  striking  figures  of  their  day  and  generation.  And  yet 
how  unlike. 

As  I  read  history,  Andrew  Jackson  was  the  first  of  our 
Presidents  who  appeared  booted  and  spurred  and  on  horse- 
back; and  though  his  term  of  office  was  in  a  time  of  profound 
peace,  he  ruled  his  country  and  his  party  with  an  iron  hand 
and  the  autocratic  will  of  a  crowned  king. 

Abraham  Lincoln  came  into  the  Presidency  on  the  eve 
of  the  greatest  rebellion  in  history,  and  though  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  mig^itiest  army  then  in  the  world,  and  practi- 
cally clothed  with  unlimited  power,  he  did  not  magnify  him- 
self nor  attempt  to  rule  with  military  rigor  either  his  coun- 
try or  his  party. 

On  the  contrary,  he  sought  to  know  the  will  of  his  coun- 
trymen with  no  thought  of  party  or  self.  He  sought  to  know 
their  will  so  that  he  might  administer  the  government  as  the 


—  764  — 

general  judgment  of  the  nation  should  indicate,  but,  never- 
theless, in  accord  with  the  promptings  of  his  own  great 
heart,  which  demanded  that  it  should  be  administered  in 
justice  and  mercy,  "with  charity  for  all  and  malice  towards 
none." 

The  thought  that  dominated  him  was  his  earnest  desire 
to  conform  his  acts  to  the  considerate  judgment  of  all  loyal 
men,  and  thus  be  able  the  better  to  discharge  the  duties  of 
his  great  office,  preserve  the  government  unimpaired,  and 
secure  its  perpetual  unity  and  peace  by  enacting  into  consti- 
tutional law,  the  legitimate  results  of  the  war. 

For  a  moment  let  there  pass  in  review  before  your  mind's 
eye  the  picture  of  Andrew  Jackson  as  President  entering 
Richmond  after  the  close  of  the  great  rebellion  (especially  if 
Calhoun  had  been  at  the  head  of  the  defeated  Confederate 
government),  and  then  recall  the  manner  in  which  every  one 
knows  that  Abraham  Lincoln  entered  it. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Jackson  would  have  entered 
it  duly  heralded  and  on  horseback,  amid  the  booming  of  can- 
non, the  waving  of  banners,  and  surrounded  by  his  victorious 
army,  marching  to  the  music  of  fife  and  drum. 

Those  who  have  read  of  Jackson's  imperious  will  and 
fiery  temper  know,  that  the  conquered  would  have  been  made 
to  feel  and  remember  the  iron  hand  and  iron  will  of  the  con- 
queror. 

You  all  remember  how  Mr.  Lincoln  entered  Richmond, 
on  foot,  unheralded  and  practically  unattended.  He  thus 
entered  the  capital  of  the  late  Confederate  government  to 
teach  the  South  and  the  nation  a  needed  lesson  —  the  lesson 
of  mercy  and  forgiveness. 

If  he  could,  he  would  have  entered  Richmond  bearing 
aloft  the  nation's  banner  "unstained  by  human  blood."  As 
he  walked  up  the  silent  and  deserted  streets  of  Richmond  the 
colored  people  were  the  only  ones  to  meet  him,  and  they  gave 
their  great  deliverer  a  timid,  quiet  and  undemonstrative  wel- 
come by  standing  on  each  side  of  the  streets  through  which 
he  passed  with  uncovered  heads.  During  his  walk  of  nearly 
two  miles  the  colored  children,  after  a  time,  drew  nearer  to 
him,  and  at  last  a  little  girl  came  so  close  that  he  took  the 
child  by  the  hand  and  spoke  kindly  to  it,  obeying  the  injunc- 


—  /65  — 

tion  of  that  simple  and  sublime  utterance,  which  touches  all 
human  hearts:  *' Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me  and 
forbid  them  not." 

As  I  look  back  and  recall  many  of  the  wonderful  acts  of 
this  wonderful  man,  this  was,  to  me,  one  among"  the  most 
impressive  and  touching-,  and  to-night  presents  to  my  mind 
a  picture  of  moral  grandeur,  such  as  the  world  never  before 
looked  upon,  a  scene  such  as  the  future  can  only  witness 
when  like  causes  reproduce  such  an  occasion  —  and  such  a 
man. 


"  Ah,  if  in  coming-  times 
Some  giant  evil  arise. 
And  honor  falter  and  pale. 
His  were  a  name  to  conjure  with! 
God  send  his  like  again!" 

As  the  colossal  figure  of  Lincoln  casts  its  shadow  down 
the  centuries,  it  will  be  a  guide  to  all  coming  generations 
of  Americans,  inspiring,  as  it  did,  with  courage  and  hope 
all  loyal  men  during  the  darkest  hours  of  the  great  struggle 
for  our  national  life,  when  he  — 

"Faithful  stood  with  prophet  finger 
Pointing  toward  the  blessed  to  be, 
When  beneath  the  spread  of  Heaven 
Every  creature  shall  be  free. 

<*  Fearless  when  the  lips  of  evil 
Breathed  their  blackness  on  his  name. 
Trusting  in  a  noble  life  time 
For  a  spotless  after  fame." 

And  his  contemporaries,  while  they  live,  and  his  country- 
men for  all  time,  will  cherish  the  thought,  that  neither  time 
nor  distance,  nor  things  present,  nor  things  to  come,  can  dim 
the  halo  which  surrounds  and  glorifies  the  unselfish  and 
manly  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 


Letter  from  Hon.  Isaiah  T.  Montg-omery,  Mound  Bayou,  Miss. 
The  art  of  g-overnment  is  one  of  the  first  necessities  of 
mankind,  and  the  pages  of  history  testify  to  the  rise  and  fall 
of  empires,  which  facts  attest  their  imperfection  in  the  science 
of  g-overnment. 

And  though  American  civilization  has  reached  an  exalted 
plane  of  development,  our  frequent  periods  of  turmoil  and 
evident  strain  in  the  administration  of  State  and  National 
Governments,  should  serve  as  a  timely  warning-  to  be  heeded» 
ere  our  great  republic  shall  become  involved  in  the  common 
ruin  that  has  befallen  so  many  of  its  predecessors. 

All  democratic  g-overnments  should  be  subject  to  the  con- 
ISAIAH  T,  MONTGOMERY,  trol  of  the  human  intellect. 

It  ought  not  to  be  expected  that  the  founders  of  this  republic  should  have  at- 
tained perfection,  especially  when  we  consider  the  imperfect  lights  before  them,  and 
the  common  distrust  then  prevailing  in  the  most  enlightened  minds,  as  to  the  capacity 
of  the  untrained  masses  of  men  for  the  safe  depository  of  individual  sovereignty. 

The  subject  of  improving  and  perfecting  our  system  of  free  democratic  govern- 
ment, so  lucidly  treated  by  the  author  of  this  address,  is  sufficient  to  arrest  the  atten- 
tion of  every  patriot,  and  command  the  earnest  thought  of  every  statesman,  irrespec- 
tive of  party  affiliations. 

Experience  in  the  affairs  of  our  Government,  whether  State  or  National,  has  clearly 
demonstrated  the  tremendous  power  of  party  machine  managers,  backed  by  party  or- 
ganizations, whose  chief  aim  is  the  control  of  the  patronage  and  emoluments  of  gov- 
ernment. That  it  forces  upon  the  people  a  continual  and  often  unsuccessful  struggle 
to  preserve  the  purity  of  their  institutions,  is  well  known.  A  continuation  of  these  con- 
ditions, which  are  becoming  more  steadily  intensified  by  the  rapid  increase  of  popula- 
tion, ought  to  be  sufficient  to  suggest  to  all  thinking  minds,  the  conclusion  that  we  are 
rapidly  approaching  a  point  beyond  which  our  present  system  will  prove  inadequate  to 
bear  the  strain. 

We  are  already  witnessing  efforts  to  purify  the  body  politic,  in  the  discussion  of 
the  propositions  to  nominate  and  to  elect  U.  S.  Senators  by  a  direct  vote  of  the  people, 
of  lengthening  the  presidential  term  to  six  years,  and  providing  that  the  incumbent 
shall  be  nominated  and  elected  by  a  direct  vote,  and  be  ineligible  to  a  re-election. 
There  is  also  a  continual  dread  of  a  clash  between  State  and  National  authorities,  and 
a  consequent  jealousy  on  the  part  of  the  States,  of  any  enlargement  of  the  powers  of 
the  National  Government. 

Within  the  States  there  is  a  growing  distrust  of  the  convention  system,  and  in 
many  instances  recourse  is  being  had  to  primar3'  elections.  The  new  constitution  of 
this  State  (Mississippi)  makes  it  encumbent  upon  the  legislature  to  enact  such  laws  as 
•will  insure  fairness  in  conducting  this  class  of  elections. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  system  proposed  in  this  address  ought  to  prove  particularly 
acceptable,  because  it  clearly  enlarges  the  powers  of  the  people,  appealing  directly  to 
their  intelligence  and  patriotism  for  pure  government,  and  guaranteeing  absolute  uni- 
formity in  the  action  of  the  States  pertaining  to  national  elections,  without  necessitat- 
ing national  supervision. 

The  feature  that  proposes  to  equalize  the  powers  of  electors  and  secure  to  minori- 
ties the  right  or  privilege  of  representation,  is  the  sine  qua  non  of  free  democratic 
government;  being  vastly  superior  to  the  cumbersome  methods  now  in  vogue,  through 
which  an  unchallenged  majority,  in  order  to  strengthen  its  lease  of  power,  sometimes 
stoops  to  deeds  of  tyranny  as  violative  of  the  principles  of  justice  as  the  baleful  edicts 
of  a  crowned  autocrat. 

Governor  Ashley's  plan  contemplates  direct  and  untrammeled  action  by  the  indi- 
vidual voter,  and  the  creation  of  a  carefullj'  selected  body  of  citizens  in  each  Stat*  to 
act  for  them  during  any  interim.  This  plan  ought  to  commend  itself  to  a  people  who 
have  been  prepared  by  a  century  and  a  quarter  of  varied  experience,  for  the  highest 
enjoyment  of  free  government.  Isaiah  T.  Montgomery. 


ADDRESS 

BY  HON.  J.  M.  ASHLKY, 

Before  the  Ohio  Society  of  New  York,  Monday  Even- 
ing, November  9th,  1891. 


THE  IMPENDING  POLITICAL  EPOCH. 


"  The  world  advances,  and  in  time  outgrows 
The  laws  that  in  our  fathers'  daj^s  were  best." 

— James  Russell  Lowell. 


**  As  the  fatal  dogma  of  secession,  was  buried  in  a  com- 
mon grave  with  the  g-reat  rebellion,  it  is  fitting-  and  proper 
that  the  national  Constitution  should  be  so  amended,  as  to 
conform  to  the  new  and  broader  conditions  of  our  national 
life." 

— From  pag-e  805  of  Address. 


Ohio  Society  of  New  York,  236  Fifth  Avenue. 

New  York,  Nov.  10,  1891. 
Hon.  J.  M.  Ashley, 

ISO  Broadway,  N.  Y. 
My  Dear  Governor  Ashley  :  The  paper  which  you 
read  last  evening-  before  the  Ohio  Society  of  New  York  touch- 
ing" upon  existing-  defects  in  the  Federal  Constitution,  the 
dangers  they  involve,  and  the  remedies  at  hand,  aroused 
in  those  who  heard  it  a  strong"  sense  of  its  interest  and  value. 
A  resolution  thanking-  you  for  it  and  soliciting-  a  copy  of  it 
for  publication  was  unanimously  passed.  Sharing-  as  I  do 
this  feeling"  of  the  Society,  it  is  a  personal  pleasure  to  me  to 

(767) 


—  768  — 

transmit   to  you  their  request,  and  to  join  personally  with 
them  in  soliciting-  compliance. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Wagejr  Swayne;. 


New  York,  November  11th,  1891. 

My  Dear  Geni..  :  It  gives  me  pleasure  to  comply  with 
the  request  of  the  Ohio  Society  of  New  York. 

Herewith  I  hand  you  a  copy  of  my  address  for  publica- 
tion, and  thank  the  Society  for  its  complimentary  approval. 

My  acknowledgements  are  also  due  for  the  very  agree- 
able manner  in  which  you  have  been  pleased  to  convey  their 
wishes,  and  for  the  personal  expression  of  your  interest  in 
the  address. 

Truly  yours, 

J.  M.  ASHI^EY. 

To  Genl.  Wager  Swayne, 

President  of  the 

**  Ohio  Society  of  New  York." 


Mr.  President  and  Genti<emen  op  the  Ohio  Society 
OE  New  York:  The  favor  with  which  this  society  received 
my  address  at  its  annual  banquet  last  year,  and  the  letters  of 
generous  commendation  received  by  me  from  eminent  men, 
thanking  me  for  that  contribution  to  our  anti-slavery  history, 
was  so  unexpected  and  gratifying  that  I  am  now  glad  I  then 
acceded  to  the  request  of  our  worthy  President  and  delivered  it. 

But  for  his  friendly  determination  that  I  should  make 
such  an  address,  it  would  not  have  been  prepared. 

I  can  but  hope  that  what  I  am  to  say  before  you  to-night, 
may  receive  a  like  cordial  reception. 

To  you,  and  through  you  to  the  considerate  judgment  of 
all  who  may  read  what  I  shall  say,  I  propose  to  submit  some 
observations  upon  impending  national  questions,  in  connec- 
tion with  our  increase  of  population,  as  disclosed  by  our 
census  reports  for  one  hundred  years  of  progress;  questions 
which,  if  I  forecast  aright,  are  certain  at  an  early  day  to  con- 
front us,  and  to  demand  practical  solution. 


—  769  — 

If  the  appeal  I  am  about  to  make  ag-ainst  our  present 
political  system,  shall  cause  you  and  those  whom  you  can 
reach,  to  read  and  to  g-ive  a  deliberate  judgment  on  the  facts 
which  I  may  present,  I  shall  have  accomplished  my  object. 

As  there  have  been  in  the  past,  so  in  the  future  there  are 
certain  to  be  epochs  in  our  national  history,  so  marked,  that 
he  who  runs  may  read.  Our  transition  from  a  confederation 
to  a  nation,  including"  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  War  of 
1812,  the  Mexican  War  and  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  and 
the  adoption  of  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  abolishing 
slavery,  are  great  and  important  epochs  of  the  past. 

In  the  near  future,  the  impending  epoch  will  mark  a 
more  complete  recognition  than  we  have  yet  witnessed,  of 
the  democratic  idea  in  government,  by  amendments  to  our 
national  Constitution,  which  will  make  it  conform  more  fully 
than  it  now  does  to  the  imperative  demands  of  a  great  repub- 
lican commonwealth.     James  Russell  Lowell  says,  that 

**He  who  would  win  the  name  of  truly  great 
Must  understand  his  own  age  and  the  next, 
And  make  the  present  ready  to  fulfill 
Its  prophecy,  and  with  the  future  merge 
Gently  and  peacefully,  as  wave  with  wave. 
The  world  advances,  and  in  time  outgrows 
The  laws  that  in  our  fathers'  days  were  best." 

The  Constitution  of  our  fathers,  acceptable  as  it  was  a 
hundred  years  ago  to  a  majority  of  the  then  population  of 
three  millions,  could  not  be  adopted  without  material  amend- 
ment by  any  national  constitutional  convention  which  might 
now  be  chosen  by  the  votes  representing  our  sixty-three  mil- 
lions of  people. 

If,  then,  it  be  true  that  with  all  our  veneration  for  the 
Constitution  of  Washington,  it  would  not  to-day  be  accepted 
as  it  is  and  without  material  change,  if  submitted  as  a  new 
Constitution  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  for  their 
ratification  or  rejection,  its  defects  must,  indeed,  be  marked 
and  radical. 

But  it  is  not  at  all  strange  that  in  a  hundred  years  we 
49 


—  770  — 

should,  as  a  nation,  have  outgrown  our  Revolutionary  Con- 
stitution. 

Since  the  organization  of  the  National  Government,  the 
constitutions  of  all  the  orig-inal  thirteen  States  have  been 
changed,  and  some  of  them  two  or  three  times.  This  is  also 
true  of  the  constitutions  of  a  majority  of  all  the  States  ad- 
mitted into  the  Union  since  the  adoption  of  the  national  Con- 
stitution. 

So  long  as  slavery  dominated  the  nation,  amendments  to 
our  national  Constitution,  such  as  we  are  soon  to  see  pro- 
posed and  adopted,  would  have  been  impossible. 

The  abolition  of  slavery  has  brought  with  it  new  duties 
and  new  responsibilities  —  duties  and  responsibilities  which 
the  nation  cannot  escape. 

With  the  adoption  of  the  Thirteenth,  Fourteenth  and 
Fifteenth  Amendments,  millions  of  former  slaves  became 
citizens,  with  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  citizenship. 

These  former  slaves  and  their  posterity  must  forever 
remain  our  countrymen  and  fellow-citizens,  with  rights  co- 
equal with  our  own. 

In  the  year  1940,  only  fifty  years,  the  Afro- American 
population  of  this  country  (including  Indians  and  all  races 
not  properly  classed  as  whites)  will,  as  I  estimate  it,  reach 
the  number  of  13,750,000  or  more,  and  out-number  the  whites 
in  the  States  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  Missis- 
sippi, Alabama  and  Louisiana.  That  the  colored  man  is  cer- 
tain proportionately  to  hold  his  own  in  North  Carolina,  Ten- 
nes^e  and  Southern  Arkansas,  is  probable,  and  perhaps  he 
will  hold  his  own  in  the  southeastern  half  of  the  Indian 
Territory  and  ad-joining  the  Gulf  along  the  eastern  portion 
of  Texas  and  for  some  distance  up  the  Rio  Grande. 

The  census  reports  indicate  that  he  will  not  increase 
north  of  36  degrees  30  minutes  in  so  great  a  ratio  as  the 
whites,  nor  in  the  old  border  slave  States  of  Delaware, 
Maryland,  Virginia,  West  Virginia,  Kentucky,  Missouri  and 
Northern  Arkansas.  On  an  accompanying  map,  I  have 
marked  by  a  black  belt  the  States  and  parts  of  States,  and 
the  eastern  portion  of  the  Indian  Territory  and  Texas,  in 
which  the  Afro-American  will  in  all   probability  dominate 


i 


—  771  — 

before  the  year  1940,  and  certainly  before  the  close  of  the 
second  century  of  the  republic. 

In  order  that  these  estimates  may  be  readily  examined 
and  verified  by  students  of  statistics,  I  have  included  in  the 
appendix  to  my  address,  a  table  giving"  the  incompleted 
census  report,  as  published  to  date,  of  our  white  and  colored 
population  for  one  hundred  years,  and  an  estimate  for  the 
second  hundred  years. 

As  I  estimate  our  total  population  in  1900,  with  the  in- 
sufficient data  before  me,  it  will  have  reached  eighty-two 
millions  or  more,  in  1940  one  hundred  and  sixty-one  millions 
or  more,  and  in  1990  we  shall  number  some  three  hundred 
and  ninety  millions;  at  which  time  there  will  be  not  less  than 
twenty-three  millions  of  Afro- Americans. 

Confronted  with  these  estimates  and  with  the  facts  which 
I  shall  present,  I  feel  warranted  in  claiming  your  attention 
for  an  hour  or  more  to-night  on  impending  questions  as  I  see 
them,  and  hope  by  the  co-operation  of  the  "  Ohio  Society  of 
New  York  "  to  obtain  a  more  general  hearing  by  thinking 
men,  than  might  otherwise  be  given  me. 

THK   LESSON   OF  OUR   CENSUS   REPORTS. 

Our  census  reports  are  invaluable,  no  less  in  aiding  us.  to 
forecast  the  work  of  our  practical  every-day  business  life, 
than  in  the  solution  of  impending  political  and  philosophi- 
cal problems. 

To  me,  the  first  hundred  years  of  our  census  reports 
teach  that  the  impending  questions,  national  and  State, 
which  in  the  immediate  future  will  confront  us  and  demand 
solution,  are  the  equitable  distribution  of  political  power; 
the  guarantee  to  every  qualified  elector  of  a  secret  ballot, 
and  an  absolute  equality  of  individual  power  for  that  ballot; 
the  nomination  and  election  of  the  President  and  all  public 
officials,  who  are  to  be  chosen  by  popular  vote  by  a  direct 
ballot,  without  the  dictation  of  conventions  or, the  interven- 
tion of  an  intermediate  body  such  as  our  present  ' '  College  of 
Electors  "  for  electing  the  President. 

Foremost  among  these,  is  the  question  of 


n 


—  772  — 

i 

\ 

-I 

THE    EQUITABLK   OR    PROPORTIONAI,    DISTRIBUTION   OF    POLITI- 
CAL  POWER, 

national,  State  and  city.  It  is  a  question  of  such  transcen- 
dent importance,  that  it  must  at  an  early  day  command  the 
thoug-htful  attention  of  the  ablest  statesmen  in  this  country. 

In  a  democratic  republic,  it  is  of  necessity  a  fundamental 
question,  and  underlies  all  others. 

As  I  view  it,  it  is  more  important  than  tariffs,  the  free 
coinage  of  silver,  or  any  question  of  ordinary  legislation 
connected  with  the  administration  of  the  government. 

As  in  the  past,  the  ablest  and  wisest  of  men  have  differed 
in  opinion  on  questions  of  finance  and  on  the  practicability 
of  current  matters  of  administration,  so  in  the  future  they 
are  certain  to  differ.  But  on  the  question  of  an  equitable 
distribution  of  political  power,  national,  State  and  munic- 
ipal, so  that  every  citizen  shall  be  clothed  at  the  ballot-box 
with  equal  political  authority  and  in  all  legislative  assemblies 
be  represented  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  votes  cast  in 
the  nation  and  in  his  State,  there  ought  to  be  no  divided 
opinion  among  intelligent  men  who  are  in  favor  of  demo- 
cratic government. 

In  the  war  for  the  Union,  the  people  of  this  country  pro- 
nounced unmistakably  for  a  national  as  contradistinguished 
from  a  confederated  government,  for  a  government  which 
shall  be  a  democratic  republic  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name, 
a  government  which  ought  to  be  administered  by  a  concurrent 
majority  of  the  nation,  instead  of  a  mere  numerical  majority 
in  States,  which  is  often  a  minority  of  the  whole  people. 

Under  our  present  happy-go-lucky  method  of  conducting 
national  elections,  the  minority  of  the  whole  people  have  on 
more  than  one  occasion  seized  and  held  the  government  for 
years. 

You  will  agree  with  me  that  any  device,  or  trick,  by 
which  the  minority  seize  and  hold  the  government,  national, 
State  or  city,  is  an  indefensible  political  crime. 

In  his  "  Disquisitions  on  Government "  Mr.  Calhoun  has, 
with  great  clearness  and  marked  ability,  pointed  out  the 
danger  incident  to  entrusting  the  numerical  majority  with 


—  773^ 

absolute  political  power.  Had  his  arg*ument  for  the  rights 
of  minorities,  and  for  what  he  terms  "the  necessity  of  con- 
current majorities  "  been  made  on  behalf  of  individual  elec- 
tors and  manhood  suffrage,  instead  of  claiming*  it  for  organ- 
ized political  communities  which  he  called  sovereign  States, 
he  would  have  commanded  the  general  approval  of  all 
friends  of  democratic  government  both  in  this  country  and  in 
Europe. 

It  will  be  conceded,  without  argument,  that  one  of  the 
first  duties  of  a  representative  government  is  to  guard  and 
protect  the  right  of  suffrage. 

Only  when  the  elector  has  guaranteed  to  him  a  free  bal- 
lot and  an  honest  count,  can  the  political  judgment  of  a  great 
commonwealth,  or  of  a  State  or  city,  be  collected. 

The  more  perfectly  this  judgment  of  the  elector  is  col- 
lected, the  more  certain  is  the  end  accomplished  for  which 
representative  government  is  established. 

To  collect  the  opinions  of  the  greatest  number  in  the 
nation,  or  in  any  State  or  subdivision  of  a  State,  is  not 
enough;  the  opinions  of  the  minority  must  be  collected  as 
well,  and  as  far  as  possible  the  sense  of  the  entire  community 
as  a  whole.  To  do  this  practically,  special  care  must  be  taken 
that  the  minority  shall  always  have  its  proportional  repre- 
sentation in  every  legislative  assembly  according  to  the 
number  of  votes  cast  by  the  minority  at  any  election  for 
representatives,  either  in  Congress  or  in  State  legislatures,  or 
city  governments,  and  under  no  combination  of  circumstances 
to  permit  the  minority,  through  gerrymandering  schemes,  or 
other  trick  or  device,  to  seize  control  of  the  government. 

The  numerical  majority  must  of  necessity  control  and 
administer  all  democratic  representative  governments,  but 
such  governments,  to  be  just  and  equitable,  must  have  checks, 
such  as  the  negative  power  which  an  intelligent  minority  can 
effectually  use  before  the  bar  of  public  opinion,  to  resist  con- 
verting the  government  of  a  mere  numerical  majority  into 
one  of  despotic  powers.  Obviously  enough  all  representative 
government  becomes  better  and  approximates  nearer  a  per- 
fect government,  the  nearer  it  becomes  a  government  of  the 
concurrent  majority. 

If  every  interest  in  the  nation,  or  State,  or  municipality 


—  774  — 

within  a  State,  is  represented  in  tlie  leg^islative  assemblies 
in  proportion  to  the  number  of  votes  cast  by  each  party  or 
association,  the  combining*  of  this  minority  interest  will 
g-reatly  increase  its  power  for  self-protection,  and  correspond- 
ingly decrease  the  power  of  the  numerical  majority  to  rule 
with  a  rod  of  iron.  It  is  not  enough  to  provide  constitutional 
limitations  to  the  power  of  the  numerical  majority  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  minority,  unless  the  minority  are  clothed  with 
the  power  of  self-protection,  so  that  they  can  enforce  an  obser- 
vance of  these  rights  by  personal  representation,  open  discus- 
sion and  the  public  use  of  parliamentary  rules.  The  numeri- 
cal majority  being-  in  possession  of  the  government,  will 
always  favor  a  liberal  interpretation  of  the  power  granted  in 
any  constitution  or  charter,  and  on  one  pretext  or  another, 
evade  or  disregard  the  restrictions  intended  to  limit  them, 
unless  the  minority  are  clothed  with  the  power  of  self-pro- 
tection, which  can  only  be  had  by  proportional  representation 
and  the  power  which  intelligent  debate  and  publicity  always 
secures. 

On  the  threshold  of  my  remarks,  it  is  proper  that  I  should 
state  the  nature  of  the  amendments  I  would  propose  to  our 
national  Constitution,  and  to  the  objectionable  features  of 
our  national  system  of  elections. 

Briefly,  these  comprise  the  nomination  and  election 
of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  Senators  and  Rep- 
resentatives in  Congress,  by  a  direct  vote  of  the  people,  by 
ballot;  the  creation  of  an  independent  body  of  officials  in 
every  State,  to  be  elected  by  the  voters  of  each,  whose 
powers  and  duties  shall  be  to  conduct  all  national  elections 
within  their  respective  States,  and  fill  all  vacancies  that 
may  from  time  to  time  occur  for  the  incompleted  terms  in 
the  office  of  President,  Senators  or  Representatives  in  Con- 
gress. 

The  changes  contemplated  also  include  the  abolition  of 
the  office  of  Vice-President,  and  the  abolition  of  all  nom- 
inating conventions. 

THE  abolition   of  THE  CONVENTION   SYSTEM. 

From  the  time  of  its  adoption  many  of  the  ablest  states- 


—  775  — 

men  in  this  country  were  opposed  to  the  convention  system, 
although  they  were  compelled  to  submit  to  its  authority. 
They  opposed  it  because  they  comprehended  that  it  was 
an  org-anized  machine,  which  offered  a  standing-  premium 
on  political  fraud  and  corruption.  They  saw  that  it  would 
breed  a  class  of  self-appointed  leaders  who  would  live  on 
office  and  plunder;  that  the  general  tendency  would  be  to 
nominate  men  for  important  positions  whom  no  prudent 
private  citizen  would  for  a  moment  think  of  selecting-  for 
a  public  trust.  And  they  opposed  it  because  it  is  a  system 
unknown  to  the  Constitution  and  was  never  contemplated  by 
its  framers.  Within  fifty  years  it  has  grown  to  be  a  monster 
political  despotism,  and  in  both  parties  is  to-day  the  absolute 
master  of  the  people,  in  all  cities  of  the  first  and  second  class, 
and  in  all  State  and  national  nominating  conventions. 

From  the  birth  of  the  first  national  convention  to  the 
adjournment  of  the  last,  not  one-tenth  of  the  voters  of  the 
country  of  either  of  the  great  political  parties  have  been 
represented  in  what  are  known  as  the  *' primaries,"  that  is, 
in  the  ward  or  township  caucuses,  where  each  party  begins 
the  work  of  selecting  its  delegates  for  all  national.  State  and 
district  conventions. 

At  all  county  and  city  conventions  for  the  appointment 
of  delegates  to  district  and  State  conventions,  the  number  of 
voters  actually  represented  is  still  less  than  one-tenth. 

In  national  conventions  the  delegates,  thus  chosen  by 
district  and  State  conventions,  practically  represent  only 
cliques  and  cabals,  and  even  they  are  often  powerless  in  the 
hands  of  the  managers  of  the  *' machine,"  and  instead  of 
being  a  deliberative  body,  every  national  convention  becomes 
an  irresponsible  mob,  which,  under  the  manipulation  of  in- 
triguers, absolutely  dictates  for  whom  the  people  shall  vote 
at  every  election  for  President,  and  from  this  dictation  there 
is  no  escape  and  no  appeal  except  to  bolt  the  "regular 
nominee"  of  your  party,  which  practically  means  political 
excommunication  and  often  personal  ostracism.  A  national 
convention  made  up  and  organized  thus  name  the  President 
as  certainly  as  if  they  alone  were  the  voters,  and  as  if  the 
entire  body  of  the  people  were  disfranchised  and  voiceless. 


—  77b  — 

This  condition  of  things  also  obtains  larg-ely  in  all  party 
conventions,  State  and  district,  city  and  county. 

If  this  statement  is  even  approximately  true,  certainly 
the  first  and  most  desirable  reform  to  be  attempted  in  this 
country,  ought  to  be  the  abolition  of  all  such  nominating 
conventions  as  now  enable  a  small  and  active  minority,  of 
one-tenth  or  less,  to  rui^k  and  dictate  to  the  remaining  nine- 
tenths  or  more. 

For  securing  to  every  voter  an  equal  voice  in  the  National 
Government,  and  for  a  more  equitable  distribution  of  political 
power,  the  following  plan  could  be  made  to  approximate 
mathematically  to  the  total  voting  population  of  the  nation, 
if  it  were  not  for  the  existence  of  large  and  small  States,  and 
the  inequality  of  representation  of  each  State  in  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States. 

So  long  as  there  are  States  which  contain  a  population 
of  but  a  few  thousand,  or  States  without  sufficient  popula- 
tion for  coequal  commonwealths;  and  so  long  as  the  present 
inequality  of  representation  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  is  maintained,  the  amendments  here  proposed  provide 
for  the  fairest  and  most  equitable  distribution  of  political 
power  in  the  National  Government,  which  I  have  been  able 
to  devise. 

For  State  governments,  whether  large  or  small,  and  for 
all  city  or  municipal  governments  within  States,  it  is  ap- 
proximately perfect.  It  provides  a  system  which  cannot  be 
successfully  manipulated  against  the  people  by  party  bosses 
or  intriguing  leaders,  whether  national.  State  or  city,  and  is 
adapted  to  the  wants^and  growth  of  our  democratic  institu- 
tions. Let  me  briefly  illustrate  the  manner  of  its  working 
in  the  nomination  and  election  of  Representatives  in  Con- 
gress. 

Ohio  is  entitled  to  twenty-one  members  of  Congress  by 
the  new  apportionment  for  1891. 

Under  the  plan  proposed  there  would  be  four  Congres- 
sional districts  in  that  State,  in  each  of  which  there  would  be 
'S.ve  Representatives  in  Congress  to  be  elected  on  one  ballot, 
and  there  would  also  be  one  member  to  be  elected  for  the 
State  at  large. 

It  will  be  observed  that   this   distribution   of   political 


—  777  — 

power,  under  the  new  apportionment,  secures  to  each  elector 
in  Ohio  the  rig-ht  to  vote  for  six  Representatives  in  Con- 
gress, and  no  more  than  six,  and  that  under  no  apportion- 
ment which  can  be  made  after  any  census,  can  the  voters 
in  Ohio,  or  in  any  State,  vote  for  more  than  seven  Repre- 
sentatives. But  if  any  elector  so  elects  he  can  run  his  pen 
or  pencil  across  the  name  or  names  of  any  one  or  more  of 
the  candidates  on  this  ballot,  for  whom  he  does  not  desire 
to  vote,  and  cumulate  his  vote  for  any  one  or  more  of  the 
candidates  authorized  to  be  voted  for  in  the  State  and  dis- 
trict in  which  he  resides.  Each  elector  would  thus  have 
secured  to  him  absolute  freedom  of  choice  from  among- 
the  candidates  placed  in  nomination  by  his  own  party,  as 
provided  by  law,  and  also  from  those  nominated  by  any 
party  with  votes  enough  to  select  a  ticket,  and  it  would 
"be  as  impossible  for  any  voter,  or  for  the  judges  of  any 
election,  to  commit  fraud  in  preparing  and  depositing  such 
a  ballot,  or  in  its  being  counted,  as  it  would  be  were  the 
voter  filling  up  a  bank  check  to  be  paid  by  a  cashier  for 
one  or  six  thousand  dollars.  And  in  no  event,  under  this 
plan,  can  the  minority  of  the  total  vote  cast  in  any  State 
secure  a  majority  of  its  delegation  in  Congress  by  the  in- 
defensible distribution  of  political  power  known  as  gerry- 
mandering. In  fact,  this  plan  renders  the  trickery  and 
injustice  of  gerrymandering  impossible. 

The  simplicity  and  practicability  of  this  plan,  which  is  ap- 
plicable alike  for  national.  State  and  city  governments, 
must  commend  itself  to  all  students  of  political  reform. 

New  York,  under  the  new  apportionment,  is  entitled  to 
thirty-four  Representatives  in  Congress.  The  plan  proposed 
would  give  the  State  eight  Congressional  districts  of  four 
members  each,  and  two  for  the  State  at  large,  so  that  each 
elector  in  New  York  would  be  entitled  to  vote  for  six  Repre- 
sentatives in  Congress.  Thus  each  voter  in  Ohio  would 
vote  for  the  same  number  of  Representatives  as  a  voter  in 
New  York,  or  if  he  so  elected  he  could  cumulate  his  vote, 
and  cast  the  six  votes  to  which  he  is  entitled  for  any  one  or 
more  of  the  candidates  nominated  by  any  party. 

Of  the  manner  in  which  nominations  are  to  be  made  I 
shall  speak  further  on. 


—  778  — 

It  will  be  conceded  that  political  power  is  unequally  and 
unjustly  distributed,  wherever  in  any  State  the  minority 
obtains  or  elects  a  larger  number  of  Representatives  in  Con- 
gress or  in  the  State  legislature  by  the  trickery  of  gerry- 
mandering, or  by  any  other  dishonest  device,  nor  is  there  any 
defense  for  a  system  which  authorizes  an  elector  in  a  popu- 
lous county  in  the  State  to  vote  for  a  greater  number  of 
Representatives  to  the  State  legislature  than  an  elector  who 
resides  in  a  less  populous  county. 

An  elector  in  our  State,  who  resides  in  Hamilton  County, 
is  authorized  to  vote  for  ten  members  of  the  legislature,  and 
in  Cuyahoga  for  eight  or  nine,  while  an  elector  in  Fulton 
and  in  a  majority  of  all  the  counties  in  the  State,  can  vote 
but  for  one  member.  It  must  be  clear  to  the  average  man 
that  the  elector  who  votes  for  ten  members  of  the  State 
legislature  on  one  ballot  is  clothed  with  much  greater  politi- 
cal power  than  an  elector  who  votes  for  but  one.  In  addition 
to  this  injustice,  it  is  well  known  that  these  ten  members  for 
Hamilton  County  may,  in  the  future  as  they  have  been  in 
the  past,  be  elected  by  a  mere  plurality  of  the  votes  cast  in 
that  county,  and  not  by  a  majority.  When  this  happens  the 
entire  representation  from  Hamilton  County  in  the  State 
legislature  is  secured  by  a  minority  of  the  votes  cast  in  that 
county,  and  oftener  than  otherwise  such  an  election  changes 
the  political  complexion  of  the  legislature,  and  gives  to  the 
minority  of  the  voters  in  the  State,  control  of  the  leg'islative 
department  of  the  State  government.  So  long  as  the  caucus 
and  convention  system  obtains,  and  the  inequalit}^  between 
electors  in  the  populous  and  less  populous  counties  of  the 
State  is  continued,  with  the  present  indefensible  distribution 
of  political  power  to  the  larger  and  smaller  counties,  just  so 
long  will  desperate  political  cliques  alternately  dominate 
in  such  counties  and  in  the  State;  and  the  government  for 
cities  and  for  State  institutions  be  attempted  by  "commis- 
sions," appointed  by  the  party  in  power. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  conceive  of  a  more  offensive  ex- 
hibition than  that  which  all  last  winter  was  enacted  in  the 
State  of  Connecticut  for  the  want  of  an  honest  distribution 
of  political  power. 

Under  this  plan,  substantially  as  outlined,  I  am  confident 


—  779  — 

that  any  man  of  mature  years  and  fair  executive  ability, 
witli  a  small  committee  of  five  or  seven  business  men  (but 
never  a  committee  of  one  hundred)  could  dislodg-e  and  defeat 
all  organized  political  combinations  such  as  now  rule  New 
York  and  Cincinnati. 

Nothing-  is  more  certain  if  the  voters  can  be  g-uaranteed 
the  right  to  make  their  own  nominations,  than  that  this  re- 
sult can  be  successfully  accomplished  with  half  the  labor  and 
less  than  half  the  money  uselessly  thrown  away,  every  year  or 
two,  by  spasmodic  efforts  on  the  part  of  exasperated  and 
worthy  citizens. 

It  might,  and  probably  would,  require  two  sharply  con- 
tested battles  before  the  voters  could  accustom  themselves  to 
the  new  mode  of  nominating  and  electing  their  ofi&cials. 
But  the  second  battle  in  most  cases,  and  the  third  battle  cer- 
tainly in  a  majority  of  cases,  would  end  in  the  complete  rout 
of  all  cliques  and  self-appointed  leaders,  who  now  live  at  the 
public  crib  in  both  cities  and  States  by  the  organized  power 
secured  to  them  by  the  political  "machine."  If  such  rings 
and  combines  as  we  have  in  the  cities  of  New  York  and  Cin- 
cinnati can  be  successfully  dislodged  as  proposed,  it  may  be 
safely  predicted  that  they  could  and  would  be  dislodged  and 
defeated  in  every  State  and  in  all  cities. 

That  the  plan  proposed  will  enable  the  people  to  accom- 
plish this  I  am  fully  persuaded,  provided  always  that  a  ma- 
jority of  the  people  vote  to  elect  their  own  nominations,  not 
otherwise.  This  plan  is. for  the  government  of  majorities. 
It  is  opposed  to  a  government  by  commission,  and  to  all 
schemes  for  clothing  the  minority  with  the  administration  of 
government,  national,  State  or  city. 

Let  me  illustrate  briefly  the  working  of  the  plan  if  put 
in  operation  by  the  States  of  Ohio  and  New  York  and  in  the 
cities  of  New  York  and  Cincinnati. 

In  the  States  and  cities  named,  or  indeed  in  all  States 
and  cities  where  democratic  government  and  home  rule  is 
demanded,  the  State  constitutions  and  city  charters  would  em- 
body the  principles  of  the  proposed  amendment  of  the 
national  Constitution,  and  provide  in  like  manner  for  the 
nomination  and  election  of  governors  and  mayors  and  all  offi- 
cials to  be  chosen  by  the  people,  whether  State  or  city.     The 


—  780  — 

plan  for  the  nomination  and  election  of  members  of  the 
legislature,  or  the  law-making*  departments  of  city  g-overn- 
ment,  would  thus  be  uniform  for  all  States  and  cities.  This 
can  be  done  in  every  State  and  in  all  cities  with  mathematical 
accuracy. 

Affirming"  the  practicability  and  necessity  of  two  repre- 
sentative law-making  bodies  in  national,  State  and  city 
governments,  I  would  provide  that  in  all  cases  Senators  shall 
be  elected  by  districts  in  every  State,  and  members  of  the 
board  of  aldermen  in  all  cities  in  districts  of  not  less  than 
three  nor  more  than  five  members  each,  and  that  the  number 
of  Senators  and  members  of  all  aldermanic  boards  should 
invariably  be  composed  of  one-third  the  number  of  members 
to  be  elected  in  districts  to  the  lower  House  in  both  States  and 
cities. 

Thus  in  Ohio,  I  would  provide,  were  I  a  member  of  a 
constitutional  convention  or  a  member  of  the  legislature,  that 
the  State  constitution  should  be  so  amended  that  there  shall 
be  ninety  members  of  the  lower  house,  to  be  elected  in  districts 
of  five  members  each,  and  not  less  than  three  members  of  the 
lower  house  in  addition,  for  the  State  at  large.  To  deter- 
mine the  territorial  boundaries  of  the  18  representative  dis- 
tricts, I  would  divide  the  total  vote  of  the  State  for  governor 
by  90,  which  will  give  the  number  of  voters  to  be  allotted  to 
each  district. 

As  the  Senate,  to  be  elected  by  districts,  would  in  every 
case  be  composed  of  one-third  the  number  of  representatives 
(that  is,  30  Senators),  there  would  be  six  senatorial  districts, 
in  each  of  which  five  Senators  would  be  elected,  and  in  addi- 
tion not  less  than  three  Senators  for  the  State  at  large.  This 
would  make  a  House  of  93  members  and  a  Senate  of  33,  and 
always  secure  an  odd  number  in  each  house. 

In  New  York,  I  would  allot  120  members  to  the  lower 
house,  and  have  them  elected  in  24  districts  of  five  members 
each,  and  not  less  than  three  members  of  the  House  in  addi- 
tion for  the  State  at  large. 

In  a  House  of  120  members  elected  by  districts,  the  Senate 
would  be  composed  of  one-third  that  number,  or  40  Senators, 
to  be  elected  in  eight  senatorial  districts  of  five  Senators 
each,  and  three  Senators  in  addition  to  be  elected  by  the  State 


—  781  — 

at  large.  The  territorial  apportionment  for  the  districts  in 
which  members  of  the  House  are  to  be  chosen  would  be 
determined  by  dividing-  the  total  vote  of  the  State  for  gover- 
nor by  120,  and  I  would  provide  that  in  both  State  and  city 
apportionments  three  representative  districts  of  the  lower 
house  of  contiguous  territory,  should  always  make  a  sena- 
torial or  aldermanic  district. 

For  all  State  and  municipal  or  city  governments  this 
plan  secures  the  absolute  equitable  distribution  of  political 
power,  on  a  mathematical  basis,  in  all  apportionments  for 
members  of  representative  bodies,  and  guarantees  to  all 
organized  groups  of  electors,  numbering  not  less  than  one- 
eighth  of  the  total  vote  cast  at  any  election,  in  any  State  or 
city,  equality  of  political  power,  by  providing  that  no  elector 
in  State  or  city  shall  vote  for  a  greater  number  of  candidates 
than  another  elector,  but  that  each  elector  shall  have  au- 
thority to  cumulate  his  vote,  so  as  to  secure  to  any  group  of 
electors  numbering  one-eighth  and  a  fraction  of  the  total 
vote,  a  representation  in  all  State  and  city  legislative  assem- 
blies, that  shall  correspond  approximately  with  the  total 
number  of  votes  cast  at  any  election  for  Representatives  in 
State  legislatures,  or  in  the  law-making  branch  of  any  city 
government. 

It  will  be  conceded  that  this  plan,  even  without  the  pro- 
vision for  selecting  all  candidates  by  ballot  as  provided  at 
nominating  elections,  would  be  a  vast  improvement  on  the 
present  manner  of  electing  our  President,  United  States 
Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress,  and  all  State 
and  city  officials.  By  embodying  in  the  plan  the  provision 
for  making  such  nominations  by  the  people,  the  system 
becomes  impregnable  in  the  hands  of  intelligent  voters. 
But  the  tremendous  power  which  this  plan  would  secure  to 
all  able  and  honestly  conducted  newspapers  cannot  at  present 
be  estimated.  That  it  would  give  them  a  power  they  have 
never  had  will  be  readily  understood  by  any  one  now  con- 
nected with  the  press  who  gives  this  matter  proper  consid- 
eration. 

The  democratic  idea  in  government  demands,  and  the 
plan  which  I  here  submit  recognizes,  that  in  all  States  and 
cities  each  elector  shall  have  secured  to  him  a  secret  ballot, 


782  — 


n 


and  the  right  to  vote  on  one  ballot  for  not  less  than  three 
State  Senators  for  the  State  at  large,  and  for  not  less  than 
three  members  of  the  lower  house  of  the  legislative  assembly 
for  the  State  at  large,  and  in  senatorial  districts  for  five 
Senators  in  each,  and  in  representative  districts  for  five 
members  each  to  the  lower  house. 

This  secures  an  absolutely  equitable  distribution  of  polit- 
ical'power,  and  also  political  equality  to  every  voter  in  the 
State,  as  each  elector  could  only  vote  for  the  same  number 
of  Senators,  and  for  the  same  number  of  Representatives  in 
the  lower  house. 

But  if  he  desired  he  could  cumulate  his  vote  and  dis- 
pose of  his  votes  for  Senator  and  his  votes  for  members  of 
the  legislature  as  he  might  elect,  by  deliberately  erasing 
with  pen  or  pencil  the  name  or  names  of  the  persons  nomin- 
ated for  Senators  or  Representatives,  for  whom  he  did  not 
desire  to  vote,  and  designate  opposite  the  name  or  names  of 
his  favorite  candidates  the  number  of  votes  which  he  wished 
transferred  to  them. 

In  the  appendix  to  my  address  will  be  found  the  form  for 
all  ballots,  national,  State  and  city. 

The  plan  is  so  simple,  and  so  free  from  the  possibility  of 
fraud  or  misinterpretation,  that  I  am  confident  it  will  recom- 
mend itself  to  the  considerate  judgment  of  all  thoughtful 
men  engaged  in  the  work  of  representative  and  ballot  reform. 
That  this  plan  when  adopted  will  prove  an  invaluable 
educator  will  not  be  questioned. 

Those  who  recognize  the  capacity  of  the  people  for  self- 
government  will  approve  some  such  plan,  while  those  who 
doubt  or  deny  that  the  people  are  sufficiently  intelligent  to 
be  intrusted  with  the  power  of  self-government  will  oppose 
and  condemn  every  proposed  reform  which  promises  to  destroy 
the  political  machine,  and  break  the  political  manacles  with 
which  intriguers  and  conventions  now  environ  the  voter  in 
all  parties,  national  and  State. 

It  will  be  seen  that  this  plan  clothes  with  absolutely  inde- 
pendent political  power  all  electors,  and  that  they  are  thus 
enabled  to  vote  at  every  election,  free  from  the  arbitrary 
dictation  of  political  caucuses  and  conventions,  and  of  all 
self-appointed  political  leaders. 


—  783  — 

Affirming  the  fundamental  proposition,  upon  whicli  this 
plan  is  founded,  that  a  great  continental  commonwealth  can 
only  be  permanently  maintained  in  peace  and  unity,  by  a 
government  in  which  the  whole  people  of  all  the  States,  the 
minority  no  less  than  the  majorit}-,  are  personally  represented 
in  its  national  legislative  assembly,  in  proportion  to  the 
total  number  of  its  qualified  voters,  I  gladly  avail  myself  of 
the  opportunity  which  this  Society  has  given  me,  to  lay 
before  it  my  contribution  to  the  suggestions,  which,  in  the 
near  future,  must  be  submitted  and  discussed  by  the  people 
before  any  such  change  as  I  contemplate  can  be  made. 

THE    PLAN    DEMOCRATIC. 

An  examination  of  this  plan  will  disclose  that  it  is  equi- 
table, comprehensive  and  democratic ;  that  it  is  applicable 
alike  in  all  governments,  whether  States,  cities  or  munici- 
palities, in  which  a  democratic  representative  government 
is  possible. 

It  recognizes  the  complete  sovereignty  of  the  people,  and 
secures  responsible  local  self-government.  It  throws  around 
the  ballot-box  every  safeguard  necessary  for  the  security 
of  the  voter  and  the  purity  of  elections,  and  arms  each  voter 
with  a  weapon  which,  if  he  but  use  it,  will  on  all  occasions 
give  him  complete  protection  against  secret  or  open  combina- 
tions of  political  intriguers.  It  makes  impossible  the  suc- 
cessful use  of  the  political  machinery  of  our  present  caucus 
and  convention  S3'stem,  or  machinery  such  as  has  long  been 
in  use  by  Tammany  Hall  in  this  city,  and  by  like  organiza- 
tions of  both  parties  in  other  cities. 

It  destroys  absolutely  the  power  of  political  bossism, 
and  enables  the  people  to  defeat  all  such  combinations  as 
now  dictate  to  voters  as  imperiously  as  if  they  were  convicts 
in  a  State  prison,  keeping  lock-step,  while  marching  to  the 
polls,  and  obeying  the  order  of  the  managers  of  the  political 
*' machine."  That  the  present  convention  system  of  each 
party  should  have  so  firmly  fastened  itself  upon  the  people 
of  this  country,  is  an  amazing  fact  in  our  history.  Under 
this  system,  the  recognized  bar-room  statesmen  in  this  city, 
or  indeed  in  any  city,  can,  and  usually  do,  select  and  have 


—  784  — 

appointed  to  all  State,  district  and  city  conventions  a  larger 
number  of  delegates  than  can  be  secured  by  any  editor  o^ 
even  the  ablest  party  organ.  As  a  rule,  and  for  the  express 
purpose  of  binding  in  advance  such  editors  to  support  the 
nominees,  whoever  they  may  be,  they  are  put  on  delegations 
to  all  important  conventions;  special  care  being  taken  that 
they  shall  be  sandwiched  between  a  sufficient  number  of 
"  reliable  statesmen "  to  render  them  powerless  against  the 
*' machine,"  either  in  such  conventions _or  out  of  them. 

It  has  long  been  a  recognized  common  law  rule  in 
politics  that  every  delegate  taking  part  in  any  convention 
is  in  honor  bound  to  defend  the  platform  adopted,  however 
objectionable,  and  support  the  candidates  nominated,  even 
though  their  nominations  were  secured  by  trickery  or  fraud. 

In  this  way  many  editors  are  yearly  marched  into  con- 
ventions and  practically  manacled,  and  compelled  by  party 
usage,  and '  party  necessity,  to  support  the  nominee,  how- 
ever unworthy,  and  defend  the  platform,  however  offensive, 
adopted  by  any  convention  in  which  they  may  have  thus  ap- 
peared as  delegates,  bound  hand  and  foot. 

The  plan  which  I  propose  will  change  all  this,  and  prac- 
tically lodge  the  power  where  it  ought  to  be,  with  the  peo- 
ple, represented  by  the  public  press.  By  public  discussion 
secret  intriguers  can  be  defeated  more  certainly  than  in  any 
other  way,  and  all  editors  can  appeal  to  their  readers  to 
second  their  efforts  to  secure  desirable  candidates  at  all 
nominating  elections.  If  a  majority  of  the  voters  in  any 
party  unite  with  them  at  such  nominating  elections,  it  will 
be  found  that  almost  invariably  reputable  and  worthy  men 
have  been  selected  as  candidates.  Editors  of  character  and 
ability  will  thus  always  be  able,  under  this  plan,  to  com- 
mand a  favorable  hearing  with  a  hundred  voters  to  every  ten 
that  can  be  induced  to  go  to  a  caucus  and  vote  for  the  nom- 
ination of  any  candidate  presented  by  the  most  active  and 
successful  among  our  leading  *' practical  statesmen."  Daily 
in  all  cities,  morning  or  evening,  in  the  quiet  of  their  homes, 
every  editor  under  this  plan  can  reach  an  appeal  to  his 
readers  and  ask  them  to  cut  out  the  ticket  printed  in  his 
paper,  and  go  to  the  polls  and  vote  it,  with  the  statement 
that  in  his  opinion  by  a  proper  effort,  the  candidate  or  candi- 


—  785  — 

dates  named  can  be  nominated.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  esti- 
mate the  power  which  this  plan  will  secure  to  an  able  and 
independent  press. 

The  usual  results  in  our  present  national  conventions 
are  that  the  delegates  from  the  so-called  **  pivotal  States '» 
dictate  to  each  party  all  nominations  for  President.  After 
a  sufficient  number  of  ballots  have  been  taken  to  weary  a 
majority  of  the  rank  and  file  in  any  convention,  and  the 
weak  points  of  the  several  contestants  have  been  disclosed, 
the  prog-rammes  of  the  contending-  chiefs  are  then  deter- 
mined and  .the  ablest  boss  manipulator  of  the  "machine" 
g-enerally  wins.  As  he  g-oes  to  the  convention  to  win,  he 
does  not  stand  on  the  order  of  employing"  the  means  neces- 
sary to  that  end. 

The  moment  the  lay  deleg-ates  discover  the  '* situation" 
they  become  wild  in  their  zeal  to  be  heard,  and  the  most  un- 
blushing" and  reckless  frantically  jump  upon  seats  and  desks 
with  yells  that  always  amaze  the  uninitiated,  each  of  them 
demanding"  recog"nition  by  the  chairman  in  order  that  he  may 
have  the  honor  of  leading"  off  and  being-  the  first  in  the  mad 
scramble  to  have  the  vote  of  his  State  duly  recorded  for  the 
candidate  who  is  slated  to  win,  or  to  declare  in  a  ring-ing- 
speech  that  his  deleg"ation  has  instructed  him  to  announce 
that  his  State  has  decided  to  chang-e  its  vote  from  their 
*'  favorite  son"  to  the  candidate  who  is  to  be  successful. 

This  movement,  thoug"h  an  old  dodg-e,  is  often  so  skill- 
fully played  that  it  stampedes  the  deleg-ates  and  g"ives  success 
to  the  secretly  prearrang-ed  prog-ramme  of  the  machine 
nianag"ers. 

The  candidate  of  the  machine  is  thus  of tener  than  other- 
wise nominated  without  the  slightest  regard  to  his  ability  or 
qualifications  for  the  duties  of  the  presidential  office,  and 
when  officially  declared  the  nominee,  the  entire  party  is  forced 
to  support  him,  even  though  it  be  conceded  that  his  nomina- 
tion has  been  secured  by  trickery  and  fraud. 

In  the  interval  between  the  hours  when  the  nomination 
is  made  and  the  final  adjournment  of  the  convention,  other 
important  matters  are  being  transacted.     Papers  are  duly  pre- 
pared and  signed  by  delegates  for  each  other,  reciting  the  in- 
50 


—  786  — 

valuable  party  services  of  delegates  from  this  State  and  that 
WHO  VOTED  RIGHT,  and  especially  the  "claims"  of  deleg-ates 
from  **  pivotal  States,"  and  before  the  convention  has  fairly 
adjourned,  the  deleg-ates  who  made  the  nomination  possible 
are  ** booked"  for  otpficiai,  recognition  under  the  new 

ADMINISTRATION,  IF  THE  CANDIDATE  SHOUI.D  BE  ELECTED. 

The  political  demoralization  from  this  condition  of  things 
cannot  be  even  approximately  estimated.  The  adoption  of 
my  plan  for  nominating  all  candidates  by  a  direct  vote  of  all 
electors  by  ballot,  will,  beyond  question,  secure  the  early 
abolition  of  all  national  nominating  conventions,  and  even- 
tually of  all  State,  county  and  city  conventions,  thus  eman- 
cipating the  voters  of  all  parties  from  the  despotism  of  party 
cliques  and  party  conventions. 

In  thus  superseding  the  present  caucus  and  convention 
system,  each  elector  will  be  secured  in  a  right  he  never  had 
before,  the  right  to  vote  directly  for  his  first  choice  for  any 
candidate  from  President  down,  without  the  fear  of  indirectly 
aiding  in  the  election  of  an  objectionable  candidate,  because 
the  first  election  in  every  instance  is  simply  a  nominating 
election. 

I  have  provided  that  at  all  nominating  elections  each 
group  of  electors,  or  each  party,  shall  prepare  its  own  bal- 
lot, and  also  that  each  individual  voter  may  prepare  his  own 
ballot,  either  printed  or  written,  as  he  may  elect  and  as  the 
law  shall  prescribe. 

After  the  nominations  are  made.  Congress  is  specially 
directed  to  provide  bylaw  that  the  "College  of  Deputies" 
in  each  State  shall  cause  all  the  official  ballots  to  be  prepared 
and  properly  distributed,  substantially  as  in  the  "  Australian 
system,"  which  has  been  adopted  by  several  of  our  States. 


ABOI.ISH  THE  OFFICE  OF  VICE-PRESIDENT. 

To  me,  there  is  no  provision  of  our  national  Constitu- 
tion so  objectionable  as  that  which  creates  the  office  of  the 
Vice-President,  and  in  case  of  the  resignation,  disability  or 
death  of  the  President,  clothes  that  functionary  with  the 
chief  executive  office.     Objection  was  made  to  the  creation 


/»/ 


of  the  office  of  Vice-President  by  some  of  the  clearest 
thinkers  in  the  convention  which  framed  the  Constitution, 
some  of  whom  declared  that  '*the  offi.ce  was  unnecessary  and 
dang-erous." 

The  wisdom  of  their  opposition  has  been  confirmed  more 
than  once  in  our  history. 

As  all  know,  the  Vice-President  is  a  superfluous  officer, 
and  as  experience  has  shown,  more  ornamental  than  useful. 
He  is  simply  a  fig-ure-head,  and  since  the  birth  of  the  conven- 
tion sj^stem  not  an  attractive  one  at  that.  But  as  the  **  heir- 
apparent  "  he  is  always  a  possibility.  Around  every  Vice- 
President  all  factions  and  cranks  in  his  party  involuntarily 
gather.  Whether  he  wishes  it  or  not,  all  disappointed  appli- 
cants for  office,  and  all  conspirators  are  drawn  towards  him 
as  by  the  law  of  gravitation.  That  our  revolutionary  fathers 
.should  have  preserved  this  shadowy  relic  of  monarchy  in  our 
Constitution  by  creating  an  '*  heir-apparent "  is  one  of  the 
unexplained  facts  in  our  history.  And  then,  our  **  heir-ap- 
parent "  is  unlike  that  of  any  other  provided  for,  in  any  gov- 
ernment on  earth,  in  that  he  has  no  ties  of  affection  or  con- 
sanguinity or  gratitude.  The  President  is  never  the  father 
of  the  Vice-President  nor  his  benefactor,  but  often  his 
personal  and  political  rival. 

This  provision  of  the  Constitution  simply  invites  every 
Vice-President  to  be  a  Richard  III.,  or  a  conspirator  ready 
and  waiting  the  promotion,  which  assassins  can  always, 
secure  for  him,  by  creating  a  vacancy  in  the  office  of  Presi- 
dent, as  was  done  in  the  *'  removal"  of  Lincoln  and  Garfield. 

Night  and  morning,  at  banquets  and  funerals,  every- 
where and  on  all  occasions,  the  Constitution  perpetually 
whispers  in  the  ear  of  every  unscrupulous  and  ambitious 
Vice-President,  *'that  between  him  and  the  highest  and 
most  honorable  office  on  earth  there  is  but  the  life  of  a  single 
man." 

Instead  of  such  an  officer  as  the  Vice-President,  the 
provision  originally  suggested  in  the  first  draft  made  by  the 
committee  in  the  convention  of  1789  ought  to  have  been  made 
part  of  the  Constitution.  That  provision  simply  provided 
that  *'The  Senate  shall  choose  its  own  presiding  and  other 
officers." 


—  788  — 

The  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  is  always  a 
member  of  that  body,  and  must  be  selected  by  its  members. 
The  Speaker  appoints  all  committees  of  the  House,  and  can, 
if  he  so  elects,  vote  on  all  questions  before  the  House  and  also 
take  part  in  debate,  while  the  Vice-President  cannot  appoint 
the  Senate  committees,  nor  vote,  except  in  case  of  a  tie,  nor 
can  he  participate  in  debate  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate.  His 
very  existence  and  presence  is  a  menace  and  a  peril  to  any 
man  in  the  office  of  President. 

The  peace  of  our  country  has  been  imperiled  during-  our 
history  more  than  once,  because  of  the  existence  of  t»he  office 
of  Vice-President.  We  would  have  escaped  the  ordea^ 
throug-h  which  the  nation  passed  in  1801,  when  Jefferson  and 
Burr  were  candidates,  if  there  had  been  no  vice-presidential 
office.  And  here  I  may  appropriately  quote  from  a  speech 
which  I  made  in  Congress  on  this  subject  in  1868,  when  I 
said  *'that  had  there  been  no  such  office  as  Vice-President, 
we  should  have  been  spared  the  perfidy  of  a  Tyler,  the  be- 
trayal of  a  Fillmore  and  the  baseness  and  infamy  of  a  John- 
son." 

After  drawing-  a  picture  of  the  conspiracy  which  ulti- 
mated  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  assassination,  I  said  in  the  same 
speech,  that  "I  present  this  panoramic  view  of  what  is  now 
history  to  illustrate  how  weak  and  indefensible  in  this  par- 
ticular is  the  presidential  office,  so  that  I  may  appeal  to  the 
nation  to  fortify  it  against  this  dang-er  by  removing-  the 
temptation  now  presented  to  conspirators  and  assassins,  and 
thus  make  the  presidential  office  a  citadel  ag-ainst  which  they 
may  hurl  themselves  in  vain." 

**  Adopt  this  plan  and  the  occupant  of  the  presidential 
office  will  be  effectually  g-uarded  from  all  political  conspira- 
cies which  thrive  by  assassination.  It  also  precludes  the 
possibility  of  an  interreg-num  in  that  office."  (Congres- 
siONAi,  G1.0BK,  2d  Session,  40th  Cong-ress,  Part  3,  pag-e  2714.) 

In  all  national  conventions,  the  averag^e  candidate  for 
Vice-President  is  practically  a  *'pawn"  on  the  political 
chessboard  in  the  hands  of  the  managers  of  the  *' machine," 
and  is  disposed  of  as  absolutely  as  the  skilled  chess-player 
moves  and  disposes  of  his  ' '  pawn "  in  any  sharp  g-ame  of 
chess. 


—  789  — 

More  than  once,  in  the  history  of  the  Democratic,  Whig- 
and  Republican  parties,  has  the  vice-presidential  **pawn" 
been  used  by  the  *' machine  "  managers  to  defeat  the  nomi- 
nation of  candidates  for  President,  who  would  have  been 
nominated  but  for  the  intriguers,  who  successfully  played 
the  vice-presidential  **pawn"  to  defeat  the  first  choice  of 
he  party,  and  to  nominate  candidates  who  were  not  even  the 
second  or  third  choice  of  the  party  for  President. 

From  the  first  national  convention  to  the  last,  not  one  of 
all  the  men  nominated  by  either  party  for  Vice-President, 
could  have  been  nominated  for  President  by  the  convention 
which  nominated  him  for  Vice-President.  Yet  the  Consti- 
tution makes  every  Vice-President  the  '*  heir-apparent." 

Had  the  plan  which  I  propose  for  filling  a  vacancy  in 
the  presidential  office  been  part  of  our  national  Constitution, 
when  either  one  or  all  of  our  four  Presidents  passed  away, 
and  thus  made  that  office  vacant,  nothing  is  more  certain 
than  that  not  one  of  the  men  who  was  then  Vice-President 
could  have  been  selected  to  fill  out  the  unexpired  term  of  that 
President. 

Let  me  ask  you  to  look  in  upon  such  a  gathering  of  the 
national  **  College  of  Deputies,"  as  it  would  appear,  on  the 
plan  proposed,  when  in  session  at  Washington  for  the  pur- 
pose of  selecting  a  President  to  fill  out  the  unexpired  term 
of  any  President. 

And  first,  look  at  the  members  of  such  an  assembly  indi- 
vidually. That  such  a  body  of  men  would  be  made  up  of  the 
fairest  and  most  trustworthy  citizens  of  each  State,  is  as- 
sured by  the  requirement  which  prescribes  that  the  youngest 
member  shall  not  be  less  than  30  years  of  age,  and  that  he 
shall  have  been  seven  years  a  resident  of  the  State  from 
which  he  is  chosen,  and  that  he  shall  be  nominated  and 
elected  by  the  duly  qualified  electors  of  each  State.  Selected 
in  conformity  with  this  plan,  no  better  guarantee  could  be 
given  as  to  their  character  and  fidelity. 

Under  the  apportionment  of  1891  for  Representatives  in 
Congress,  there  would  be  444  members  of  such  a  College  of 
Deputies  when  convened  in  session  at  Washington,  repre- 
senting the  majority  and  minority  of  the  whole  people  in 
each  State,  as  equitably  as  can  be  secured  with  the  present 


—  790— 

distribution  of  political  power  in  our  larg-e  and  small  States. 
No  intelligent  man  familiar  with  our  history  can  for  a 
moment  believe  that  such  a  body  of  men,  when  called  upon 
to  rise  each  in  his  place  and  vote  viva  vock  for  a  citizen  to 
fill  .out  the  unexpired  term  of  any  deceased  President,  that 
they  would  have  been  guilty  of  the  folly  or  crime  of  select- 
ing John  Tyler  to  fill  the  vacancy  caused  by  the  death  of 
General  Harrison,  or  Millard  Fillmore  to  fill  the  vacancy 
caused  by  the  death  of  General  Taylor,  nor  would  it  have 
been  possible  for  such  a  body  to  have  filled  the  vacancy 
caused  by  the  assassination  of  Mr.  Lincoln  by  the  selection 
of  Andrew  Johnson,  or  Chester  A.  Arthur  to  fill  that  of 
General  Garfield.  If  it  be  true  that  such  a  body  of  men 
Would  not  have  selected  any  one  of  the  four  Vice-Presidents, 
who  as  the  "heir-apparent"  became  President  on  the  death 
of  his  chief,  and  if,  as  I  believe,  not  one  of  the  men  named 
could  by  any  combination  have  been  nominated  for  President 
by  the  convention  which  nominated  him  for  Vice-President, 
have  I  not  presented  considerations  which  will  justify  the 
people  of  this  country  in  demanding  the  early  abolition  of 
the  office  of  Vice-President? 


THK   DECENTRAI^IZATION  OF  POLITICAI,  POWER. 

With  the  adoption  of  this  proposed  amendment  all  con- 
flict of  authority  between  the  national  and  State  govern- 
ments will  cease,  because  the  powers  and  duties  of  each  will 
have  been  definitely  and  clearly  defined,  so  that  all  States 
now  in  the  Union,  and  all  States  which  in  the  future  may  be 
admitted,  can  have  no  cause  for  controversy. 

Each  State  and  all  municipal  governments  within  any 
State  will  be  fully  protected  in  its  dignity  and  freedom  from 
intervention  on  the  part  of  the  officials  of  the  National  Gov- 
ernment, and  may  regulate  its  own  internal  affairs  in  its 
own  way,  subject  only  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

After  the  adoption  of  this  amendment.  Congress  could 
not  clothe  the  President  nor  any  official  of  the  National  Gov- 
ernment (as  it  may  now  do)  with  authority  to  interfere  in 
any  national  election  in  any  State,  nor  would  it  then  be  pos- 


—  791  — 

sible  for  Congress  to  enact  such  a  law  as  the  so-called 
*' Force  Bill." 

In  all  elections  for  President  and  Senators  and  Repre- 
senatives  in  Congress,  the  people  of  each  State  have,  by  this 
plan,  direct  and  absolute  control  by  personal  vote,  free  from 
the  intervention  of  the  political  machinery  of  State  g-overn- 
ments. 

Nor  does  this  plan  interfere  in  any  way  with  the  elec- 
toral or  administrative  machinery  of  State  g-overnments,  or 
municipal  governments  in  States;  nor  does  it  abridg-e  the 
liberty  or  the  privileges  of  the  citizen  of  any  State;  on  the 
contrary,  it  enlarges  his  liberty  and  secures  to  him  rights  of 
which  he  never  before  was  possessed  except  in  name.  It 
preserves  the  rights  of  the  States  and  secures  inviolable  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people. 

As  the  courts  of  the  United  States  deal  directly  with  the 
citizens  of  the  several  States  without  serious  conflict  from 
the  State  courts,  so  this  amendment,  and  all  laws  which  the 
Cong-ress  may  enact  by  its  authority,  deal  directly  with  the 
people  and  charge  the  citizens  residing  in  the  several  States 
with  the  selection  by  ballot  of  their  own  officials  to  conduct 
all  national  elections  in  their  respective  States. 

Under  this  plan  you  cannot  lodge  in  the  hands  of  any 
administration  at  Washington  the  control  of  the  national 
electoral  machinery  in  the  States.  To  the  College  of  Depu- 
ties in  each  State,  and  to  no  other  officials,  is  given  the  au- 
thority to  secure  an  honest  registration  to  the  electors  in 
each  State,  and  a  free  and  fair  election  of  President  and 
Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress.  Instead  of  an  in- 
crease of  centralized  power  at  Washington,  to  which  I  am 
opposed,  this  plan  secures  a  marked  decentralization  of 
power,  by  placing  it  permanently  and  exclusively  in  the  care 
and  keeping  of  the  citizens  of  each  State. 

In  all  elections  for  President  and  Senators  and  Repre- 
sentatives in  Congress,  the  entire  machinery  for  conducting 
such  elections  is  lodged  in  the  hands  of  officials  nominated 
and  elected  by  ballot  directly  by  the  qualified  voters  in  each 
State,  and  these  officials  thus  elected  by  the  people  of  the 
several  States  can  no  more  be  induced  to  commit  fraud  or 
crime  or  be  dictated  to  or  controlled  by  officials  at  Washing- 


—  792  — 

ton  than  a  judg-e,  or  a  duly  impaneled  jury  in  any  Circuit  or 
District  Court  of  the  United  States  in  any  State,  nor  can 
they  be  tampered  with  and  corrupted  by  any  administration 
at  Washing-ton. 

Whatever  power  may  orig-inally  have  been  **  reserved  to 
the  States  or  to  the  people  "  in  our  present  Constitution  is  by 
this  plan  secured  to  the  people  direct,  without  interference 
on  the  part  either  of  the  national  or  State  governments. 

Instead  of  conferring-  additional  power  on  the  govern- 
ment at  Washington  touching  national  elections,  this  plan 

MATERIALLY  DECRKASES  THE   POWER   CONFERRED  ON  CONGRESS 

BY  OUR  PRESENT  Constitution,  and  provides  that  all  power 
and  authority  in  respect  to  the  conduct  of  elections  in  the 
several  States  for  President  and  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives in  Congress  shall  be  confided  to  the  people  direct,  and 
in  such  manner  that  neither  the  officials  of  the  National  Gov- 
ernment nor  of  a  State  government  can  in  any  way  interfere 
with  the  authorities  or  the  duties  of  the  College  of  Deputies 
chosen  by  the  people  in  each  State. 

It  takes  from  a  State  no  power  properly  belonging  to  it, 
but  it  takes  from  the  State  legislatures  the  power  to  elect 
United  States  Senators  as  now,  and  demolishes  the  power  of 
the  machine  boss  and  the  cross-roads  statesman  in  every 
legislature,  and  makes  it  impossible  for  him  to  wield  the 
power  he  now  uses  to  compel  the  members  of  all  State  legis- 
latures to  go  into  the  caucuses  for  the  nomination  of  United 
States  Senators,  where  with  one-third  or  less  of  the  mem- 
bers of  any  State  legislature  he  dictates  who  shall  be  the 
Senator  from  such  State,  as  is  now  the  case  in  nearly  every 
State  in  the  Union.  It  also  deprives  the  legislature  of  the 
power  of  disfranchising  the  people,  and  sometimes  a  ma- 
jority of  the  people  of  a  State,  of  their  proportionate  repre- 
sentation in  Congress  by  unjust  and  indefensible  acts  of 
gerrymandering  the  State  into  Congressional  districts. 

The  power  thus  taken  from  Congress  and  from  State 
legislatures  is  conferred  directly  on  the  people  of  each  State 
in  connection  with  all  national  elections,  and  secures  a  per- 
fect DECENTRALIZATION  OF  POWER,  and  does  not  permit 
either  the  Senate  or  House  of  Representatives,  as  under  our 
present  Constitution,  to  be  the  judge  of  the  qualifications  of 


—  793  — 

its  own  members;  under  which  rule,  either  House  of  Congress 
can  always  find  a  partisan  pretext  for  turning-  a  member  out 
who  has  been  elected,  and  seat  a  member  who  has  not  been 
elected,  as  has  often  been  done,  and  will  be  done  so  long  as. 
the  present  authority  is  vested  in  each  House. 

This  constitutional  amendment  prescribes  the  qualifi- 
cations OF  Senators  and  members  of  the  House,  and  con- 
fers on  the  people  at  the  ballot-box  the  rig-ht  to  determine  who 
the  Senators  and  members  from  their  State  shall  be,  and 
from  this  decision  there  can  be  no  appeal  to  either  House  of 
Cong-ress.  All  contests  must  be  heard  and  determined  in  the 
District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  State  and  district 
in  which  any  contest  may  arise. 

This  plan  secures  full  and  free  scope  for  the  deliberate 
expression  of  the  national  will,  not  only  in  the  nomination 
and  election  of  the  President,  but  in  the  selection  of  Sena- 
tors and  Representatives  in  Cong-ress  and  members  of  the  Col- 
lege of  Deputies. 

In  States  entitled  to  more  than  one  Representative  in 
Congress,  each  group  of  electors,  if  their  number  be  equal 
to  ONE-THIRD,  or  more  or  less  as  the  case  may  be,  can  by 
cumulating  their  vote  always  have  a  voice  in  the  administra- 
tion of  the  government  and  thus  be  able  to  check  and  often 
to  defeat  schemes  which  are  pernicious  or  undesirable.  By 
securing  to  the  people  of  every  State  proportional  represen- 
tation, the  convictions  and  conscience  of  the  majority  and 
minority  in  each  State,  and  in  the  Nation,  will  always  be 
represented  in  each  State  and  at  Washington,  so  that  ill- 
considered  or  partisan  movements,  and  sometimes  the  tem- 
porary madness  of  public  opinion,  may  by  prudent  criticism 
and  practical  discussion  be  modified  or  rejected. 

The  "pivotal  States,"  as  they  are  called,  that  is,  large 
States  like  New  York,  whose  vote  more  than  once  has  decided 
the  election  of  a  President,  is  one  of  the  most  corrupting 
and  dangerous  powers  in  our  system.  The  incentive  to  ille- 
gal voting  and  ballot-box  stuffing,  and  to  the  importation  of 
voters  from  adjoining  States  into  such  States  as  New  York, 
is  but  one  of  the  dangers  inseparable  from  the  election  of 
thirty-six  presidential  electors  on  one  ballot  for  the  State  at 
large. 


—  794  — 

Under  the  present  electoral  machinery,  a  minority  of 
the  popular  vote  and  a  minority  of  the  electoral  vote  secured 
the  President  at  the  time  John  Quincy  Adams  was  chosen  by 
the  House  of  Representatives  in  1825.  No  plan  of  national 
government  is  defensible  which  makes  it  possible  for  a  mi- 
nority of  the  voters  at  the  polls  and  a  minority  of  the  Elec- 
toral Colleg-e  to  succeed  in  electing-  the  President,  as  was 
done  in  1825  when  Mr.  Adams  was  chosen. 

When  some  such  amendment  as  I  here  propose  shall  have 
been  adopted,  no  third-  or  fourth-rate  man  will  thereafter  be 
nominated  for  President.  Certainly  no  man  unknown  to  the 
people,  nor  any  man  whose  political  opinions  were  objection- 
able could  possibly  be  nominated,  after  each  elector  is  au- 
thorized to  vote  direct  by  ballot  for  his  first  choice.  In  order 
to  g*et  votes  enough  at  any  nominating  election  to  be  included 
in  the  list  of  the  four  highest  candidates,  he  must  of  neces- 
sity be  a  man  of  national  reputation,  with  a  character  for 
political  integrity  and  executive  ability. 

The  average  elector  has  a  proper  estimate  of  the  dignity 
and  importance  which  belongs  to  the  presidential  of&ce,  and 
the  voters  of  all  parties,  when  naming  their  first  choice  for 
President,  would  naturally  turn  to  their  ablest  representative 
men.  In  no  event  could  a  mere  faction  or  a  minority  in  any 
party,  by  the  use  of  the  "  machine,"  form  combinations  and 
defeat  as  they  have  done,  and  can  now  do,  the  nomination  of 
any  man  who  was  the  choice  of  the  majority.  Schemers  and 
intriguers  would  be  powerless  without  the  "convention 
machine,"  and  could"  not  by  secret  combinations  hold  the 
' '  balance  of  power  "  in  any  large  States  like  New  York  and 
Ohio,  and  dictate  the  nomination  of  their  candidate  on  pain 
of  defeating  the  party.  Under  my  plan,  the  voice  of  all 
electors  in  each  party  would  be  heard,  and  desperate  efforts 
could  not  be  successfully  made,  such  as  we  have  more  than 
once  witnessed  in  New  York,  to  obtain,  no  matter  by  what 
means,  a  bare  plurality  of  the  vote  in  the  State,  so  as  to 
secure  the  entire  electoral  vote  of  the  State  and  thus  elect 
the  President. 


795 - 


OBJECTIONS  TO  THE   BISECTION   OF   A   PRESIDENT  BY  A  COI.LEGE 
OF  ELECTORS   AND   BY  THE   HOUSE   OF   REPRESENTA- 
TIVES  UNDER   OUR   PRESENT  CONSTITUTION. 

Section  One  of  Article  Two  of  our  Constitution  prescribes 
the  manner  in  which  electors  of  President  and  Vice-Presi- 
dent shall  be  appointed  by  the  several  States  as  follows: 

'*Each  State  shall  appoint,  in  such  manner  as  the  legis- 
lature thereof  may  direct,  a  number  of  electors  equal  to  the 
whole  number  of  Senators  and  Representatives  to  which  the 
State  may  be  entitled  in  the  Congress." 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  Constitution  thus  confers  on 
the  legislature  of  each  State,  without  qualification  and  be- 
yond the  possibility  of  doubt,  absolute  authority  to  appoint  in 
such  manner  as  a  majority  of  any  legislature  may  direct,  the 
number  of  electors  of  President  and  Vice-President  to  which 
the  State  is  entitled  under  any  apportionment.  The  words, 
*'in  such  manner  as  the  legislature  thereof  may  direct,"  are 
as  clear  and  distinct  as  the  English  language  can  make 
them.  It  must  therefore  be  conceded  that  a  majority  in  the 
legislature  of  any  State,  even  though  they  represent  a  mi- 
nority of  the  total  vote  of  the  State,  may  appoint  all  the 
electors,  or  they  may  confer  the  power  of  appointment  on  any 
one  or  more  persons  (as  the  legislature  of  South  Carolina  did 
at  one  time  confer  the  power  to  appoint  the  electors  of 
President  and  Vice-President  for  that  State  on  its  governor), 
or  they  may  direct  that  electors  for  President  and  Vice-Pres- 
ident shall  be  chosen  by  the  voters  of  the  State,  either  in 
congressional  district  or  by  the  State  at  large,  or  in  any  sub- 
division of  the  State,  as  they  may  elect,  and  from  such  de- 
termination of  the  legislature  there  can  be  no  escape. 

The  enactment  by  the  last  legislature  of  Michigan  of  a 
law  changing  the  manner  of  appointing  the  electors  of  Pres- 
ident and  Vice-President  for  that  State  ought  to  be  a  lesson 
and  a  warning. 

It  is  well  known  that  Michigan  is  a  State  in  which  one 
party,  when  united,  is  uniformly  in  a  majority.     Factional 


—  796  — 

divisions  and  incompetent  leadership  on  the  part  of  the 
MAJORITY  enabled  the  minority  last  year  to  seize  control  of 
the  State  g-overnment,  including"  the  leg-islature.  Where- 
upon.the  leg-islature  proceeded  (as  under  the  clause  of  the  Con« 
stitution  above  quoted  they  had  the  legal  authority  to  do)  to 
repeal  the  law,  which  from  the  organization  of  the  State  had 
provided  that  a  majority  of  the  voters  in  the  State  should 
select  on  one  ballot  for  the  State  at  large,  all  the  electors  of 
President  and  Vice-President;  and  enacted  a  law  which 
directs  that  said  electors  shall  be  chosen  in  districts  —  dis- 
tricts which  eaid  legislature  deliberately  g-errymandered,  so 
as  to  secure  to  the  minority  of  the  voters  in  the  State  a 
MAJORITY  of  the  fourteen  presidential  electors  to  which  the 
State  is  entitled  in  the  Electoral  College  of  1892. 

If  the  legislatures  of  other  States,  in  which  the  minority 
of  the  voters  of  either  party  may  have  secured  by  any  com- 
bination a  majority  of  its  legislature,  should  follow  the 
example  of  Michigan  (which  is  not  improbable),  and  repeal 
the  law  which  now  authorizes  the  people  to  choose  presi- 
dential electors  in  such  States,  and  assume  to  appoint  ai,i, 
the  electors  to  which  their  State  is  entitled,  or  a  majority  of 
them,  such  action  would  disclose  one  of  the  weakest  and 
most  dangerous  defects  of  our  present  system  for  the  choice 
of  a  President. 

The  accidental  control  of  the  legislature  by  a  minority 
of  the  voters  of  any  party  of  one  or  more  **  pivotal  States'* 
would  thus  enable  the  minority  to  determine  the  choice  of  a 
President  next  year.  And  it  is  among  the  possibilities  that 
the  act  of  the  Michigan  legislature  in  dividing-  the  electoral 
vote  of  that  State,  may  defeat  the  will  of  a  large  majority  of 
the  people  of  Michigan  and  of  the  nation  in  their  choice  of 
a  President  in  1892.  The  new  apportionment  increases  the 
vote  in  the  Electoral  College  to  444,  of  which  number  223  are 
a  majority.  If  the  Democratic  candidate  in  1892  should 
carry  all  the  States  which  voted  for  Mr.  Cleveland  in  1884, 
he  would  have  225  electoral  votes  and  be  elected.  If  he 
should  lose  West  Virginia,  and  secure  six  or  eig-ht  votes  from 
Michigan,  because  of  the  appointment  of  the  electors  in 
that  State  by  districts,  he  would  still  be  elected. 

It  will  be  granted  without  argument,  that  if  a  minority 


—  797  — 

party  in  any  State  which,  by  accident  or  because  of  the  in- 
difference of  the  MAJORITY,  has  secured  control  of  its  legis- 
lature, may  in  its  partisan  zeal  repeal  the  law  providing-  for 
the  choice  of  presidential  electors  by  the  people  of  such 
State,  and  by  any  device  secure  to  its  party  the  appointment 
of  the  ENTIRE  NUMBER  of  presidential  electors  to  which  the 
State  is  by  law  entitled,  or  a  majority  of  them,  that  our 
Constitution  cannot  be  too  speedily  amended  in  this  par- 
ticular. 

Should  a  MAJORITY  of  the  voters  in  Michigan,  or  in  any 
State,  attempt  to  appoint  (as  has  been  suggested)  electors  of 
President  and  Vice-President  for  1892,  under  the  law  long  in 
use,  but  which  ma}^  have  been  repealed  by  any  State  legisla- 
ture, such  action  would  probably  ultimate  in  two  or  more 
sets  of  electoral  certificates  being  sent  from  such  States  to 
Washington,  and  result  in  a  contest  in  Congress  such  as  we 
had  in  1876-77;  and  might  end  in  the  selection  of  the 
President  by  the  House  of  Representatives. 

Another  objectionable  feature  of  our  electoral  system  is 
that  which  permits  each  member  of  a  College  of  Electors 
to  vote  a  secret  ballot  for  ^any  person  he  may  wish  for 
President;  and  then,  the  officers  of  any  pivotal  State  may 
corruptly  certify  to  the  election  of  presidential  electors  who 
have  NOT  been  elected  by  the  people  of  such  State;  and  Con- 
gress may  refuse  to  go  back  of  the  returns  from  any  State,  so 
certified  by  its  corrupt  or  partisan  officials. 

That  we  have  reached  a  point  in  our  history  when  the 
nation  must  give  serious  consideration  to  the  impending 
danger  which  thus  confronts  us  will  not  be  questioned. 

The  majority  of  the  American  people  might  refuse  to 
submit  to  a  repetition  of  such  injustice  and  wrong. 

Another  Electoral  Commission  might  inaugurate  a  parti- 
san conflict  that  would  end  in  revolution. 

The  adoption  of  the  proposed  constitutional  amendment 
herewith  submitted,  will  at  once  put  an  end  to  all  such  dan- 
gerous possibilities.  When  there  are  no  longer  **  pivotal 
States,"  there  will  be  no  such  desperate  efforts  as  we  now 
witness  at  each  presidential  election  to  carry  such  States  by 
improper  and  dangerous  methods. 

A  whole  people  cannot  be  corrupted,  and  manifestly  it 


798 


I 


would  be  impossible,  when  the  nation  voted  as  a  unit,  to 
secure  a  majority  of  the  total  vote  by  trickery  and  fraud. 

During-  the  next  ten  years,  if  an  election  of  a  President 
should  devolve  on  the  House  of  Representatives,  composed  of 
356  members,  as  it  is  under  the  present  apportionment,  fifty- 
five  (55)  members  from*  twenty-three  States  can,  by  uniting, 
elect  the  President.  It  will  be  seen  that  under  our  present 
Constitution  i.ess  than  onk-sixth  of  the  members  of  the 
House,  representing-  less  than  one-sixth  of  the  population 
of  the  nation,  can  elect  the  President. 

The  following  twenty-three  States  would  make  a  ma- 
jority of  forty-four  States: 


No.    OF 

Votes. 

No.  OP 
Votes. 

1.  Delaware 

2.  Idaho 

2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 

14.  Washington. .  . . 

15.  Connecticut  .... 

16.  Maine .             .    . 

2 
4 

3.   Montana 

4 

4.  Nevada 

5.  North  Dakota.. 

6.  Wyoming 

7.  Florida 

8.  Colorado 

9.  New  Hampshire 
10.  Oregon 

17.  West  Virginia.. 

18.  Arkansas 

19.  Louisiana 

20.  Maryland 

21.  Nebraska 

22.  South  Carolina . 

23.  Mississippi 

Total  Vote 

4 
6 
6 
6 
6 
7 
7 

11.  Rhode  Island... 

12.  South  Dakota. . . 

13.  Vermont 

72 

Of  these  seventy -two  votes,  fifty-five  may  cast  the  vote 
of  the  above-named  twenty-three  States  (each  State  having 
one  vote),  and  thus  fifty- five  members,  in  a  House  of  356, 
can  elect  the  President. 

It  will  not  be  questioned  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  de- 
vise a  more  anti-democratic  provision  than  that  which  our 
present  Constitution  provides  for  the  election  of  a  Presi- 
dent by  the  House  of  Representatives. 


—  799  — 

The  slave  barons  forced  this  anti-democratic  provision 
in  the  Constitution,  and  political  prog-ress  was  thus  retarded 
a  century. 

That  less  than  onb-sixth  of  the  members  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  can,  by  uniting",  select  as  President  the 
person  having  the  smallest  popular  vote  and  the  smallest 
number  of  electoral  votes  of  the  three  candidates  returned 
to  the  House,  is  a  fact  which  forms  one  of  the  political  anom- 
alies in  our  history. 

Why  a  practical  people,  such  as  ours,  should  for  a  hun- 
dred years  have  submitted  to  a  system  so  anti-democratic  and 
repug-nant  to  all  fair-minded,  intellig-ent  men,  is  something- 
I  am  unable  to  explain. 

When  an  election  for  President  devolves  on  that  body, 
ONE-THIRD,  and  sometimes  one-half  of  its  members  who  vote 
to  make  the  President,  are  men  who  have  not  been  elected  to 
the  new  Congress. 

As  their  terms  expire  on  the  4th  of  March  immediately 
after  such  an  election  for  President,  a  majority  of  such  retir- 
ing- members  are  usually  in  condition  and  ready  to  accept  ap- 
pointments from  the  man  whom  they  have  just  voted  to  make 
President. 

LARGE  AND  SMALI.  STATES. 

During-  my  early  reading-  of  the  Constitution,  I  often  re- 
g-retted  that  a  clause  had  not  been  added  to  Article  V.,  pro- 
viding that  at  some  time  after  its  adoption,  say  in  fifty  or 
even  in  a  hundred  years.  Senators  of  the  United  States  should 
be  apportioned  among  the  several  States  as  Representatives 
are  allotted  to  each,  in  proportion  to  the  population  of  each. 

You  will  remember  that  Section  3  of  Article  I.  provides 
that  each  State  shall  have  two  Senators,  and  that  Article 
V.  .contains  this  extraordinary  provision:  **And  no  State, 
without  its  consent,  shall  be  deprived  of  its  equal  suffrage  in 
the  Senate."  These  two  provisions  and  the  clause  in  Article 
II.,  which  provides  that  *'each  State  shall  have  one  vote,'» 
when  the  choice  of  a  President  devolves  on  the  House  of 
Representatives,  are  quite  as  objectionable  to  me  now,  as 
when  I  first  began  the   study  of  the  Constitution,  for  the 


—  800  — 

reason,  that  thej  are  a  positive  denial  of  the  representative 
principle,  and  a  flagrant  violation  of  the  democratic  idea  in 
g-overnment. 

I  would  not  vote  to-day  for  the  admission  of  a  new  State 
out  of  any  State,  or  for  the  admission  of  a  Territory  as  a 
State,  unless  I  could  be  satisfied  that  its  population  would, 
-within  a  reasonable  time,  entitle  it  to  not  less  than  four  (4) 
[Representatives  in  Congress,  under  any  apportionment  which 
ivould  result  by  dividing-  the  population  of  the  nation  by  356, 
the  number  of  members  of  the  House  fixed  by  law  under  the 
present  census. 

So  long  as  any  State,  without  regard  to  population,  is 
clothed  with  the  political  power  of  two  Senators,  a  State 
with  less  than  four  members  is  simply  a  "rotten  borough." 

Until  the  Senate  is  remodeled,  and  Senators  of  the  United 
States  are  apportioned  among  the  several  States  on  the  basis 
of  population,  or,  better  yet,  on  the  basis  of  the  votes  cast  at 
-each  election  for  President,  the  admission  of  rotton  borough 
States  ought  to  be  resisted  by  all  who  believe  in  a  democratic 
government,  and  an  equitable  representation  of  all  the  people 
in  the  national  Congress. 

I  regret  to  say  that  within  a  year  we  have  witnessed  the 
remarkable  spectacle  of  six  new  States  being  dragged  into 
the  Union,  with  unexampled  haste,  whose  combined  popula- 
tion is  not  more  than  enough  to  make  one  commonwealth, 
and  three  of  them  will  probably  never  have  a  population 
sufficient  to  entitle  them  to  more  than  one  Representative  in 
Congress.  And  this  was  done  with  the  example  of  Nevada 
before  us  as  a  warning. 

Kvery  student  of  political  science  must  look  with  amaze- 
ment on  the  reckless  distribution  of  political  power  which  we 
liave  witnessed  in  the  recent  admission  of  these  six  new 
States. 

Nevada  contains  to-day  a  territorial  area  of  109,740 
square  miles,  and  is  larger  by  seventy-four  square  miles  in 
territorial  area  than  all  the  six  New  England  States  with 
New  York  added. 

When  this  barren  waste  of  sand  and  desert  was  admitted 
as  a  State  in  1864,  the  claim  was  made  by  its  embryo  states- 
men that  it  the:n  contained  a  population  of  one  hundred 


-~801  — 

THOUSAND  or  more,  and  that  with  its  fabulous  and  inexhaust- 
ible mineral  and  pastoral  wealth  and  its  larg-e  territorial 
area,  nothing-  could  prevent  it  becoming-  the  '*  Empire  State" 
west  of  the  Missouri  River  and  east  of  California. 

Whatever  may  have  been  its  population  in  1864,  its  popu- 
lation after  twenty-seven  years  in  the  wonderful  development 
promised  by  its  romancing"  officials  is  now  reported  by  the 
census  just  taken  at  the  astonishing-  number  40,019.  In 
round  numbers  call  the  population  of  this  marvelous  *' Em- 
pire State  "  40,000,  and  that  of  New  York  six  millions,  and 
we  are  face  to  face  with  the  fact  that  each  voter  on  this 
109,740  square  miles  of  sand  and  sag-e-brush  has  more  than 
FOUR  TIMES  the  political  power  of  a  voter  in  New  York  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty 
times  the  power  of  a  voter  in  New  York  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  and  yet  Senators  from  the  States  of  New 
York,  Penns34vania,  Ohio  and  Illinois,  voted  not  only  to 
perpetuate  this  inequality  of  political  power,  but  to  increase 
it,  by  making-  precedents  for  future  Congresses  to  follow. 

Instead  of  creating-  "  rotton  borough  "  States,  the  states- 
men or  party  which  shall  devise  a  popular  movement  for 
merg-ing-  two  or  more  such  undesirable  States  into  one  State, 
so  that  such  reorganized  State  shall  contain  a  population 
sufficient  for  a  respectable  commonwealth,  will  be  entitled  to 
the  thanks  and  gratitude  of  the  nation. 

There  are  now  seventeen  States  in  the  Union  whose  com- 
bined population  is  less  than  that  of  the  State  of  New 
York. 

These  seventeen  States,  as  all  know,  have  thirty-four 
Senators  to  represent  them  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,  New  York  but  Two. 

In  case  the  election  of  a  President  devolves  on  the  House 
of  Representatives,  these  seventeen  States  have  each  one 
VOTE,  while  New  York  has  but  one  vote,  provided  her 
Representatives  in  the  House  are  not  equally  divided,  in 
which  event  her  vote  is  lost. 

I  voted  against  the  admission  of  West  Virginia  during 
the  war,  for  the  reason  that  I  was  unwilling  to  increase  the 
political  power  of  any  State,  in  the  Senate,  by  consenting  to 
51 


—  802  — 

divide  States  of  the  third  or  fourth  class  into  two  or  more 
States. 

Before  her  dismemberment,  old  Virginia  had  less  than 
half  the  population  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  population  of 
West  Virg-inia  when  admitted  was  but  one-seventh  that  of 
Ohio.  I  voted  against  it,  for  the  additional  reason  that,  as 
I  interpreted  Section  3  of  Article  IV.  of  the  Constitution, 
its  dismemberment  was  a  clear  violation  of  that  instrument 
in  both  its  letter  and  its  spirit. 

And  then  I  had  a  sentiment  which  impelled  me  to  vote 
against  the  dismemberment  of  the  old  State,  However  unspar- 
ingly I  may  have  condemned,  as  I  did,  her  indefensible  acts 
of  secession  and  war  on  the  Union,  I  could  not  forget  that 
she  was  the  mother  of  States  and  statesmen.  I  could  not 
forget  the  heroic  deeds  and  great  acts  of  her  Revolutionary 
history,  and  especially  that  one  great  act,  which  as  time 
rolls  on,  rises  higher  and  higher  in  moral  grandeur  —  I  mean 
her  cession  to  the  nation  of  all  that  territory  which  to-day 
comprises  the  five  great  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Michigan, 
Illinois  and  Wisconsin.  And  then,  I  remembered  with  grati- 
tude the  fact  that  she  enriched  that  priceless  gift,  by  uniting 
with  her  sister  States  in  passing  the  ordinance  of  1787,  which 
prohibited  slavery  and  involuntary  servitude  forever  in  all 
that  vast  territory.  I  thought  then,  and  think  now,  that 
that  one  sublime  act  ought  to  have  saved  the  old  common- 
wealth of  commonwealths  from  the  humiliation  of  such  a 
spoliation  and  dismemberment.  But  this  was  one  of  the  mad 
and  unstatesmanlike  acts  of  the  war,  and  grievously  has  the 
party  which  did  it,  expiated  it. 

THK   NOMINATION   OF   CANDIDATES. 

At  all  nominating  elections  for  President,  or  for  Sena- 
tors and  Representatives  in  Congress,  and  for  members  of 
the  College  of  Deputies,  the  voters  in  each  State  are  secured 
in  the  right  to  vote  direct  by  ballot  for  the  nomination  of 
candidates  for  each  of  the  officers  to  be  elected,  and  from  the 
FOUR  highest  on  the  list  for  each  office,  voted  for  at  such 
election,  each  party  or  group  of  electors  must  select  its  candi- 
dates to  be  voted  for  at  the  final  election  in  November. 


—  803  — 

In  voting"  for  the  nomination  of  a  President,  or  for 
United  States  Senator  or  for  a  Representative  in  Congress 
for  States  entitled  to  but  one  member,  each  elector  can  give 
but  one  vote  for  each  candidate.  Only  when  there  are  two 
or  more  candidates  to  be  nominated  for  Representatives  in 
Congress  and  three)  or  more  members  of  the  College  of 
Deputies  for  a  State,  can  an  elector  cumulate  his  vote  at  any- 
nominating  election. 

All  electors  and  each  organized  party  or  group  of  elec- 
tors, must,  under  this  plan,  prepare  their  own  ballots  and 
vote  directly,  as  provided  by  law,  to  nominate  their  first 
choice.  That  they  can  do  this,  free  from  the  dictation  of 
party  conventions,  party  bosses,  or  "  managing  statesmen," 
will  be  clear  enough  to  any  man  of  ordinary  intelligence. 

There  are  certain  to  be  four  candidates  on  the  list  voted 
for,  at  each  nominating  election,  who  will  have  received  a 
sufficient  number  of  votes  to  be  included  with  the  four  candi- 
dates to  be  nominated;  that  is,  there  will  always  be  four 

CANDIDATES  WITH  A  PLURALITY  OVER  THEIR  COMPETITORS,  Un- 
less there  be  two  or  more  candidates  who  may  have  received 
an  EQUAL  NUMBER  OF  VOTES  at  any  nominating  election 
(which  will  seldom  happen).  In  case  a  tie  vote  should  occur 
in  a.ny  State  or  district,  the  College  of  Deputies  for  the  State 
will  be  required  by  law  to  determine  by  lot  or  otherwise, 
which  of  the  candidates  having  an  equal  number  of  [votes 
shall  have  his  name  printed  on  the  official  ballot  and  be 
eligible  to  be  voted  for  at  the  regular  election  in  November. 
In  Ohio,  by  the  apportionment  provided  for  under  the 
new  census,  there  would  be  one  candidate  for  Congress  to  be 
nominated  for  the  State  at  large.  In  order  that  there  shall 
be  not  less  than  four  candidates  for  each  office,  to  represent 
not  less  than  four  parties,  or  four  groups  of  electors,  it  is 
provided  that  from  the  four  names  highest  on  the  list  voted 
for  at  each  nominating  election  in  August,  the  electors  of 
each  party  shall  select  their  candidates  for  the  regular  elec- 
tion in  November.  By  providing  that  the  number  of  candi- 
dates from  which  the  electors  may  select  shall  be  four  for 
each  office  to  be  filled  at  any  regular  election,  each  of  the 
great  parties  will  uniformly  and  without  question  name  its 
favorite  candidates,  and  smaller  groups  of  electors  or  new 


—  804  — 

parties  can  by  this  plan  always  secure  their  own  candidates, 
provided  they  poll  a  sufficient  number  of  votes,  by  cumulat- 
ing- them,  to  place  their  candidate  among-  the  four  highest 
on  the  list  voted  for  at  any  nominating-  election. 

Each  of  the  old  parties  would,  after  conference  and  pub- 
lic discussion  through  its  party  papers,  be  certain  to  concen- 
trate its  vote,  so  as  to  put  its  own  candidates  at  the  head  of 
the  list,  at  all  nominating  elections. 

The  Prohibitionist,  the  National  Alliance,  and  other 
party  organizations,  would,  as  a  rule,  be  able  to  unite  and 
cumulate  their  vote  so  as  to  secure  one,  if  not  two,  of  the 
four  candidates.  If,  however,  they  failed  to  do  this  in  any 
State  or  district,  then  and  in  that  event  they  can  select  from 
the  list  of  the  four  highest  which  may  have  been  voted  for, 
at  each  nominating  election,  and  from  no  others,  one  or 
more  of  such  candidates  as  they  may  prefer.  In  this  way 
each  minority  party,  or  group  of  electors,  could  make  up  a 
ticket,  as  any  part}^  would  be  compelled  to  do,  in  order  that 
the  "College  of  Deputies"  for  each  State  might  prepare  and 
have  printed  and  distributed  the  official  ballots  containing 
the  names  of  all  candidates  duly  nominated  as  prescribed  by 
law,  as  only  official  ballots  would  be  received  at  any  regular 
election  in  November. 

In  the  State  of  Ohio  there  would  be  one  candidate  for 
Congress  to  be  elected  for  the  State  at  large,  and  four  candi- 
dates from  which  to  select.  Each  of  the  great  parties  would 
be  compelled  to  make  up  its  ticket  from  one  of  the  four 
highest  candidates  on  the  list  voted  for,  in  the  State  at  large, 
at  any  nominating  election  in  August.  And  any  group  of 
electors,  whether  Prohibitionists  or  National  Alliance,  or 
any  party  with  a  public  organization,  could  make  up  a  ticket 
from  the  list  nominated,  and  require  the  "College  of  Depu- 
ties "  in  each  State  to  print  the  name  or  names  of  the  candi- 
dates designated  by  such  party,  or  group  of  electors,  on  an 
official  ballot  to  be  voted  for  by  them ;  and,  besides,  each  indi- 
vidual elector  would  be  authorized  to  erase  any  name  on  his 
official  ballot,  and  use  a  "paster"  or  write  the  name  of  any 
one  of  the  duly  nominated  candidates  in  the  place  of  the 
name  of  any  candidate  whose  name  he  might  decide  to  erase. 

In  Congressional  districts  of  five,  there  would  be  four 


m 


—  805  — 

candidates  nominated  for  each  member  of  Congress  to  be 
elected,  or  twenty  candidates  for  each  district  of  five  mem- 
bers. 

The  old  parties  would  of  course  always  have  their  own 
candidates,  that  is  five  candidates  each,  or  one-half  the  number 
of  the  twenty  hig-hest  on  the  list.  The  next  hig-hest  on  the 
list  would  probably  represent  the  National  Alliance  and  the 
Prohibitionists,  and  perhaps  in  some  States  other  g-roups  of 
electors.  They  could  select  their  tickets  from  the  ten  that 
did  not  represent  the  two  dominant  parties,  or  if  they  were 
a  g'roup  of  "  hig-h-kickers "  or  fighting"  independents,  they 
could  select  one  from  each  of  the  candidates  nominated,  and 
thus  have  one  or  more  candidates  from  each  party,  as  they 
might  elect. 

It  will  be  seen  that  this  plan,  while  preserving"  intact  the 
two  old  parties,  provides  for  securing-  to  the  minority,  or  to 
any  new  party,  or  to  individual  citizens,  all  the  rig-hts  that 
leg-itimately  belong-  to  an  independent  voter  in  a  democratic 
republic. 

In  all  States  and  in  all  cities  this  plan  can  be  applied 
with  mathematical  accuracy,  and  with  such  unquestioned 
fairness  to  the  majority  and  to  the  minority  that  one  is 
often  amazed  that  it  has  not  long"  ag-o  been  adopted,  and  made 
part  of  our  national  Constitution,  and  also  been  engrafted  in 
our  State  constitutions  and  put  in  force  in  the  administration 
of  all  cities  of  the  first  and  second  class  in  every  State. 

DISUNION   IMPOSSIBLK   WITH   SUCH   A   CONSTITUTION. 

As  the  fatal  dogma  of  secession,  was  buried  in  a  common 
grave  with  the  great  rebellion,  it  is  fitting  and  proper  that 
the  national  Constitution  should  be  so  amended,  as  to  conform 
to  the  new  and  broader  conditions  of  our  national  life. 

If  this  proposed  amendment,  which  cannot  be  misinter- 
preted nor  misunderstood,  had  formed  part  of  our  national 
Constitution  prior  to  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  that  colossal 
and  indefensible  crime  would  have  been  impossible. 

Make  this  plain  democratic  provision  part  of  our  national 
Constitution,  and  we  shall  thus  take  security  of  the, future, 
that  no  such  rebellion  can  happen  again. 


—  806  — 

Adopt  this  amendment,  and  a  crisis,  such  as  that  which 
happily  ended  in  the  expedient  of  the  Electoral  Commission 
of  1877,  will  never  confront  us  thereafter. 

Adopt  it,  and  the  House  of  Representatives  will  never 
agfain  be  the  theatre  of  intrig'ue  for  the  election  of  a  Presi- 
dent. 

Adopt  it,  and  the  menace  of  a  solid  South,  and  of  pivotal 
States  in  the  North,  will  nevermore  be  known  in  our  history. 

And  all  citizens  of  the  United  States  in  each  State  will 
have  the  right,  which  ought  to  be  secured  to  t<hem  in  a 
democratic  republic,  of  nominating  and  electing  their  Presi- 
dent by  a  direct  vote  of  the  duly  qualified  electors  by  ballot, 
without  the  intervention  of  national  nominating  conventions. 
State  legislatures,  a  College  of  Electors  or  the  House  of 
Representatives. 

Adopt  the  amendments  providing  for  the  nomination  and 
election  of  Senators  of  the  United  States,  and  Representatives 
in  Congress,  and  no  State  or  district  in  a  State  will  have 
cause  to  blush  for  the  character  or  ability  of  her  representa- 
tives in  either  House  of  the  Congress  at  Washington. 

Before  the  colossal  political  power  which,  such  a  consti- 
tution will  secure,  and  such  a  government  represent,  we  may 
well  pause  and  ask  ourselves,  *'What  of  the  future  ?  "  With 
a  population  such  as  I  estimate  within  fifty  years  of  one 
hundred  and  sixty-one  millions  or  more,  speaking  the  same 
language  and  having  a  common  interest  and  a  common 
destin}^,  represented  by  an  indissoluble  Union,  whose  sov- 
ereignty resides  in  the  whole  people  as  a  unit,  and  not  in 
territorial  subdivisions  called  "sovereign  States,"  we  shall 
present  to  the  world,  as  I  see  it,  the  freest,  the  strongest  and 
the  best  form  of  democratic  representative  government  on 
earth. 

So  thoroughly  am  I  impressed  with  the  magnitude  of 
this  subject,  and,  after  years  of  reflection,  so  thoroughly 
does  it  command  the  approval  of  my  judgment,  that,  had  I 
the  time,  it  would  be  an  easy  and  welcome  task  to  extend  this 
address  into  a  volume.  What  I  now  present  has  been  written 
in  odd  hours,  as  time  and  the  cares  of  an  exacting  business 
permitted. 

In  submitting  thus  briefly,  these   observations   for  dis-* 


—  807  — 

cussion  by  the  Ohio  Society  of  New  York,  I  feel  that  I  but 
discharge  the  duty  of  a  citizen,  by  contributing  something 
to  a  subject  on  which  many  of  the  most  thoughtful  men  in 
this  country  are  now  thinking,  to  the  end  that  I  may  aid  in 
calling  public  attention  to  the  changes  which  now  confront 
us  —  changes  which  I  believe  demand  the  serious  considera- 
tion of  the  foremost  citizens  of  all  parties  and  all  sections. 

To  those  of  my  faith  and  sanguine  temperament  this 
impending  change  represents  the  life  and  hope  and  onward 
march  of  the  nation,  and  is  the  natural  outgrowth  of  that 
unrest  which  in  the  history  of  mankind  always  precedes  great 
reforms. 

To  me,  it  is  the  Spirit  of  Progress  born  of  the  aspira- 
tions of  a  great  people  for  an  indissoluble  Union  and  a  demo- 
cratic continental  commonwealth. 

As  I  watch,  this  spirit  points  the  way  to  a  higher  and 
broader  conception  of  one's  rights  and  duties  as  a  citizen. 
In  its  inspiring  presence  our  prophets  and  leaders  are  thrilled 
with  an  enthusiasm  which  glows  in  face  and  speech,  as  they 
direct  the  advancing  columns  of  those  who  are  marching  in 
the  pathway  of  progress.  And  ail  who  march  abreast  and 
battle  with  them,  shall  feel  that 

**Each  epoch  hath  its  work  to  do, 

Its  thought  to  think,  its  wrong  to  right, 
Its  leaders  and  its  prophets  too  — 
Its  beacon  lamp  to  trim  and  light." 


APPENDIX. 

Containing  the  history  and  text  of  the  proposed  constitu- 
tional amendment,  with  suggestions  for  the  form  of  all  offi- 
cial ballots  —  national.  State  and  city,  together  with  census 
statistics  for  the  first  one  hundred  years  of  the  republic. 

Also  map  showing  the  States  and  parts  of  States  in 
which  the  Afro-American  will  outnumber  the  whites  after 
the  year  1940. 


—  808  — 


HISTORY   OF  the:   PROPOSED   AMENDMENT. 

It  may  not  be  uninteresting"  if  I  give  a  brief  history  of 
this  constitutional  amendment,  and  the  reasons  which  led 
me  to  prepare  it  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago. 

In  1841,  when  a  boy,  I  visited  Washington  to  see  Gen. 
Wm.  Henry  Harrison  inaugurated  President.     Before  return- 
ing home.  President  Harrison  died,  and  I  saw  John  Tyler, 
the  first  Vice-President  in  our  history,  inaug-urated  President 
as  provided  in  the  Constitution. 

In  less  than  three  months  after  Mr.  Tyler  entered  upon 
the  duties  of  the  presidential  office,  it  began  to  be  quietly 
whispered  about  among-  the  Democrats  of  Kentucky  and 
Southern  Ohio,  that  Tyler  (who  had  been  elected  Vice- 
President  on  the  ticket  with  Gen.  Harrison  by  the  Whig- 
party)  '*  had  come  over  to  our  side." 

Within  a  year  it  was  generally  suspected  that  Tyler  had 
formed  some  kind  of  a  secret  alliance  with  the  Calhoun  wing 
of  the  Democratic  party,  and  this  proved  to  be  true,  as  is 
evidenced  by  the  history  of  his  administration. 

I  was  a  looker-on  in  the  Democratic  National  Conven- 
tion which  met  at  Baltimore  in  1844.  By  the  favor  of  Col. 
Richard  M.  Johnson,  of  Kentucky,  ex- Vice-President,  I  had 
a  seat  on  the  floor  of  that  Convention  with  the  Kentucky 
delegation. 

More  than  two-thirds  of  all  the  deleg-ates  elected  to  that 
convention  had  been,  when  appointed,  instructed  to  vote  for 
the  renomination  of  the  old  ticket,  which  had  been  defeated 
by  Harrison  and  Tyler  in  1840. 

By  intrigue,  betrayal  of  trust,  and  deliberate  violation 
of  instructions  on  the  part  of  delegates  to  that  convention, 
Mr.  Van  Buren  was  defeated,  and  James  K.  Polk,  of  Ten- 
nessee, was  nominated  and  elected  President,  defeating* 
Henry  Clay. 

Afterwards,  I  saw  the  Electoral  Colleg-e  for  Ohio  meet  at 
Columbus  and  go  through  the  mummery  of  voting-  by  ballot 
for  President  and  Vice-President. 

The  members  of  the  college  then  appointed  one  of  their 


—  809  — 

own  number  to  carry  one  of  the  three  certificates  of  the 
result  of  that  election  by  the  electors  in  Ohio  to  Washing- 
ton. 

To  me,  it  seemed  like  a  solemn  farce,  and  as  if  each 
member  of  the  College  was  cognizant  of  the  fact. 

These  events  impressed  me  deeply  and  so  unfavorably 
that  I  never  thereafter  affirmed  (as  I  had  been  taught  to  do) 
"  that  our  national  Constitution  was  the  perfection  of 
human  wisdom  "  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  more  I  studied  it,  the 
clearer  did  its  defects  and  objectionable  provisions  appear  to 
me. 

But  the  fact  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  fathers  of 
the  Constitution  were  environed  on  every  hand,  and  that 
only  by  yielding  as  they  did,  to  the  slave-holding  interests, 
and  also  to  the  selfish  demands  of  some  of  the  States,  was 
the  organization  of  a  National  Government  in  1789  possible. 

If,  when  the  national  Constitution  was  under  discussion 
in  1789,  its  authors  had  been  confronted  with  the  simple 
proposition  of  framing  a  democratic  representative  govern- 
ment and  securing  to  the  people  of  all  the  States  an  equit- 
able distribution  of  political  power,  there  is  no  question  that 
more  than  one  of  the  unphilosophical  provisions  embodied 
in  our  present  Constitution  would  never  have  found  a  place 
in  it. 

Instead  of  occupying  themselves  in  discussing  practical 
democratic  questions,  as  many  of  the  members  of  the  Con- 
vention of  1789  were  pre-eminently  qualified  to  do,  the  time 
and  skill  of  the  ablest  men  in -that  remarkable  body  were 
largely  taken  up  in  devising  plans  to  defeat  the  petty 
schemes  of  narrow  and  selfish  men,  and  to  secure  harmony  of 
views  among  some  of  its  impracticable  members  and  adjust 
the  supposed  conflicting  interests  of  the  larger  and  smaller 
States. 

The  practical  problem  before  them  was  not  the  best  form 
of  an  ideal  democratic  republic,  with  an  equitable  distribution 
of  political  power,  but  the  organization  of  a  national 
government  that  would  be  accepted  and  ratified  by  each  of 
the  thirteen  States.  As  all  know,  the  Constitution  as  finally 
adopted  could  only  have  been  formed  by  concession  and  com- 
promise, and  all  compromise  is,  of  necessity,  patchwork. 


—  810  — 

From  the  day  I  witnessed  the  inaug-uration  of  Vice- 
President  John  Tyler  as  President,  and  the  defeat  of  Mr.  , 
VanBuren  in  the  nominating-  convention  in  Baltimore  in 
1844,  I  have  been  opposed  to  the  caucus  and  convention  sys- 
tem, national.  State  and  city;  as  also  the  machinery  b}^  which 
the  President  is  now  elected,  and  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of 
the  ofS.ce  of  Vice-President. 

Instead  of  electing-  a  President  as  now  provided  by  law 
and  the  Constitution,  and  by  the  convention  system  to  which 
custom  and  usag-e  has  g-iven  the  force  of  law,  I  propose  that 
there  shall  be  no  Vice-President  and  that  the  nomination  and 
election  of  a  President  shall  be  by  a  direct  vote  by  ballot  of 
the  qualified  electors  in  all  the  States;  without  the  interven- 
tion of  national  conventions,  a  Colleg-e  of  Electors,  or  the 
House  of  Representatives. 

The  amendment  as  now  presented  (except  one  or  two 
immaterial  chang-es)  was  prepared  by  me  during  the  time 
the  patchwork  known  as  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  was 
under  consideration,  as  it  now  appears  in  the  Constitution. 

In  my  orig-inal  draft,  but  three  members  of  Cong-ress 
were  apportioned  to  each  cong-ressional  district  in  States 
entitled  to  six  members  or  more.  In  the  draft  now  submitted, 
not  less  than  four  nor  more  than  five  members  are  allotted  to 
each  cong-ressional  district  in  States  entitled  to  eight  mem- 
bers or  more. 

As  a  practical  solution  of  the  difiicijlties  which  environ 
us,  and  for  securing  an  equitable  distribution  of  political 
power,  national.  State  and  inunicipal,  the  plan  has  steadily 
grown  upon  me  for  twenty  years  or  more,  and  I  am  confident 
that  substantially  as  herein  outlined  it  will  at  no  distant  day 
be  approved  by  a  majority  of  all  parties  in  this  country. 

When  first  prepared,  I  submitted  it  (as  was  my  custom 
with  any  important  work  which  I  attempted,  while  in  Con- 
gress) to  my  personal  friend,  Mr.  Beaman,  of  Michigan,  for 
his  legal  criticism  and  suggestion.  After  his  approval,  it 
was  printed  and  submitted  to  Governor  Chase  and  to  Sumner, 
Wade  and  Howard  of  the  Senate,  and  to  Thaddeus  Stevens 
and  Henry  Winter  Davis  of  the  House. 

Their  general  judgment  was,  that  while  the  reconstruc- 
tion measures  were  before  us  and  the  controversy  with  the 


—  811  — 

acting*  President  (Andrew  Johnson)  was  occupying-  the  atten- 
tion of  Congress,  the  country  was  not  prepared  for  chang-es 
so  far-reaching-  as  I  proposed,  and  they  advised  me  to  confine 
my  amendment  to  the  nominatio;i  and  election  of  the  Presi- 
dent by  a  direct  vote  of  the  people,  and  to  abolishing-  the 
office  of  Vice-President  (to  which  they  all,  at  that  time, 
heartily  assented),  and  to  secure  a  modification  of  the  veto 
power.  Instead  of  a  Colleg-e  of  Deputies,  such  as  I  proposed, 
for  the  choice  of  a  President  in  case  of  a  vacancy  in  that 
office,  they  sug-g-ested  that  the  power  should  be  conferred  on 
the  Senate  and  House  in  joint  convention,  each  Senator  and 
Representative  having-  one  vote.  These  members  of  the 
Senate  and  House  were  representative  men  and  my  seniors  in 
years  and  political  experience.  After  conferring-  with  them, 
I  finally  accepted  their  judg-ment,  and  in  accordance  with 
their  sug-gestions  prepared  a  modified  form  of  my  orig-inal 
plan,  omitting-  the  provision  for  the  creation  of  the  National 
Colleg-e  of  Deputies,  the  election  of  United  States  Senators 
by  the  people,  and  for  proportionai.  or  equitablk  represen- 
tation. 

The  modified  plan  as  then  prepared,  and  the  speech 
which  I  made  in  the  House  in  support  of  it,  may  be  found  in 
the  Congressional  Globe  for  the  second  session  of  the 
Fortieth  Congress,  Vol.  3,  pag-e  2713. 

Had  I  been  re-elected  to  Cong-ress  in  1868,  I  should  have 
presented  this  amendment  as  orig-inally  prepared  and  as  now 
submitted  for  your  consideration. 

Failing-  to  be  re-elected,  I  resolved  to  present  it  throug-h 
some  representative  member  of  the  Senate  or  House  on  the 
first  occasion  when  I  thought  public  opinion  would  warrant 
the  probability  of  a  favorable  reception  of  it. 

When  the  Electoral  Commission  of  1877  declared  Mr. 
Hayes  the  duly  elected  President,  I  believed  that  the  time 
had  come,  when  the  statesmen  of  all  parties  would  be  forced 
by  public  opinion  to  give  prompt  consideration  to  some  such 
plan  as  mine,  for  the  election  of  the  President,  to  the  end 
that  another  perilous  contest  such  as  that  adjusted  by  that 
extraordinary  commission,  should  never  happen  again. 

Accordingly,  I  went  with  it  to  Senator  Chandler  of 
Michigan,  and  outlined  it  to  him  and  urged  him,  as  Chair- 


—  812  — 

man  of  the  National  Republican  Committee,  and  the  man 
who  had  done  more  to  elect  Mr.  Hayes  than  any  other,  to 
take  the  proposed  amendment  and  go  to  Mr.  Hayes  with  it 
and  see  if  he  could  not  induce  him  to  adopt  it,  and  have  him 
in  his  inaug-ural  address  present  it,  and  say  that  he  proposed 
to  call  an  extra  session  of  Congress  to  act  upon  it,  and  state 
that  on  its  adoption  and  ratification  as  part  of  the  national 
Constitution  he  would  resign  the  Presidency  and  submit  his 
title  to  the  office  to  a  vote  of  the  people  at  the  first  election 
under  it.  I  presented  the  subject  to  Mr.  Chandler  with  much 
earnestness,  because  I  felt  confident  that  such  a  proposition, 
coming  from  him  at  that  time,  would  be  acceptable  to  the 
Republican  party  and  to  the  great  body  of  Democrats  North 
and  South,  and  that  some  such  amendment  could  be  passed  by 
Congress  and  submitted  to  the  States  for  their  ratification^ 
which  might  then  have  been  done  within  a  year. 

I  urged  that  if  Mr.  Hayes  would  do  this,  and  the  amend- 
ment became  part  of  the  national  Constitution,  that  his 
nomination  and  election  would  most  certainly  follow,  and 
that  he  would  thus  become  a  marked  and  historic  figure,  and 
much  more  of  the  same  import. 

But  Mr.  Chandler  was  in  no  frame  of  mind  to  entertain 
my  proposition,  nor  for  that  matter,  any  other.  He  was  in 
fact  jubilant  and  defiant,  and  in  the  strongest  language  ex- 
pressed his  determination  to  stamp  out  all  opposition. 

I  have  often  regretted  that  I  did  not,  at  that  time,  go 
personally  to  Mr.  Hayes  with  my  amendment,  and  urge  him 
to  do  as  I  should  have  done  had  I  been  in  his  position. 

Since  that  lost  opportunity,  I  have  seen  no  time  for  its 
acceptable  presentation.  The  impelling  motive  which 
prompted  me  to  accept  a  nomination  for  Congress  last  fall 
was,  that  in  such  a  canvass  I  might  have  an  opportunity  to 
discuss  the  questions  presented  in  this  amendment;  and  in 
the  event  of  my  election,  would  hold  a  position  from  which 
I  could  legitimately  command  a  hearing  on  it  before  the 
country. 

For  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  I  have  regarded  the 
affirmative  settlement  of  the  questions  involved  in  this 
amendment,  as  of  vastly  more  importance  to  our  future 
peace  and  national  unity,  than  any  question  growing  out  of 


—  813-^ 

tariff  reform,  or  silver  coinag-e,  or  any  ordinary  economic  or 
commercial  legislation.  But  during-  my  ten  days'  canvass 
last  fall,  I  found  that  public  opinion  was  entirely  engrossed 
with  tariff  discussion  and  the  free  coinage  of  silver,  and 
that  the  time  was  not  opportune  for  the  public  discussion  of 
questions  involving  important  constitutional  reforms.  So  I 
now  come  with  this  amendment,  which  I  have  guarded  for 
years  with  paternal  care,  and  present  it  for  the  consideration 
of  the  members  of  the  "Ohio  Society  of  New  York,"  and 
through  them,  to  the  judgment  of  all  who  may  do  me  the 
honor  to  read  it. 

The  adoption  of  this  proposed  amendment  will  neces- 
sitate the  omissions  and  changes  indicated  below  by  small 
capitals  in  Articles  One  and  Two  of  our  present  Constitu- 
tion. 

Article  One,  when  amended,  will  read  as  follows: 


ARTICLB  I. 

Section  1.  All  legislative  powers  herein  granted  shall 
be  vested  in  a  Congress  of  the  United  States,  which  shall 
consist  of  a  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives. 

Section  2.  The  House  of  Representatives  shall  be  com- 
posed of  members  chosen  every  second  year  by  the  people  of 
the  several  States,  and  the  electors  in  each  State  shall  have 
the  qualifications  requisite  under  this  Constitution  to  vote 
FOR  President  of  the  United  States. 

No  person  shall  be  a  Representative  who  shall  not  have 
attained  the  age  of  twenty-five  years,  and  been  seven  years 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  who  shall  not,  when 
elected,  be  an  inhabitant  of  that  State  in  which  he  shall  be 
chosen. 

When  vacancies  happen  in  the  representation  from  any 
State,  THE  C01.LEGE  OF  Deputies  for  such  State  shali.  fill 
such  vacancies,  until  the  next  regular  election  for 
Representatives  in  Congress. 

The  House  of  Representatives  shall  choose  their  Speaker 
and  other  officers,  and  shall  have  the  sole  power  of  impeach- 
ment. 


—  814  — 

[J8^"  Amendments  to  Article  One  when  adopted  will  be 
inserted  here  as  part  of  Section  2.] 

Section  3.  The  Senate  of  the  United  States  shall  be 
composed  of   two   Senators   for   each   State,  and  shai,i^  be 

CHOSEN  BY  BALLOT  BY  THE  QUALIFIED  ELECTORS  THEREOF,  for 

six  years,  and  each  Senator  shall  have  one  vote. 

When  vacancies  happen  in  the  Senate  from  any  State  by 
resignations  or  otherwise,  the  College  of  Deputies  for 
SUCH  State    shall    fill    the   vacancy  until  the  next 

REGULAR  ELECTION  FOR  SENATOR. 

No  person  shall  be  a  Senator  who  shall  not  have  attained 
the  age  of  thirty  years,  and  been  nine  years  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  and  who  shall  not  when  elected  be  an  inhabi- 
tant of  that  State  for  which  he  shall  be  chosen. 

The  Senate  shall  choose  its  own  presiding  and  other 
ofi&cers. 

The  Senate  shall  have  the  sole  power  to  try  all  impeach- 
ments. When  sitting  for  that  purpose  they  shall  be  on  oath 
or  af&rmation;  and  no  person  shall  be  convicted  without  the 
concurrence  of  two-thirds  of  the  Senators  present  and  vot- 
ing.* 

Judgment  in  case  of  impeachment  shall  not  extend 
further  than  to  removal  from  office  and  disqualification  to 
hold  and  enjoy  any  office  of  honor,  trust  or  profit  under  the 
United  States;  but  the  party  convicted  shall,  nevertheless,  be 
liable  and  subject  to  indictment,  trial,  judgment  and  punish- 
ment, according  to  law. 

Section  5.  A  majority  of  each  House  shall  constitute 
a  quorum  to  do  business;  but  a  smaller  number  may  adjourn 
from  day  to  day,  and  may  be  authorized  to  compel  the  attend- 
ance of  absent  members  in  such  manner  and  under  such 
penalties  as  each  House  may  provide.  *    ■ 

The  fifth  section  of  this  article  is  amended  by  omitting 
THE  words  **Each  House  shall  be  the  judge  of  the  election 
returns,  and  qualifications  of  its  own  members,"  and  thus 
takes  from   the   Senate   and    House   the   power,   now  often 


*The  provision  for  the  impeachment  of  the  President  is  stricken  out. 

Jefferson  properly  characterized  that  provision  of  the  Constitution  as  a  "  scare- 
crow," and  as  aU  will  remember,  the  attempt  to  impeach  Andrew  Johnson  ended  in  a 
national  farce. 


—  sis- 
exercised  by  a  partisan  majority,  of  excluding-  persons  who 
present  duly  authenticated  certificates  of  election,  and  admit 
to  seats  persons  who  have  not  been  elected. 

The  proposed  amendment  prescribes  the  "  qualifications  '* 
of  Senators  and  Representatives;  and  the  Circuit  or  District 
Court  of  the  United  States  in  the  State  or  District  where  any 
contest  may  arise  is  authorized  and  required  to  determine 
the  validity  of  all  election  returns  where  a  contest  is  made, 
and  from  such  determination  there  can  be  no  appeal  to  the 
Senate  or  House  of  Representative 

All  clauses  relative  to  the  Vice-President  are  stricken 
out,  and  such  parts  of  Article  One  not  above  quoted  down  to 
the  end  of  Section  Five. 

Section  One  of.  Article  Two  is  stricken  out,  except  the 
clauses  which  provide  that  "  the  President  shall  be  a  natural 
born  citizen  of  the  United  States  and  shall  have  attained  the 
age  of  thirty-five  years,"  and  "shall  at  stated  times  receive 
for  his  services  a  compensation,  which  shall  not  be  increased 
or  diminished  during*  the  period  for  which  he  shall  have  been 
elected,  and  he  shall  not  receive  within  that  period  any  other 
emolument  from  the  United  States,  or  any  of  them." 

**  Before  he  enter  on  the  execution  of  his  office  he  shall 
take  the  following-  oath  or  affirmation :" 

*'Ido  solemnly  swear  (or  affirm)  that  I  will  faithfully 
execute  the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States,  and  will 
to  the  best  of  my  ability,  preserve,  protect  and  defend  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States." 

Sections  Two,  Three  and  Four  of  Article  Two  remain 
unchang-ed,  except  the  word  Vice-President  is  stricken  out  of 
Section  4. 

Article  Twelve  of  the  amendments  is  entirely  eliminated. 

The  presidei^tial  term  is  made  six  years. 

The  paragraphs  above  quoted  will  advise  the  reader  of 
the  changes  necessary  in  our  present  Constitution  to  make  it 
conform  to  the  amendment  as  herein  proposed. 


—816— 


PROPOSED  AMENDMENT  OF  THE  NATIONAL  CON- 
STITUTION. 

Providing-  for  the  nomination  and  eIvECTION,  by  a  di- 
rect vote  of  the  duly  qualified  electors  in  the  several  States, 
of  a  President  of  the  United  States,  and  Senators  and 
Representatives  of  the  several  States  in  Congress,  and  for 
the  creation  and  election  of  a  National  Colleg-e  of  Deputies, 
in  the  several  States. 

Said  Colleg-e  of  Deputies,  when  duly  chosen  and  org-anized 
in  the  several  States,  and  at  the  seat  of*  g-overnment  of  the 
United  States,  shall  be  charg-ed  with  the  authority  and  duty 
of  conducting-  all  national  elections  in  their  respective 
States,  and  with  the  power  and  duty  of  filling-  such  vacancies 
as  may  from  time  to  time  happen  in  the  office  of  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  and  Senators  and  Representatives 
in  Congress  and  members  of  the  National  Colleg-e  of  Deputies 
for  any  State. 

AMENDMENT  TO  ARTICLE  ONE. — WHO  SHAI.I,   BE   ELECTORS. 

All  native-born  male  citizens  of  the  United  States,  of 
the  age  of  twenty-one  (21)  years  and  upwards,  and  each 
person  of  like  age  who  shall  have  been  duly  naturalized,  in 
pursuance  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  and  who  shall 
have  been  a  resident  of  the  State  in  which  he  may  ofi^er  to 
vote  for  one  year  next  preceding  any  election  herein  provided 
for,  shall  be  an  elector,  and  qualified  to  vote  in  such  State 
for  the  nomination  and  election  of  a  Presidelit  of  the  United 
States,  and  for  Senators  and  Representatives  in  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States,  and  for  the  members  of  a  National 
College  of  Deputies  in  such  State. 

The  duly  qualified  electors  in  each  State  shall  vote  at  all 
national  elections,  under  such  rules  and  regulations  as 
the  Congress  may  by  law  prescribe  ;  provided  that  no  insane 
or  idiotic  person,  nor  any  person  duly  convicted  of  a  felony, 
shall  be  permitted  to  vote  at  such  elections. 


—  817  — 


AMENDMENT  TO  ARTICLES  TWO  AND  TWELVE. —  THE  MANNER 
OF  NOMINATING  AND  ELECTING  A  PRESIDENT. 

The  executive  power  shall  be  vested  in  a  President  of 
the  United  States.  The  term  for  which  he  shall  be  elected 
shall  be  six  years.  He  shall  enter  upon  the  duties  of  his 
office  at  12  o'clock  m.,  on  the  fourth  Monday  in  the  April 
next  succeeding-  his  election  in  November. 

No  person  nominated  and  elected  President  by  the  voters 
of  the  several  States,  as  herein  provided,  shall  be  eligible 
for  re-election. 

The  3^ear  in  which  the  first  election  for  the  nomination 
and  choice  of  a  President  shall  take  place,  after*  the  ratifi- 
cation of  this  amendment,  shall  be  prescribed  by  the  Con- 
gress, and  special  provision  shall  be  made  by  law  for  the 
appointment  of  such  officers  as  may  be  required,  to  conduct 
all  national  elections,  in  their  respective  States,  until  the 
College  of  Deputies  herein  provided  for  shall  have  been  duly 
chosen. 

The  President  shall  be  nominated  and  elected  as  follows: 
On  the  first  Tuesday  of  August,  in  the  year  appointed 
by  the  Congress  for  the  first  election,  and  on  the  first  Tues- 
day of  August  every  six  years  thereafter,  the  electors  quali- 
fied as  hereinbefore  provided  shall  assemble  in  their  respec- 
tive States,  as  the  Congress  may  prescribe  by  law,  and  vote 
by  ballot  for  the  nomination  of  a  citizen  of  the  United  States 
for  President,  eligible  under  this  Constitution.  Such  election 
for  the  nomination,  or  for  the  election  of  a  President,  shall 
not  be  held  in  any  room  in  which  an  election  is  being  con- 
ducted on  the  same  day.  for  State  or  local  officers,  in  such 
State.  But  no  voting  district  or  precinct  in  any  State  shall 
be  larger  in  territorial  extent  than  districts  designated  by 
State  law  for  State  elections. 

The  College  of  Deputies  in  each  State  charged  by  law 

with  the  conduct  of  such  nominating  elections  for  President 

shall  make  distinct  lists  of  all  candidates  voted  for  at  such 

elections,  together  with  the  number  of  votes  cast   in  their 

52 


—  818  — 

respective  States  for  each  candidate,  which  list  they  shall 
officially  sig-n,  seal  and  certify,  in  triplicate,  and  within 
twenty  (20)  days  after  such  nominating-  election  in  each  State, 
they  shall  transmit,  in  such  form  and  manner  as  the  Congress- 
may  by  law  prescribe,  one  copy  of  such  certified  returns  to 
the  chairman  of  the  National  Colleg-e  of  Deputies,  at  the  seat 
of  g-Qvernment  of  the  United  States;  one  copy  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interior  of  the  United  States,  and  one  copy  to  the 
Secretary  of  State  for  the  State  in  which  they,  as  officials^ 
reside. 

The  Chairman  of  the  National  Colleg-e  of  Deputies,  and 
the  chief  clerk  of  such  colleg-e,  tog-ether  with  the  Secretary 
of  the  Interior  of  the  United  States,  shall  meet  at  the  seat  of 
government  of  the  United  States  on  the  first  Tuesday  in 
September,  at  12  o'clock  M.,  after  each  nominating  election 
for  President  on  the  preceding  first  Tuesday  in  August, 
and  shall,  in  the  presence  of  such  persons  as  the  Congress 
may  by  law  direct,  open  all  the  certificates  from  each  State 
containing  a  list  of  the  candidates  voted  for  and  the 
votes  cast  for  each  at  such  nominating  election,  and  they,  or 
any  two  of  them,  shall  within  the  time  fixed  by  law,  jointly 
canvass,  certify  and  officially  publish  the  result,  stating  the 
number  of  votes  cast  for  each  candidate  for  President  in  the 
several  States,  and  the  total  vote  for  each  in  all  the  States. 

TH^   EI.KCTION   OF  THE   PRESIDENT. 

On  the  first  Tuesday  of  November,  after  each  nomina- 
ting election  for  President,  the  (qualified  electors  shall  again 
assemble  in  their  respective  States,  and  from  the  list  of  can- 
didates officially  certified  as  having  the  highest  votes,  not  ex- 
ceeding four  (4)  on  the  list  voted  for,  at  such  nominating 
election  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  August  preceding,  the  elec- 
tors shall  by  ballot  choose  a  President,  and  the  person  hav- 
ing the  greatest  number  of  votes  cast  at  such  election  for 
President,  in  all  the  States,  shall  be  the  President. 

The  persons  in  each  State  charged  by  law  with  the  con- 
duct of  the  election  appointed  for  the  first  Tuesday  of 
November,  for  the  choice  of  a  President,  shall  make  a  dis- 
tinct list  of  all  the  candidates  voted  for  at  such  elections, 


—  819  — 

log-ether  with  the  number  of  votes  cast  in  their  respective 
States  for  each,  which  list  they  shall  sig-n,  seal  and  officially 
certify  in  triplicate,  and  within  thirty  days  after  such  elec- 
tion they  shall  transmit,  under  such  reg-ulations  as  the  Con- 
g-ress  may  by  law  prescribe,  one  copy  to  the  Chairman  of  the 
National  College  of  Deputies,  at  the  seat  of  g-overnment  of 
the  United  States  ;  one  copy  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
of  the  United  States,  and  one  copy  to  the  Secretary  of  State 
for  the  State  in  which  they  reside. 

The  Chairman  or  the  acting-  Chairman  of  the  National 
College  of  Deputies,  and  the  chief  clerk  or  acting-  chief  clerk 
of  such  coUeg-e,  tog-ether  with  the  Secretary  or  acting-  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interior  of  the  United  States,  shall  meet  at  the 
seat  of  g-overnment  of  the  United  States,  at  such  place  as 
the  Cong-ress  may  by  law  provide,  on  the  second  Tuesday  in 
December,  at  12  o'clock  m.,  after  each  election  for  President, 
and  shall  in  the  presence  of  such  members  of  the  College  of 
Deputies  as  may  be  present,  and  such  other  persons  as  the 
Cong-ress  may  by  law  authorize,  open  all  the  certificates  con- 
taining- the  official  returns  of  the  votes  cast  for  President  on  the 
preceding-  first  Tuesday  of  November,  and  they  or  any  two 
of  them  shall  forthwith  jointly  certify  and  publish  the  total 
number  of  votes  cast  for  each  candidate,  and  officially  declare 
the  person  having-  the  hig-hest  number  of  votes  to  be  the 
duly  elected  President  of  the  United  States  for  six  years  from 
and  after  the  fourth  Monday  in  the  April  next  succeeding^ 
such  election  in  November. 

But  no  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  nor  Judg-e  of  any  Circuit  or  District  Court  of  the 
United  States,  nor  Judg-e  of  the  Supreme  Court  or  hig-hest 
appellate  court  in  any  State,  shall  be  eligible  to  be  elected 
President  of  the  United  States. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  may  at  any  time 
resign  his  office  and  appoint  a  day  when  his  resig-nation  shall 
take  effect,  or  he  may  designate  that  it  shall  take  effect  on  a 
given  day  after  his  successor  shall  have  been  chosen  by  the 
College  of  Deputies.  And  the  Congress  shall  provide  by 
law  for  such  contingency. 


—  820  — 


THK   NATIONAL   COLLEGE   OF   DEPUTIES. 

A  Colleg-e  of  Deputies,  composed  of  members  from  each 
State,  equal  in  number  to  its  Senators  and  Representatives 
in  the  Cong-ress  of  the  United  States,  shall  be  chosen  every 
six  (6)  years  by  the  people  of  the  several  States;  and  the 
voters  in  each  State  authorized  to  choose  members  of  the 
Colleg-e  of  Deputies  shall  have  the  qualifications  requisite  to 
vote  for  President  of  the  United  States. 

Members  of  the  Colleg-e  of  Deputies  shall  be  elected  for 
the  term  of  six  years,  and  their  term  of  office  shall  beg-in  on 
the  first  Tuesday  in  December  after  their  election  in  No- 
vember. 

No  person  shall  be  a  member  of  the  College  of  Deputies 
who  shall  not  have  attained  the  ag-e  of  thirty  years,  and  who 
shall  not  have  been  a  voter  for  seven  years  in  the  State  for 
which  he  shall  be  chosen. 

All  authority  herein  granted  for  the  choice  of  a  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  to  fill  any  vacancy  which  may 
happen,  by  death  or  otherwise,  in  the  office  of  President, 
shall  be  vested  in  the  National  College  of  Deputies,  as  here- 
in provided. 

The  members  of  the  College  of  Deputies  for  each  State 
shall  be  nominated  and  voted  for  in  States  and  congressional 
districts  of  each  State  as  herein  provided. 

The  duly  qualified  electors  in  each  State  shall  be  entitled 
to  nominate  and  to  elect  two  members  of  the  College  of 
Deputies  for  the  State  at  large,  who  shall  be  designated  "  the 
Senatorial  Deputies." 

The  members  of  the  College  of  Deputies  to  which  each 
State  is  entitled  shall  be  elected  on  the  same  ballot  with  the 
President  of  the  United  States  and  Senators  and  Repre- 
sentatives in  Congress. 

In  addition  to  the  two  Senatorial  Deputies,  the  voters  in 
each  State  entitled  to  seven  or  to  less  than  seven  Representa- 
tives in  Congress,  shall  nominate  and  elect  on  a  general 
ticket  for  the  State  at  large,  one  member  of  the  College  of 
Deputies  for  each  Representative  in  Congress  allotted  to 
such  State. 


—  821  — 

In  States  entitled  to  eight  Representatives  in  Congress, 
or  to  any  additional  number,  the  members  of  the  College  of 
Deputies  shall  be  nominated  and  elected  in  districts  corre- 
sponding to  the  congressional  districts  in  such  States  of  not 
less  than  four  nor  more  than  five  members  each. 

In  States  entitled  to  on^  and  not  to  exceed  Two  addi- 
tional members  of  the  College  of  Deputies,  to  correspond  with 
the  number  of  Representatives  in  Congress,  not  included  in 
any  district,  such  additional  member  or  members  shall  be 
voted  for  and  nominated  and  elected  for  the  State  at  large, 
on  the  same  ballot  with  the  two  Senatorial  Deputies  and  the 
members  to  be  elected  in  districts. 

On  the  first  Tuesday  in  December  after  each  election  for 
members  of  the  College  of  Deputies,  the  persons  duly  chosen 
from  each  State  shall  be  convened  at  the  seat  of  government 
of  the  United  States,  and  they  shall  then  organize  by  choos- 
ing one  of  their  own  number  for  chairman,  and  he  shall  hold 
such  office  for  the  term  of  six  years. 

The  College  of  Deputies  shall  choose  a  Chief  Clerk  and 
Sergeant-at-Arms,  who  shall  hold  their  offices  for  six  years, 
and  the  Chief  Clerk  and  Sergeant-at-Arms  shall  appoint 
such  additional  clerks  and  assistants  as  the  Congress  may,  by 
law,  authorize. 

In  case  of  the  death,  resignation  or  removal  of  the  Chair- 
man, the  Chief  Clerk  or  other  officers  of  the  National  College 
of  Deputies,  such  vacancy  for  the  unexpired  term  shall  be 
filled  as  may  be  provided  by  law. 

In  national  assemblies,  a  majority  of  all  the  members  of 
the  National  College  of  Deputies,  and  in  State  assemblies, 
a  majority  of  all  the  Deputies  for  such  State,  shall  be  requi- 
site to  make  a  quorum  for  the  transaction  of  business,  but  a 
less  number  than  a  quorum  in  each  may  adjourn  from  day  to 
day,  and  they  may  compel  the  attendance  of  absent  members 
in  such  manner  and  under  such  penalties  as  they  shall  pre- 
scribe in  rules  for  their  own  government. 

A  member  of  the  National  or  of  the  State  Assembly  of 
Deputies,  who  shall  violate  such  rules,  maj^  be  suspended  or 
expelled,  by  an  affirmative  vote  of  two-thirds  of  the  Depu- 
ties present  in  either  body. 

A  Deputy  who  may  have   been   suspended   or   expelled 


—  822  — 

from  his  office  by  an  Assembly  of  Deputies  for  an}-  Staie, 
may  appeal  to  the  District  or  Circuit  Court  of  the  United 
States,  for  such  State,  and  the  Court  shall  grant  him  a  sum- 
mary hearing",  and  promptly  determine  the  questions  involved 
in  such  appeal. 

If  a  Deputy  shall  be  suspended  or  expelled  from  his  office 
by  the  National  College  of  Deputies,  such  Deputy  may  appeal 
to  any  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  determination  of  such  appeals  by  the  District  or  Cir- 
cuit Court  of  the  United  States,  in  any  State,  or  by  any  Jus- 
tice of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  shall  be  final, 
touching  the  matters  in  controversy. 

The  Congress  shall  by  law  provide  for  the  assembling  of 
the  members  of  the  College  of  Deputies  for  each  State  at 
their  respective  State  Capitols  within  thirty  (30)  days  after 
their  election,  and  prescribe  the  manner  in  which  they  shall 
organize  by  selecting  one  of  their  own  number  for  Chairman, 
together  with  a  Chief  Clerk  and  Sergeant-at-Arms,  who  shall 
not  be  members  of  the  College  of  Deputies,  and  each  of  whom 
shall  hold  such  office  for  six  years. 

The  College  of  Deputies  for  each  State  shall  be  charged 
with  the  conduct  of  all  national  elections  in  their  respective 
States  for  the  nomination  and  election  of  the  President, 
Senators  of  the  United  States,  Representatives  in  Congress 
and  members  of  the  College  of  Deputies. 

The  Chairman  of  the  College  of  Deputies  in  each  State 
shall  give  public  notice  of  all  national  elections,  as  the  Con- 
gress may  by  law  prescribe,  for  the  nomination  and  election 
of  the  President,  Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress 
and  for  members  of  the  College  of  Deputies,  and  they  shall 
be  the  custodians  of  all  election  returns  of  such  State,  for 
President,  Senators  ai^d  Representatives  in  Congress  and 
members  of  the  College  of  Deputies. 

The  members  of  the  National  College  of  Deputies  and 
the  Chairman  and  Chief  Clerk  and  such  officers  as  they  shall 
be  authorized  by  law  to  appoint,  and  the  Chairman  of  the 
College  of  Deputies  [for  each  State,  together  with  the  Chief 
Clerk  and  such  other  officers  as  the}^  may  be  authorized  by 
law  to  appoint  in  each  State  for  the  conduct  of  national 
elections,  shall  receive  a  compensation  for  their  services  to  be 


—  823  — 

fixed  by   law,  and   paid  out  of  the  Treasury   of  the  United 
States. 

Except  for  offenses  such  as  the  Congress  shall  prescribe, 
the  ^jiembers  of  the  College  of  Deputies  shall  be  privileg-ed  from 
arrest,  or  from  service  of  leg-al  process  of  any  kind,  dur- 
ing" attendance  at  any  meeting-  of  their  body  in  any  State, 
or  when  convened  at  the  seat  of  government  of  the  United 
States,  for  the  choice  of  a  President,  or  when  going  to  or  re- 
turning from  the  same. 

In  case  of  the  death  of  the  President,  or  of  his  resigna- 
tion, disability  or  removal  from  office,  the  Secretary  of  State 
of  the  United  States,  if  there  be  one,  and  if  not,  then  such 
member  of  the  Cabinet  as  the  Congress  may  designate  by 
law,  shall  act  as  President  until  a  successor  to  fill  the  vacancy 
shall  have  been  duly  chosen  and  qualified. 

The  acting  President  shall  by  proclamation  convene  the 
members  of  the  College  of  Deputies  from  all  the  States  at  the 
seat  of  government  of  the  United  States  within  thirty  days 
from  the  date  of  any  vacancy  in  the  office  of  President,  and 
the  members  of  the  College  of  Deputies  shall  -assemble  in 
such  hall  or  building  as  the  Congress  may  by  law  prescribe, 
and  forthwith  proceed  to  the  choice  of  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States  qualified  under  this  Constitution  for  the  office  of  Pres- 
ident to  fill  out  the  unexpired  term. 

On  the  assembling  of  the  College  of  Deputies  in  pursu- 
ance of  the  proclamation  of  the  acting  President,  the  Chair- 
man of  the  College,  if  he  be  present,  and  if  not,  then  the 
senior  member  of  the  College  of  Deputies,  shall  call  the  mem- 
bers to  order,  and  direct  the  clerk  of  the  body  to  call  the 
States  alphabetically  and  the  roll  of  members  in  alphabetical 
order.  A  majority  of  all  the  members  elected  and  qualified 
shall  be  necessary  for  a  quorum  to  transact  business. 

On  the  assembling  of  a  quorum,  in  the  absence  of  the 
Chairman,  the  College  shall  select  a  Chairman  pro  tem.,  and 
at  once  proceed  to  the  choice  of  a  President  to  fill  the  vacancy 
for  the  residue  of  the  unexpired  term  as  herein  prescribed, 
and  no  other  business  shall  be  in  order,  until  a  President 
shall  have  been  chosen. 

On  the  call  of  the  roll  each  member  of  the  College  shall 


—  824  — 

rise  in  his  place,  name  his  choice,  and  vote  viva  vock  for 
President,  and  each  member  shall  have  one  vote. 

If  any  person  shall  receive  on  any  roll-call  a  majority  of 
all  the  votes  g-iven  for  President,  he  shall  be  declared  by  the 
Chairman  of  the  Colleg-e  of  Deputies  the  duly  elected  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  for  the  residue  of  the  unexpired 
term. 

The  members  of  the  Colleg-e  of  Deputies,  after  organiz- 
ing", shall  vote  for  President  at  least  once  each  day  until  a 
President  is  chosen. 

No  member  of  the  College  shall  speak  more  than  once  on 
any  subject  or  motion  on  the  same  day,  nor  more  than  ten 
minutes  except  by  unanimous  consent. 

If  no  person  shall  receive  a  majority  of  the  votes  given 
on  the  first  roll-call,  the  roll  shall  again  be  called,  and  from 
the  persons  having  the  highest  vote  on  the  list,  not  exceeding 
five  of  those  voted  for  on  the  first  roll-call,  the  college  shall 
proceed  to  choose  a  President. 

If  no  person  shall  receive  a  majority  of  all  the  votes 
given  on  the  second  roll-call,  the  College  shall  again  pro- 
ceed to  vote  a  third  time,  and  from  the  persons  having  the 
highest  vote  on  the  list,  not  exceeding  four  of  those  voted  for 
on  the  second  roll-call,  the  College  shall  secure  a  President. 

If  no  person  shall  have  a  majority  of  all  the  votes  given 
on  the  third  roll-call,  the  College  shall  proceed  to  vote  a 
fourth  time,  and  from  the  persons  having  the  highest  vote, 
not  exceeding  three  of  those  voted  for  on  the  third  roll-call, 
the  College  shall  choose  a  President,  and  the  person  having 
the  highest  vote  on  the  fourth  roll-call,  shall  be  declared  by 
the  Chairman  to  be  elected,  to  fill  the  vacancy  for  the  residue 
of  the  unexpired  term. 

In  the  event  that  no  person  shall  receive  a  plurality  vote 
on  the  fourth  roll-call,  the  roll  shall  at  intervals  of  not  ex- 
ceeding one  day  again  be  called,  until  one  of  the  three  candi- 
dates highest  on  the  list .  shall  receive  more  votes  than  either 
of  his  competitors. 

The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  this  amend- 
ment by  appropriate  legislation. 


825 


THK    NOMINATION    AND    El*KCTlON    OF    UNITED     STATES     SENA- 
TORS, 

Senators  of  the  United  States  shall  be  nominated  and 
chosen  by  the  electors  of  each  State  qualified  to  vote  under 
this  Constitution  for  President,  as  follows  : 

On  the  first  Tuesday  of  August  next  preceding-  the  ex- 
piration of  the  term  of  any  Senator,  the  electors  duly  quali- 
fied to  vote  for  Senator  shall  assemble  in  their  respective 
States  and  counties,  as  provided  by  law  for  the  election  of 
President  and  Representatives  in  Congress,  and  vote  by  bal- 
lot for  the  nomination  of  a  candidate  for  Senator  of  the 
United  States. 

All  nominating  elections  for  Senator  shall  be  held  in  each 
State  at  the  time  and  places  in  which  Representatives  in  Con- 
gress for  such  State  are  nominated  and  elected,  and  at  no 
other  time. 

The  Congress  shall  provide  by  law  the  manner  in 
which  the  members  of  the  College  of  Deputies  and  the  offi- 
cials charged  in  each  State  with  the  conduct  of  such  nominat- 
ing elections  for  Senators  of  the  United  States  shall  conduct 
the  same,  and  such  officers  in  each  county  shall  make  distinct 
lists  of  all  the  persons  voted  for  at  such  election  for  Senator, 
together  with  the  number  of  votes  cast  in  the  several  counties 
for  each  candidate,  which  list  they  shall  sign,  seal  and  offi- 
cially certify  in  triplicate,  and  within  ten  (10)  days  after  such 
nominating  elections  they  shall  transmit,  in  such  form  and 
manner  as  the  Congress  may  prescribe  by  law,  one  copy  of 
such  certified  election  returns  to  the  Chairman  of  the  Col- 
lege of  Deputies :;f or  such  State  at  the  Capitol  thereof,  one 
copy  to  the  Secretary  of  State  for  such  State,  and  one  copy 
to  the  clerk  of  the  county  of  which  they  are  residents. 

The  Chairman  and  Chief  Clerk  of  the  College  of  Deputies 
for  each  State,  together  with  the  Secretary  of  State  for  each 
State  (if  there  be  such  an  officer,  and  if  not,  then  such  per- 
son as  the  State  may  appoint),  shall  be  in  session  at  the  Capi- 
tol thereof,  on  the  fourth  Tuesday  of  August,  at  twelve 
o'clock  M.,  after  each  nominating  election  for  Senator  of  the 


—  826  — 

XJnited  States,  on  the  previous  first  Tuesday  of  August,  and 
they  or  any  two  of  them  shall,  in  the  presence  of  such  per- 
sons as  the  Cong-ress  may  by  law  designate,  jointly  canvass, 
certify  and  officially  publish  the  result,  stating  the  total 
number  of  votes  cast  in  the  State  for  each  candidate. 

On  the  first  Tuesday  of  November  following  such  nomi- 
nating election  for  United  States  Senator  the  qualified  elec- 
tors in  such  State  shall  again  assemble,  at  the  places  ap- 
pointed by  law,  in  their  respective  counties,  and  from  the 
candidates  officially  certified  as  having  the  highest  vote  for 
Senator,  not  exceeding  four  (4)  on  the  list  of  those  voted  for, 
at  such  nominating  election  on  the  preceding  first  Tuesday 
of  August,  shall  choose  by  ballot  a  Senator,  and  the  person 
having  the  greatest  number  of  votes  cast  for  Senator  at  said 
election  in  such  State  shall  be  the  Senator.  The  term  of 
office  of  each  Senator  shall  begin  on  the  fourth  Monday  in 
April,  at  12  o'clock  m.,  succeeding  his  election  in  November. 
The  Chairman  and  Chief  Clerk  of  the  College  of  Deputies 
for  each  State  shall  canvass  and  certify  the  election  of 
Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress  and  members  of 
the  College  of  Deputies. 

The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  this  amend- 
ment by  appropriate  legislation. 


THE)     NOMINATION     AND     ELECTION     OF    REPRESENTATIVES    IN 

CONGRESS. 

Representatives  in  Congress  shall  hold  their  office  for 
the  term  of  two  years,  and  shall  be  nominated  and  chosen 
by  the  electors  in  each  State  qualified  by  law  to  vote  for 
President. 

On  the  first  Tuesday  of  August  (beginning  with  the 
time  appointed  by  Congress  for  the  nomination  and  election 
of  a  President),  and  every  second  year  thereafter,  the  elec- 
tors qualified  to  vote,  as  hereinbefore  provided,  shall  assemble 
in  their  respective  States  and  counties,  at  such  places  as  the 
Congress  shall  by  law  direct  for  the  holding  of  such  elec- 
tions, and  vote  by  ballot  for  the  nomination  of  such  number 
of  candidates  for  Representatives  in  Congress  as  each  elector 


—  827  — 

shall  be  authorized  by  law  to  vote  for  in  such  State  or  dis- 
tricts, or  both. 

In  a  State  entitled  under  any  apportionment  to  seven 
Representatives  in  Cong-ress,  or  to  less  than  seven,  the  duly 
qualified  electors  thereof  shall  nominate  and  elect  such 
Representative  or  Representatives  on  one  general  ticket  for 
the  State  at  large. 

If  under  any  apportionment  a  State  shall  be  entitled  to 
eight  Representatives  in  Congress,  or  to  more  than  eight,  the 
College  of  Deputies  for  that  State  shall,  after  each  regular 
election  for  President,  divide  it  into  Congressional  districts 
of  contiguous  territory,  of  not  less  than  four  nor  more  than 
five  members  each,  and  in  such  manner,  that  no  State  which 
may  be  entitled  to  two  or  more  such  Congressional  districts, 
shall  elect  for  the  State  at  large  a  greater  number  than  two 
Representatives  in  Congress,  and  such  Representatives  for 
the  State  at  large  shall  be  nominated  and  elected  on  the  same 
ballot  with  the  members  in  each  district.  And  every  appor- 
tionment shall  be  made,  by  dividing  the  total  vote  for  Presi- 
dent in  the  State  by  the  number  of  Representatives  in  Con- 
gress to  which  each  State  is  by  law  entitled. 

No  Representative  district  in  any  State  shall  be  changed 
by  the  College  of  Deputies  thereof  until  after  the  next  presi- 
dential election,  nor  until  after  Congress  shall  have  appor- 
tioned the  Representatives  among  the  several  States  ;  but  the 
Congress  may  by  law,  on  the  application  of  one-fourth  of 
the  College  of  Deputies  in  any  State,  change  the  districts  in 
such  State,  should  such  change  in  the  opinion  of  the  Con- 
gress be  necessary  to  secure  the  minority  of  the  electors 
thereof  an  equitable  representation  in  Congress  in  proportion 
to  the  total  vote  cast  at  the  last  presidential  election  in  such 
State. 

The  Congress  shall  by  law  prescribe  the  manner  and 
form  in  which  the  returns  of  all  elections  shall  be  made  for 
the  nomination  of  Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress 
in  each  State  or  Congressional  Districts  in  any  State  ;  and  the 
result  of  such  nominating  elections  shall  be  officially  pub- 
lished in  such  manner  and  form  as  shall  be  provided  by  law. 

At  such  nominating  election  for  Representatives  in  Con- 
gress, each  qualified  elector  may  cumulate  his  vote  and  cast 


—  828  — 

all  the  votes  to  which  he  is  entitled  for  one  candidate,  or  for 
more  than  one,  as  he  may  elect. 

On  the  first  Tuesday  of  November  following*  such  nomi- 
nating- election,  the  electors  in  each  State  qualified  to  vote 
for  Representatives  in  Cong-ress  shall  ag-ain  assemble  in 
their  respective  counties,  and  from  the  candidates  of&cially 
certified  as  having  the  highest  vote  on  the  list  of  those  voted 
for  at  the  nominating-  election  on  the  preceding  first  Tuesday 
of  August,  not  exceeding-  four  candidates  for  each  Represen- 
tative to  be  chosen,  either  in  Congressional  districts  or  for  a 
State  at  larg-e,  or  in  both  State  and  districts  as  the  case  may 
be,  shall  choose  the  number  of  Representatives  in  Congress 
for  such  State  or  districts,  or  both,  as  they  may  be  authorized 
by  law  to  elect ;  and  the  person  or  persons  having-  the  highest 
number  of  votes  cast  at  said  election  in  such  State  or  dis- 
trict, or  both,  for  Representative  in  Cong-ress,  shall  be  the 
Representative. 

Each  elector  shall  have  the  right  to  cumulate  his  vote 
and  cast  all  the  votes  to  which  he  is  entitled  in  the  district  of 
his  residence,  or  for  the  State  at  larg-e,  or  both  as  he  may 
elect,  for  one  candidate,  or  for  more  than  one  candidate, 
under  such  reg-ulations  as  the  Congress  may  bylaw  prescribe. 

No  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
nor  Judg-e  of  any  Circuit  or  District  Court  of  the  United 
States,  nor  Judg-e  of  the  Supreme  Court  or  highest  appellate 
court  or  court  of  record  in  any  State,  shall  be  eligible  to  be 
chosen  a  Senator  or  Representative  in  Congress  or  member  of 
the  College  of  Deputies. 

MISCEI.I.ANKOUS   PARAGRAPHS. 

All  electors  and  each  org-anized  group  of  electors  in  the 
several  States  shall  prepare  and  print  their  own  ballots  for 
use  at  all  nominating  elections,  in  such  form  and  manner  as 
the  Congress  may  by  law  prescribe. 

After  the  result  of  each  nominating  election  for  Presi- 
dent, and  for  members  of  the  College  of  Deputies,  or  for  Sen- 
ators and  Representatives  in  Congress,  shall  have  been  de- 
clared, the  College  of  Deputies  for  each  State  shall  cause  to 
be  prepared  and  printed  all  official  'ballots,  and  shall  furnish 


—  829  — 

such,  ballots  to  the  electors  thereof,  free  of  cost  to  them,  as 
the  Congress  shall  by  law  direct,  and  said  official  ballots 
shall  be  the  only  legal  ballot  to  be  used  at  any  final  election 
in  November. 

Any  elector  or  group  of  electors  in  any  State  or  district 
shall  select  from  the  candidates  officially  declared  as  herein- 
before provided  to  be  duly  nominated  for  President  or  Senator 
or  Representatives  in  Congress,  or  for  members  of  the  Col- 
lege of  Deputies,  and  from  no  others,  the  names  of  such 
person  or  persons  as  he  or  they  may  desire  to  vote  for  at  the 
final  election  in  November,  not  exceeding  the  number  of  Rep- 
resentatives in  Congress  or  members  of  the  College  of  Depu- 
ties authorized  by  law  to  be  elected  by  any  constituency. 
And  the  names  of  all  candidates  on  any  national  ticket  shall 
be  printed  on  a  plain  white  paper  ballot,  as  the  Congress  may 
by  law  direct. 

In  case  two  or  more  candidates  for  nomination  to  any 
office  shall  receive  an  equal  number  of  votes  at  such  nominat- 
ing election,  the  Congress  shall  provide  by  law  the  manner  of 
determining  which  of  the  candidates  shall  have  his  name 
printed  on  the  official  ballot. 

In  case  of  the  death,  resignation  or  disability  of  any  Sen- 
ator of  the  United  States,  or  Representative  in  Congress,  or 
member  of  the  College  of  Deputies,  the  College  of  Deputies 
for  the  State  in  which  such  vacancy  may  happen  shall,  on 
receiving  official  notification  thereof,  be  convened  at  the  Cap- 
itol of  such  State  and  vote  to  fill  such  vacancy,  in  the  manner 
prescribed  for  filling  vacancies  in  the  office  of  President,  as 
the  Congress  may  by  law  prescribe. 

The  person  so  appointed  shall  be  a  resident  of  the  State 
and  district  in  which  such  vacancy  shall  have  happened,  and 
he  shall,  when  appointed,  be  a  member  of  the  same  party  to 
which  the  Senator  or  Representative  or  Deputy  belonged, 
whose  vacancy  is  to  be  filled. 

All  appointments  made  by  the  College  of  Deputies,  in  any 
State,  shall  be  for  the  residue  of  the  unexpired  term. 

The  College  of  Deputies  for  each  State  shall  once  in  six 
years,  at  least  thirty  days  prior  to  the  time  fixed  in  this  Con- 
stitution for  the  nomination  of  candidates  for  President,  cause 
a  registration  to  be  made  of  all  electors  in  the  several  States, 


—  830  — 

duly  qualified  to  vote  for  President,  and  shall  provide  for 
verifying"  and  correcting"  such  national  registration  thirty 
days  prior  to  each  election  for  the  nomination  of  Senators 
and  Representatives  in  Congress. 

Offenses  committed  against  the  peaceful  conduct  of  na- 
tional elections,  by  the  inhabitants  of  any  State,  or  against 
the  persons  of  voters  when  g'oing"  to  or  returning  from  such 
elections,  or  ag-ainst  the  members  of  the  Collesfe  of  Deputies 
for  such  State,  or  ag-ainst  any  official  charg-ed  by  law  with 
the  conduct  of  such  elections,  shall,  on  trial  and  conviction 
before  any  District  or  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States 
for  such  State,  be  punished  as  the  Cong-ress  may  by  law  pre- 
scribe. 

The  Cong"ress  shall  by  law  provide  the  manner  in  which 
elections  shall  be  conducted  for  President  and  Senators  and 
Representatives  in  Congress,  and  for  members  of  the  Colleg-e 
of  Deputies  in  each  State,  and  prescribe  for  the  counting"  and 
officially  declaring"  and  certifying-  the  result  of  such  vote  at 
each  election. 

If  a  citizen  who  has  been  elected  a  member  of  the  Colleg-e 
of  Deputies  for  any  State,  shall  refuse  or  neg"lect  to  qualify, 
or  after  qualifying,  shall  refuse  or  neg"lect  to  discharg-e  the 
duties  of  his  office,  as  prescribed  by  law,  any  one  or  more 
electors  may  file  a  petition  before  any  Judge  of  the  District 
or  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States  in  such  State,  asking* 
for  an  order  directing"  such  Deputy  to  appear  forthwith  and 
show  cause  why  he  should  not  be  removed  from  his  office,  or 
why  the  office  should  not  be  declared  vacant. 

In  case  such  Deputy  should  fail  or  refuse  to  obey  the 
process  of  Court,  or  its  order,  he  shall  be  summarily  removed 
from  his  office  by  the  Court ;  and  may,  in  addition  to  such  re- 
moval from  office,  be  punished,  as  for  contempt,  by  fine  or 
imprisonment,  or  both,  at  the  discretion  of  the  Court. 

In  case  of  a  contest  touching"  the  conduct  and  returns  of 
an  election  in  any  State  under  this  Constitution  for  President 
or  Senator  of  the  United  States,  or  Representatives  in  Con- 
gress, or  for  members  of  the  College  of  Deputies,  the  matter 
in  controversy  shall  be  immediately  heard  and  determined  by 
the  Circuit  or  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
district  and  State  in  which  such  controversy  arose,  in  such 


—  831  — 

manner  as  the  Congress  may  provide  by  law,  and  from  the 
decision  of  such  Court  touching-  the  matters  in  controversy 
there  shall  be  no  appeal. 

.  The  Secretary  of  the  Interior  and  such  officers  as  the 
Cong-ress  may  by  law  desig-nate  shall  be  authorized  and  re- 
quired every  six  years  to  determine  and  officially  to  announce 
the  number  of  Representatives  in  Congress  to  which  each 
State  is  entitled  under  each  new  apportionment.  Such  repre- 
sentation to  be  determined  by  assig-ning-  to  each  State  such 
proportion  of  the  number  of  Representatives  fixed  by  law  as 
the  number  of  the  votes  cast  for  President,  at  the  election 
next  preceding-  in  such  State,  bears  to  the  total  number  of 
votes  so  cast  in  all  the  States.  But  each  State  shall  have  at 
least  ONK  Representative. 

The  qualified  electors  in  the  District  of  Columbia  and  in 
each  of  the  duly  org-anized  Territories  of  the  United  States, 
shall  have  the  right  to  vote  at  all  elections  for  the  nomina- 
tion and  election  of  President  of  the  United  States. 

The  Cong-ress  may  provide  by  law  that  a  deleg-ate  elected 
in  any  duly  org-anized  Territory,  which  contains  a  popula- 
tion equal  to  one-half  that  required  under  any  apportion- 
ment for  one  Representative  in  Congress,  shall  have  secured 
to  him  all  the  privileges  of  a  member  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, including  the  right  to  vote. 

The  Congress  shall  by  law  define  specifically  in  what  the 
term  **  inability  of  the  President  to  discharge  the  powers  and 
duties  of  his  office  "  shall  consist ;  and  in  case  of  such  "  ina- 
bility "  happening,  may  by  a  concurrent  vote  of  two- 
thirds  of  both  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives, 
suspend  the  President  from  the  function  of  his  office  during 
such  inability,  or  may  by  a  like  vote  of  the  Senate  and  House 
remove  him  from  office  because  of  such  inability. 

All  amendments  which  shall  be  proposed  to  this  Consti- 
tution, by  the  Congress,  or  by  any  duly  authorized  constitu- 
tional convention,  shall  be  submitted  to  the  qualified  voters 
of  the  United  States  residing  in  the  several  States,  for  their 
ratification  or  rejection. 

Such  submission  shall  be  at  any  national  election  when 
Representatives  in  Congress  are  chosen,  and  a  majority  of 
all   the   votes   given  at  such  election  for  and  against  such 


—  832 


amendment  or  amendments,  shall  be  necessary  for  its  ratifi- 
cation as  part  of  this  Constitution. 

The  Cong-ress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  the  several 
provisions  of  this  amendment  by  appropriate  legislation. 


MEMORANDUM, 


First. —  The  stability  and  safety  of  democratic  g'overn- 
ment,  both  national  and  State,  depend  so  larg-ely  on  their 
clearly  defined  powers,  that  the  Constitutions  of  each  must 
of  necessity  limit  the  power  to  be  exercised,  and  specifically 
define  the  manner  in  which  all  branches  of  the  several  de- 
partments of  each  shall  be  administered. 

This  fact  is  universally  recog-nized  in  all  our  modern 
State  constitutions.  The  constitutions  of  Ohio  and  New 
York  contain  nearly  Two  and  one-fourth  times  the  number 
of  words  found  in  the  national  Constitution,  while  the  consti- 
tution of  California  will  exceed  it  in  leng-th  more  than  three 
times. 

Our  fathers,  when  framing*  the  national  Constitution, 
attempted  to  settle  and  define  in  concise  languag-e  the  princi- 
ples on  which  the  National  Government  should  be  founded. 

After  a  hundred  years,  their  descendants  are  waking-  up 
to  the  necessity  of  demanding*  that  the  principles  on  which 
the  National  Government  must  be  administered  shall  be 
more  clearly  and  intellig-ently  defined.  That  which  has  ob- 
tained in  all  our  State  constitutions,  has  become  a  necessity 
in  our  national  Constitution.  This  is  all  the  answer  that 
needs  be  g-iven  to  the  objections,  which  many  will  doubtless 
make  to  the  leng-th  of  my  proposed  amendment. 

As  orig-inally  drafted,  there  was  in  this  amendment  a 
clause  which  provided,  that  a  majority  of  all  the  duly  quali- 
fied voters  in  any  State  might  abolish  their  State  g-overn- 
ments  and,  with  the  consent  of  Cong-ress,  unite  the  whole  or 
any  part  of  the  territory  of  such  State  with  one  or  more 
adjacent  States,  or,  that  they  mig-ht  be  remanded  to  a  Terri- 


--833  — 

torial  condition,  whenever  its  people  determined,  for  any 
cause,  that  they  no  longer  desired  to  support  a  State  govern- 
ment. 

That  clause  is  omitted  in  the  amendment  as  herewith 
submitted,  for  the  reason,  that  during  the  reconstruction 
period,  immediately  after  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  the 
practical  working  of  the  Constitution  taught  us  that  a  ma- 
jority of  the  electors  in  any  State  could,  as  they  in  fact  did 
in  all  the  rebel  States,  abolish  constitutional  State  govern- 
ments, and  that  Congress  had  no  power,  except  force,  to 
compel  a  majority  of  the  people  in  any  State  to  maintain  a 
State  government  and  elect  Senators  and  Representatives  to 
Congress,  and  vote  for  electors  of  President  and  Vice-Presi- 
dent. 

When  such  a  condition  obtains  in  any  State,  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  nation  over  such  people  and  territory  remains 
unchanged  and  unquestioned,  under  the  Constitution,  as  it 
is  —  and  therefore  such  an  amendment  is  not  now  required. 

The  suggestion  made  by  Mr.  Lincoln,  during  the  war, 
*  'that  whenever  one-tknth  of  the  voters  in  any  State  which  had 
abolished  their  constitutional  State  governments,  and  united 
with  other  rebellious  States  in  organizing  the  so-called  con- 
federate government,  should  signify  their  desire  to  establish 
constitutional  State  governments,  in  subordination  to  the 
national  Constitution,  that  they  should  be  authorized  by 
Congress  to  do  so,"  was  a  proposition  so  objectionable  to  the 
majority  that  it  was,  after  a  brief  discussion,  abandoned, 
and  the  sovereignty  of  the  nation  over  all  citizens  residing 
in  the  rebellious  States  was  fully  and  distinctly  affirmed 
and  recognized,  in  the  plan  of  reconstruction  adopted  by 
Congress. 

Of  the  defects  of  that  plan,  I  have  neither  the  time  nor 
the  disposition  to  say  a  single  word. 

It  will  be  observed  —  in  case  a  majority  of  the  voters  in 
any  State  should  determine  to  alter  or  abolish  their  State 
governments  in  the  form  and  manner  prescribed  in  their 
State  constitutions,  and  to  ask  Congress  to  establish  for 
them  a  Territorial  government  instead  —  that,  under  my  pro- 
posed amendment,  the  citizens  of  such  Territory  would  have 
53 


—  834  — 

secured  to  them  the  right  to  vote  for  President  of  the  United 
States  and  for  at  least  one  Representative  in  Congress. 

Second. — This  plan  provides  that,  at  all  November  elec- 
tions, the  of&cial  ballots  must  contain  the  names  of  candidates 
for  every  office  to  be  elected,  and  each  party  or  group  of 
electors  sufficiently  numerous  in  any  State  or  district  in  a 
State  to  demand  under  the  law  the  printing  and  the  distribu- 
tion of  official  ballots  by  the  College  of  Deputies  must  make 
up  a  complete  ticket  by  selecting,  from  among  the  four 
HIGHEST  nominated  for  any  office  at  the  preliminary  election 
in  August,  a  candidate  for  every  office  to  be  elected  for  the 
State  or  district  in  November. 

This  provision  is  important,  because  it  enables  every 
elector  when  cumulating  his  vote,  or  when  substituting  the 
name  of  a  duly  nominated  candidate  of  any  party  or  group 
of  electors,  in  place  of  any  name  he  may  desire  to  erase  on 
his  own  party  ticket,  to  do  so,  without  trouble,  and  to  indi- 
cate intelligently  and  unmistakably,  on  the  face  of  his  bal- 
lot, to  the  judges  of  election  the  change  he  has  made.  With 
such  a  ticket  no  voter  of  ordinary  intelligence  can  make  a 
mistake,  when  changing  his  ballot,  nor  can  election  judges 
be  in  doubt  as  to  the  intention  of  an  elector,  even  if  he  blur 
his  ticket  when  making  such  changes,  because  the  name  of  a 
candidate  must  be  erased  before  another  can  be  substituted. 

Congress  must  provide  by  law  the  form  of  all  official  bal- 
lots and  the  size  of  the  type  in  which  the  names  of  the 
several  candidates  shall  be  printed,  the  space  which  shall 
appear  on  such  ballot  between  the  names  of  each  candidate, 
so  that  the  voter  shall  have  room  to  write  or  paste  in  the 
name  of  any  candidate  for  whom  he  may  desire  to  vote,  in- 
stead of  the  candidate  whose  name  is  printed  on  the  official 
ballot  of  his  party. 

Third. — It  provides  that  a  plurality  of  the  votes  cast  at 
all  nominating  elections  shall  designate  the  persons  to  be 
voted  for  at  each  final  election  in  November.  It  provides 
that  a  plurality  shall,  after  the  fourth  ballot,  elect,  when  the 
National  College  of  Deputies  may  be  called  upon  to  fill 
vacancies  in  the  office  of  President,  or  the  College  of  Depu- 
ties for  any  State  shall  vote  to  fill  the  office  of  Senator  or 
Representative  in  Congress,  so  that  there  can  be  no  deadlock, 


—  835  — 

or  failure  to  nominate  or  to  elect  candidates  at  any  election. 

Fourth. — It  provides  that  the  leg-islatures  of  the  several 
States  shall  no  longer  be  charg-ed  with  the  duty  of  electing* 
Senators  of  the  United  States,  and  confers  that  power 
directly  on  the  people  of  each  State,  thus  enabling  the  legis- 
latures of  the  several  States  to  attend  strictly  to  the  local 
business  of  their  States,  and  to  save  time  and  expense  —  now 
recklessly  thrown  away,  as  witness  the  one  hundred  days  lost 
last  winter  in  electing  a  Senator  from  Illinois.  This  amend- 
ment will  also  relieve  the  average  legislator  from  the  dan- 
gerous mental  strain  which  now  oppresses  him,  as  he  lies 
awake  nights  devising  gerrymandering  schemes,  whereby  a 
large  part  of  the  people  in  a  majority  of  States  are  dis- 
franchised, by  a  dishonest  distribution  of  political  power,  in 
the  districting  of  States  into  Congressional  districts,  and 
DISTRICTS  for  the  choice  of  electors  of  President  and  Vice- 
President,  as  was  done  in  Michigah  last  winter. 

Fifth. — It  provides  for  making  ineligible  for  President 
or  Senator  or  Representative  in  Congress,  or  member  of  the 
College  of  Deputies,  any  *' Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  or  Judge  of  any  Circuit  or  District  Court 
of  the  United  States,  or  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  or 
highest  appellate  court  in  any  State."  This  provision  was 
inserted  with  the  hope  that,  when  adopted,  it  will  materially 
aid  in  reducing  the  number  of  ambitious  politicians  now  on 
the  bench  in  every  State,  who  are  officially  pandering  to  the 
worst  element  of  our  population,  and  appealing  to  them  for 
political  recognition  and  promotion. 

In  my  opinion,  an  able  and  pure  judiciary  can  best  be 
secured  by  permanently  excluding  all  judges  from  eligibility 
to  political  office,  national  or  State. 

It  would  be  desirable  if  all  elections  for  governors  and 
State  officers  in  the  several  •  States  were  held  either  the  year 
BEFORE  or  the  year  after  each  presidential  election,  or  in 
any  year  other  than  the  one  in  which  the  presidential  election 
must  be  held  under  this  proposed  amendment. 

And  as  the  expenses  of  all  national  elections  must  be 
paid  by  the  National  Government,  there  can  be  no  valid  ob- 
jection to  holding  all  national  and  State  elections  as  sug- 
gested.      This   would    ultimate   in   a   complete    divorce    of 


—  836  — 

national  and  State  politics,  and  confine  the  business  of  State 
leg'islatures  strictly  to  local  matters  in  their  respective  States. 

If  to  this  sug-gestion  could  be  added  the  nominating-  and 
election  in  March  and  April,  of  all  State  judg-es  made  elec- 
tive by  the  people,  and  the  officials  of  all  cities  (say  that 
such  final  election  of  all  such  officials  should  be  on  the  first 
Monday  in  April),  we  should,  at  a  much  earlier  day  than 
now  seems  possible,  witness  the  election  op  a  majority  of 
non-partisan  judg*es  and  a  majority  of  non-partisan  city  offi- 
cials, and  thus  secure  an  abler  and  purer  judiciary  than  we 
now  have,  and  also  a  better  and  more  competent  class  of  city 
officials  than  is  possible  under  our  present  system. 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  amendment  provides  that  at 
each  national  election  the  names  of  every  candidate  for 
whom  any  elector  is  authorized  to  vote  must  be  printed  on 
one  ballot. 

In  order  that  the  reader  may  the  more  readily  under- 
stand how  impossible  it  will  be  to  commit  fraud  when  voting- 
such  a  ballot,  I  have  prepared  four  tickets  such  as  each 
elector  or  party  in  any  State  must  make  up  in  order  to  have 
all  tickets  printed  by  the  College  of  Deputies,  after  the  nom- 
inations are  made,  as  an  elector  can  only  vote  for  candidates 
whose  names  appear  on  official  ballots. 

Tickets  for  States  and  cities  are  also  printed  herewith. 


838  — 


FORM  OF  OFFICIAI/  BALLOTS  SUGGESTED 


National  Republican  Ticket. 


National  Democratic  Ticket. 


For  President  of  the  United  States . 
John  Doe,  of  Pennsylvania. 


For  President  of  the  United  States , 
Richard  Roe,  of  Kentueky. 


For  United  States  Senator  : 

For  United  States  Senator : 

David  Gibbs,  of  Sciota. 

Norman  B.  Cook,  of  Hamilton. 

For  Representative  in  Congress  for  the 

For  Representative  in  Congress  for  the 

State  at  Large  : 

State  at  Large : 

Moses  McCoy,  of  Franklin. 

Albert  Sydney,  of  Wood. 

For  Representatives  in  Congress  for  the 

For  Representatives  in  Congress  for  the 

First  District: 

First  District: 

1.  Hezekiah  Brown. 

1.  Hugh  McBride. 

2.  Israel  M.  Hale. 

2.  Zaohariah  Holmes. 

3.  Joseph  Wilkins. 

3.  Nimrod  Hunter. 

4.  Peter  J.  Fairfield. 

4.  Milton  R.  Smith. 

5.  Mathew  Zane. 

5.  Noah  Jackson. 

For  Senatorial  Deputies: 

Far  Senatorial  Deputies: 

1.  Azariah  C.  Long. 

1.  John  Newman. 

2.  Salmon  A.  Hooper. 

2.  Prosper  W.  Clay. 

For  Member  of  the  College  of  Deputies 

For  Member  of  the  College  of  Deputies 

for  the  State  at  Large: 

for  the  State  at  Large  : 

Abraham  Knull. 

Moses  Norton. 

For  Members  of  the  College  of  Deputies 

For  Members  of  the  College  of  Deputies 

for  the  First  District: 

for  the  First  District: 

1.  Washington  Hunter. 

1.  James  Lyons. 

2.  Martin  Simmonds. 

2.  John  K.  Ledwick. 

3.  Sampson  Varner. 

3.  Ralph  Lect. 

4.  William  Houston. 

4.  Joseph  Barber. 

5.  Robert  Montgomery. 

5.  Aaron  Vance. 

—  839  — 


FOR  NATIONAL  ELECTIONS  IN  OHIO  FOR  1896. 


National  Alliance  Federation 

National  Prohibition  Ticket. 

Ticket. 

F(yr  President  of  the  United  States  : 

For  President  of  the  United  States  : 

Frank  Granger,  of  Kansas. 

Paul  St.  John,  of  Maine. 

For  United  States  Senator : 

For  United  States  Senator  : 

Alexander  Farmer,  of  Clinton.     , 

Gideon  Stewart,  of  Fulton. 

For  Representative  in  Congress  for  the 

For  Representative  in  Congress  for  the 

State  at  Large  : 

State  at  Large  : 

Israel  Putnam,  of  Washington. 

John  B.  Gough,  of  Ashtabula. 

For  Representatives  in  Congress  for  the 

For  Representatives  in  Congress  for  the 

First  District : 

First  District : 

1.  Columbus  Fairplay. 

1.  Gideon  J.  Stewart. 

2.  Paul  B.  Miller. 

2.  Benjamin  Brown. 

3.  Butler  F.  Benjamin. 

3.  Philo  B.  Scott. 

4.  Lawrence  Ainsworth. 

4.  Samuel  C.  Hunter. 

6.  Job  Leadbetter. 

5.  Nathan  Owens. 

For  Senatorial  Deputies: 

For  Senaiorial  Deputies : 

1.  Andrew  Jackson. 

1.  Allen  G.  Marx. 

2.  William  J.  Marvin. 

2.  Zebulon  Vance. 

For  Member  of  the  College  of  Deputies 

For  Member  of  the  College  of  Deputies 

for  the  State  at  Large  : 

for  the  State  at  Large  : 

Jacob  Cone. 

Isaac  Rodney, 

For  Members  of  the  College  of  Deputies 

For  Members  of  the  College  of  Deputies 

for  the  First  District  : 

for  the  First  District  : 

1.  John  P.  Turly. 

1.  Thomas  M.  Davey. 

2.  Asher  J.  Flanders. 

2.  Robinson  McCane. 

3.  Oliver  P.  Hall. 

3.  Carl  Pomeroy. 

4.  Kingsley  G.  Baird,      ' 

4.  George  Kinney. 

5.  Moses  Goodridge. 

5.  John  McDowell. 

840 


THE  OFFICIAL  BALLOTS  SUGGESTED  FOR 


National  Republican  Ticket. 

National  Democratic  Ticket. 

For  President  of  the  United  States: 
John  Doe,  of  Pennsylvania. 

For  President  of  the  United  States: 
Richard  Roe,  of  Kentucky. 

For  Representatives  in  Congress  for  the 
State  at  Large : 

1.  Azariah  Flagg. 

2.  Benj.  F.  Jarvis. 

For  Representatives  in  Congress  for  the 
State  at  Large : 

1.  Langdon  Smith. 

2.  Moses  B.  Jordan. 

For  Representatives  in  Congress  for  the 
Eighth  District: 

For  Representatives  in  Congress  for  the 
Eighth  District: 

1.  Able  M.  Cooney. 

2.  James  C.  Banks. 

3.  George  W.  Davis. 

4.  David  A.  Wilder. 

1.  Abraham  Long. 

2.  Solomon  Bliss. 

3.  Addison  St.  Clair. 

4.  Charles  S.  Brown. 

For  Senatorial  Deputies: 

For  Senatorial  Deputies: 

1.  Jackson  Donaldson. 

2.  David  McPherson. 

1.  Madison  J.  Bell. 

2.  Paul  Jones. 

For  Members  of  the  College  of  Deputies 
for  the  State  at  Large: 

For  Members  of  the  College  of  Deputies 
for  the  State  at  Large: 

1.  Trfifayette  Jones. 

2.  Andrew  J.  King. 

1.  Norton  C.  Bacon. 

2.  Wm.  Henry  Brady. 

F(yr  Members  of  the  College  of  Deputies 
for  the  Eighth  District: 

For  Members  of  tJie  College  of  Deputies 
for  the  Eighth  District: 

1.  Arthur  Doe. 

2.  Melangthon  Doe. 

3.  Hezekiah  Doe. 

4.  Jeremiah  Doe. 

1.  Able  J.  Roe. 

2.  Solomon  Roe. 

3.  Peter  Roe. 

4.  Timothy  Roe. 

—  841 


NATIONAL  ELECTIONS  IN  NEW  YORK  FOR  1896. 


National  Alliance  Federation 

National  Prohibition  Ticket. 

Ticket. 

For  President  of  the  United  States  : 

For  President  of  the  United  States: 

Frank  Granger,  of  Kansas. 

Paul  St.  John,  of  Maine. 

For  Representatives  in  Congress/or  the 

For  Representatives  in  Congress  for  the 

State  at  Large: 

State  at  Large : 

1.  Nathan  G.  Cole. 

1.  William  Gibbs. 

2.  Allen  B.  Jones. 

2.  Galen  Morris. 

For  Representatives  in  Congress  for  the 

For  Representatives  in  Congress  for  the 

Eighth  District: 

Eighth  District : 

1.  James  Emmerson. 

1.  Samuel  Carey. 

2.  Thomas  J.  Smith. 

2.  Noah  Chance. 

3.  Amos  Doolittle. 

3.  Arthur  Coldwater. 

4.  Lyman  Cross. 

4.  Calvin  Tucker. 

• 
For  Senatorial  Deputies : 

For  Senatorial  Deputies: 

1.  Eli  Z.  Hooper. 

1.  Isaac  Clearwater. 

2.  Luke  McDay. 

2.  Jacob  Clingman. 

For  Members  of  ike  College  of  Deputies 

For  Members  of  the  College  of  Deputies: 

for  the  State  at  Large : 

for  the  State  at  Large: 

1.  John  B.  Walker. 

1.  Wilkins  Micauber. 

2.  Weller  J.  Fuller. 

2.  Asa  B.  Downing. 

For  Members  of  the  College  of  Deputies 

For  Members  of  the  College  of  Deputies 

for  the  Eighth  District: 

for  the  Eighth  District : 

1.  Andrew  Kirk. 

1.  James  Clearwater. 

2.  Allen  Kirk. 

2.  John  Clearwater. 

3.  Abraham  Kirk. 

3.  Paul  Clearwater. 

4.  Isaac  Kirk. 

4.  Peter  Clearwater. 

842  — 


FORM  OF  TICKFTS  FOR  NEW  YORK  OR  OHIO 


Kepublican  Statb  Ticket. 

Democratic  State  Ticket. 

For  Governor: 

For  G&vernor : 

William  McKinley,  Jr. 

James  E.  Campbell. 

»            »             «            ^            ^ 

*-«*«-» 

For  Senators  for  the  State  ai  Large  : 

For  Senators  for  the  State  at  Large: 

1.  Orlando  Stevens. 

1.  Patrick  Noland. 

2.  Henry  J.  Howard. 

2.  John  Marks. 

3.  Jacob  Cable. 

3.  Bailey  McBride. 

For  Senators  for  the  Sixth  District: 

F(yr  Senators  for  the  Sixth  District : 

1.  Andrew  J.  Knapp. 

1.  Mathew  C.  West. 

2.  Charles  Godfrey. 

2.  Jackson  Oakland. 

3.  Hamilton  Houghton. 

3.  Harding  Kellogg. 

4.  Horace  J.  Smith. 

4.  Marshall  King. 

5.  David  Rathbourne. 

5.  Obediah  Mills. 

For  Representatives  in  the  Legislature 

For  Representatives  in  the  Legislature 

for  the  Slate  at  Large : 

for  the  State  at  Large : 

1.  James  Long. 

1.  Jason  Quinsey. 

2.  John  Wentworth. 

2.  ^len  Quinsey. 

3.  Jacob  Williams. 

3.  Morris  Quinsey. 

For  Representatives  in  Legislature  for 

For  Representatives  in  Legislature  for 

the  Eighteenth  District: 

the  Eighteenth  District: 

1.  Stanton  Brown. 

1.  John  Knowlton. 

2.  Heber  Zimmerman. 

2.  James  Knowlton. 

3.  Anthony  Moore. 

3.  Henry  Knowlton. 

4.  George  A.  Rhodes. 

5.  Clayton  Brewer. 


4.  Charles  Knowlton. 

5.  Abncr  Knowlton. 


—  843  — 


STATB  ELECTIONS.     FOUR  OFFICIAL  BALLOTS. 


Alliance  Federation  State  Ticket. 

Pbohibition  State  Ticket. 

For  Governor : 

For  Governor : 

John  Seitz. 

John  J.  Ashenhurst. 

•             ♦            ♦             *             * 

»             ♦            »            •             ♦ 

For  Senators  for  the  State  at  Large : 

For  Senators  for  the  State  at  Large  : 

1.  Abner  L.  Jones. 

1.  Peleg  G.  Scott. 

2.  Benjamin  Briggs. 

2.  Samuel  Ramsey. 

3.  Allen  G^.  Holmes. 

3.  Barney  May. 

Far  Senators  fc/r  the  Sixth  District: 

For  Senators  for  the  Sixth  District : 

1.  Chancy  N.  Olds. 

1.  Willard  Warner. 

2.  Arthur  Cook. 

2.  Francis  G.  Scott. 

3.  Jonathan  Wynn. 

3.  Asa  Sherwood. 

4.  George  A.  Greene. 

4.  Nathan  Jewell. 

5.  Michael  Sheridan. 

5.  William  J.  Bell. 

For  Representatives  in  the  Legislature 

For  Representatives  in  the  Legislature 

for  the  State  at  Large : 

for  the  State  at  Large  : 

1.  Able  Adams. 

1.  Morrison  Roach. 

2.  Nicholas  Adams. 

2.  Dennison  Hale. 

3.  Philander  Adams. 

3.  Robinson  Holmes. 

For  Bepresentatives  in  Legislature  f(yr 

For  Representatives  in  Legislature  for 

the  Eighteenth  District : 

the  Eighteenth  District  : 

1.  Benjamin  Stanton. 

1.  Mason  G.  Thorp. 

2.  Oliver  Hutchings. 

2.  Hezekiah  Hooper , 

3.  Wilbur  Ford. 

3.  Waldron  Dugan. 

4.  Thomas  H.  Ford. 

4.  Joseph  Stewart. 

5.  Frederick  Beaman. 

5.  Abrara  Benson. 

844. 


FOUR  OFFICIAL  TICKETS  FOR  CITIES  OF  THE 


Republican  City  Ticket. 

Democratic  City  Ticket. 

F(yr  Mayor: 

For  Mayor  : 

John  Paul  Jones. 

Marshall  P.  Hall. 

•             ♦            »            ♦ 

« 

***** 

For    Board  of  Aldermen   for 

the 

For  Board  of   Aldermen    for   the 

City  at  Large: 

City  at  Large : 

1.  Allen  G.  Mason. 

1.  Jacob  Brown. 

2.  Franklin  Fuller. 

2.  Isaac  Brown. 

3.^  Aaron  Winfield. 

3.  Zacharith  Brown. 

For    Board  of   Aldermen   for 

th€ 

For    Board  of   Aldermen    for  the 

FcmHh  District: 

Fourth  District  ': 

1.  John  Smyth. 

1.  Milton  Brown. 

2.  Jason  Smyth. 

2.  Obediah  Brown. 

3.  Jackson  Smyth. 

3.  Paul  Brown. 

4.  James  Smyth. 

4.  Peter  Brown. 

5.  Jonathan  Smyth. 

5.  Moses  Brown. 

For  Members  of  the  Council  for  the 

For  Members  of  the  Council  for  the 

City  at  Large : 

City  at  Large : 

1.  Anthony  Salsbury. 

1.  Norman  Lang. 

2.  Arthur  Salsbury. 

2.  Henry  J.  Lang. 

3.  Albert  Salsbury. 

3.  Allen  B.  Lang. 

For  Members  of  the  Council  for  the 

For  Members  of  the  Council  for  the 

Twelfth  District: 

Twelfth  District: 

1.  John  Bingham. 

1.  "Washington  Brady. 

2.  James  Bingham. 

2.  Worthington  Brady. 

3.  Jackson  Bingham. 

3.  William  Brady. 

4.  Jason  Bingham. 

4.  Worden  Brady. 

5.  Jasper  Bingham 

5.  Walden  Brady. 

—  845  — 


POPULATION  OF  CINCINNATI  AND  NEW  YORK. 


Citizens'  Non-partisan  City 

Prohibition  City  Ticket. 

Ticket. 

For  Mayor: 

For  Mayor : 

Jacob  Zeigler. 

Arthur  Brown. 

♦             ♦            *             «•             * 

*-»#*» 

For  Board  of  Aldermen    for  the 

For   Board  of  Aldermen   for  the 

City  at  Large : 

City  at  Large : 

1.  Otho  Blake. 

1.  Melville  Frank. 

2.  Norton  Blake. 

2.  Melangthon  Fay. 

3.  James  G.  Blake. 

3.  Orlando  Brown. 

For   Board  of  Aldermen   for  (lie 

For    Board  of  Aldermen   for   the 

Fourth  District: 

Fourth  District  : 

1.  John  J.  Jones. ' 

1.  William  Aikens. 

2.  John  Paul  Jones. 

2.  John  Aikens. 

3.  Jackson  Jones. 

3.  Jason  Aikens. 

4.  James  J.  Jones. 

4.  Jeptha  Aikens. 

5.  Jeptha  Jones. 

5.  James  Aikens. 

Fw  Members  of  tlie  Council  for  the 

For  Members  of  the  CauncU  for  Ihe 

City  at  Large  : 

City  at  Large  : 

1.  William  Banks. 

1.  Alford  Gleaaon. 

2.  Washington  Banks. 

2.  Aaron  Gleason. 

3.  Walter  J.  Banks. 

3.  Addison  Gleason. 

For  Members  of  tJie  Council  for  the 

For  Members  of  the  Council  for  the 

Twelfth  District : 

Twelfth  District  : 

1.  Elliot  Zane. 

1.  John  Coldwater. 

2.  Elbert  Zane. 

2.  Jason  Coldwater. 

3.  Elihu  Zane. 

3.  Moses  Coldwater. 

4.  EzekielZane. 

4.  Paul  Coldwater. 

5.  Elijah  Zane. 

5.  St.  John  Coldwater. 

—  846 


^ 


Population. 

Population. 

White. 
1790. 

Colored. 
1790. 

AVhite. 
1800. 

M 

Colored. 
1800. 

Ji 

District  of  Columbia- 

10,066 

49,852 
586,095 
194,325 
102,261 
244,721 
416,393 
216,326 
196,255 
182,998 
514,280 
.557,731 
337,764 

65,438 
153,908 
179,873 

91,709 
150,901 

45,028 

% 

38 
14 
93 

5 
12 

4 
40 
30 
16 
78 
17 

2 

81 

194 

187 

57 

4,027 

14,421 

16,270 

16,824 

60,425 

6,281 

6,452 

125,222 

149,336 

860 

365,920 

31,320 

140.339 

3,684 

557 

41,082 

13,893 

818 

337 

% 

Delaware  — 

46,310 

424,099 

169,954 

52,886 

232,374 

373,324 

208,649 

140,178 

141,097 

442,117 

314/142 

288,204 

64,470 

85,154 

61,133 

31,913 

96,002 

12,786 

10,274 

14,185 

29,662 

5,572 

5,463 

111,079 

108,895 

788 

305,493 

25,978 

105,547 

4,355 

271 

12,544 

3,778 

538 

13 

Pennsylvania 

New  Jersey 

58 
19 

Georgia  - 

104 

Connecticut  - 

13 

Massachusetts 

Marj'land 

18 
13 

South  Carolina 

New  Hampshire 

Virginia            - 

37 

9 

20 

New  York 

21 

North  Carolina 

Rhode  Island 

Vermont 

33 

Dec.  15 

106 

Kentucky 

228 

Tennessee- 

268 

Maine - -    - 

52 

Ohio—    

Louisiana 

Indiana. ' 

5,343 
5,179 

298 
3,671 

Mississippi  -    

Illinois    

Alabama  _      

Missouri 

Arkansas  _ _ 

Michigan 

Florida      _  - 

Texas 

Iowa- 

Wisconsin 

California 



Minnesota 

" 

Oregon 

Kansas- 

West  Virginia 

Nevada 

Nebraska         

Colorado     -        - 

North  Dakota 

I 

South  Dakota 

Montana     -    - 

J 

Washington . 

Wyoming- 

Idaho 

Utah 

New  Mexico 

Arizona 

Alaska - 

36 

Total  -  _      _    _ 

3,172,006 

757,208 

4,306,446 

1,002,037 

32 

—  847  — 


Population. 

Population. 

White. 
1810. 

M 

CJolored. 
1810. 

0 

a 

White. 
1820. 

0 

Colored. 
1820. 

a 

16,079 

55,361 

786,804 

226,868 

145,414 

255,179 

465,303 

235,117 

214,196 

213,490 

551,514 

918,699 

376,410 

73,214 

217,145 

324,237 

215,875 

227,736 

228,861 

34,311 

23,890 

23,024 

11,501 

% 
60 
11 
34 
17 
42 

4 
12 

9 

9 
17 

7 
65 
11 
12 
41 
80 
135 
51 
408 

"347" 
345 

7,944 

17,313 

23,287 

18,694 

107,019 

6,763 

6,737 

145,429 

200,919 

970 

423,086 

40,350 

179,090 

3,717 

750 

82,274 

45,852 

969 

1,899 

42,245 

630 

17,328 

781 

97 

20 

43 

11 

77 
8 
4 

16 

35 

13 

16 

29 

28 
1 

35 
100 
230 

18 
464 

ill" 
372 

22,614 

55,282 

1,017,094 

257,409 

189,566 

267,181 

516,419 

260,223 

237,440 

243,236 

603,085 

1,332,744 

419,200 

79,413 

235,063 

434,644 

339,927 

297,340 

576,572 

73,383 

145,758 

42,176 

53,788 

85,451 

55,988 

12,579 

8,591 

% 

41 

Dec.  ] . 

29 

13 

30 

5 

11 

11 

11 

14 

9 

45 

11 

8 

8 

34 

57 

31 

152 

114 

510 

83 

368 

'225" 

"86" 

10,425 

17,467 

30,413 

20,017 

151,419 

7,967 

6,740 

147,127 

265,301 

786 

462,031 

39,367 

219,629 

3,602 

903 

129,491 

82,844 

929 

4,723 

79,540 

1,420 

33,272 

1,374 

42,450 

10,569 

1,676 

174 

% 

31 

1 

31 

7 

41 

18 

0.04 

1 

32 

Dec.  19 

9 
Dec.  2 

23 

Dec.  3 

20 

57 

81 

Dec.  4 

149 

88 

125 

a2 

76 

17,227 

3,618 

192 

4,618 



144 

21 

~ 

5,862,073 

36 

1,377,808 

38 

7,862,166 

34 

1,771,656 

29 

848 


^ 


^ 

POPULATIOX. 

Population. 

White. 
1830. 

1 

Colored. 
1830. 

a 

White. 
1840. 

a 

t-H 

Colored. 
1840. 

a 

M 

Dist.  Columbia 

Delaware 

Pennsylvania- 
New  Jersey— 

Georgia 

Connecticut  — 
Massachusetts 

Maryland 

South  Carolina 
N.  Hampshire 

Virginia 

New  York-— 
North  Carolina 
Rhode  Island- 
Vermont 

Kentucky 

Tennessee 

Maine 

Ohio 

Louisiana 

Indiana 

Mississippi  — 

Illinois 

Alabama 

Missouri 

Arkansas 

Michigan 

Florida 

Texas 

27,563 

57,501 

1,309,900 

300,266 

296,806 

289,603 

603,359 

291,108 

257,863 

268,721 

694,300 

1,873,668 

472,843 

93,621 

279,771 

517,787 

535,746 

398,263 

928,329 

89,441 

339,399 

70,443 

155,061 

190,406 

114,795 

25,671 

31,346 

18,385 

% 

22 

4 

29 

17 

57 

8 

17 

12 

9 

10 

15 

41 

13 

18 

19 

19 

68 

34 

61 

22 

133 

67 

188 

123 

105 

104 

265 

12,271 

19,147 

38,333 

20,557 

220,017 

8,072 

7,049 

155,932 

323,322 

607 

517,105 

44,945 

265,144 

3,578 

881 

170,130 

146,158 

1,192 

9,574 

126,298 

3,632 

66,178 

2,384 

119,121 

25,660 

4,717 

293 

16,345 

% 

18 

10 

26 

3 

45 

1 

5 

6 

22 

Dec.  23 
12 
14 
21 

Dec.i. 
Dec.  2. 

31 

76 

28 

103 

59 

156 

99 

74 

181 

143 

181 

68 

30,657 
58,561 

1,676,115 
351.588 
407,695 
301,856 
729,030 
318,204 
259,084 
284,036 
740,968 

2,378,890 
484,870 
105.587 
291,218 
590,253 
640,627 
500,438 

1,502,122 
158,457 
678,698 
179,074 
472,254 
335,185 
323,888 
77,174 
211,560 
27,943 

11 

2 

28 

17 

37 

4 

21 

9 

4 

6 

7 

27 

3 

13 

4 

14 

20 

26 

62 

77 

100 

154 

205 

76 

182 

201 

575 

52 

13,055 

19,524 

47,918 

21,718 

283,697 

8,122 

8,669 

151,815 

335,314 

538 

498,829 

50,031 

268,549 

3,243 

730 

189,575 

188,583 

1,355 

17,345 

193,954 

7,168 

196,577 

3,929 

255,571 

59,814 

20,400 

707 

26,534 

6 

2 

25 

6 

29 

1 

23 

Dec.  3. 
4 

Decll. 
Dec  4. 

11 
1 
Dec.  9. 
Decl7. 

11 

29 

14 

81 

54 

97 

197 

65 

115 

1S3 

332 

141 

62 

Iowa        — 

"" 

42~924 
30,749 



188 
196 

Wisconsin 

California 

Kansas 

West  Virginia 
Nevada    

__. 

North  Dakota- 

1 .  ._ 

South  Dakota. 

"IVTonfjinfl. 

Trio  Virt 

TTtflh 

Npw  Mf»5rioo 

1 

Total 

a  10,537,378j  34 

2,328,642 

31 

614,195,805 

35 

2,873,648 

23 

a  Includes  5,318  persons  on  public  ships  in  the  eerviceof  the  U.  S. 
6  Includes  6,100  persons  on  public  ships  in  the  service  of  the  U.  S. 


—  849  — 


Population. 

Population. 

White. 
1850. 

o 

Colored. 
1850. 

1 

White. 
1860. 

1 

Colored. 
1860. 

1 

37,941 

71,169 
2,258,160 
465,509 
521,572 
363,099 
985,450 
417,943 
274,563 
317,456 
894,800 
3,048,325 
553,028 
143.875 
313,402 
761,413 
756,836 
581,813 
1,955,050 
255,491 
977,154 
295,718 
846,034 
'    426,514 
592,004 
162,189 
395,071 

47,203 
154,034 
191,881 
304,756 

91,635 
6,038 

13,087 

% 

24 
22 
35 
32 
28 
20 
35 
31 

6 
12 
21 
28 
14 
36 

8 
29 
18 
16 
30 
61 
44 
65 
79 
27 
83 
110 
87 
69 

'347'" 
891 

13,746 

20,363 

53,626 

24,046 

384,613 

7,693 

9,064 

165,091 

393,944 

520 

526,861 

49,069 

316,011 

3,670 

718 

220,992 

245,881 

1,356 

25,279 

262,271 

11,262 

310,808 

5,436 

345,109 

90,040 

47,708 

2,583 

40,242 

58,558 

333 

635 

962 

39 

207 

% 
5 

4 
12 
11 
36 

Dec.  5 

5 

9 

17 

Dec.  3. 

6 

Dec.  2. 

18 
13 

Dec.  2. 

17 

30 
.07 

46 

35 

57 

58 

38 

35 

51 
134 
265 

52 

"77" 
224 

60,763 
90,589 

2,849,259 
646,699 
591,550 
451,504 

1,221,432 
515,918 
291,300 
325,579 

1,047,299 

3,831,590 
629  942 
170,649 
314,369 
919,484 
826,722 
626,947 

2,302,808 
357,456 

1,338,710 
353,899 

1,704,291 
526,271 

1,063,489 
324,143 
736,142 
77,746 
420,891 
673,779 
773,693 
323,177 
169.395 
52;i60 
106,390 

% 

60 

27 

26 

39 

13 

24 

24 

23 

6 

3 

17 

26 

14 

19 

0.3 

21 

9 

8 

18 

40 

37 

20 

101 

23 

80 

100 

86 

65 

173 

251 

154 

253 

2705 

299 

14,316 

21,627 

56,949 

25,336 

465,698 

8,627 

9,602 

171,131 

412,320 

494 

548,907 

49,005 

361,522 

3,952 

709 

236,167 

283,019 

1,327 

36,673 

350,373 

11,428 

437,404 

7,628 

437,770 

118,503 

111,259 

6,799 

62,677 

182,921 

1,069 

1,171 

4,086 

259 

128 

627 

% 

4 

6 

6 

5 
21  ' 
12 

6 

4 

5 

Dec.  5. 
4 
Dec.  0.1. 

14 
8 

Dec.  .1. 

7 

15 

Dec.  2. 

45 

34 
1 

41 

40 

27 

32 
133 
163 

56 
212 
221 

84 
325 
564 

Dec.  38. 

6,812 
28,696 
34,231 

2,576 

45 
82 
46 

11,138 



30 

11,330 
61,525 

50 
22 

40,125 
82,924 

254 
35 

59 
85 

18 
286 

19,553,068 

38 

3,638,808 

27 

26,922,537 

38 

4,441,830 

22 

54 


850- 


^^m 


District  of  Columbia- 
Delaware 

Pennsylvania 

New  Jersey 

Georgia 

Connecticuf 

Massachusetts 

Maryland 

South  Carolina 

New  Hampshire 

Virginia 

New  York 

North  Carolina 

Ehode  Island 

Vermont 

Kentucky 

Tennessee 

Maine 

Ohio 

Louisiana 

Indiana 

Mississippi 

Illinois 

Alabama 

Missouri — 

Arkansas 

Michigan 

Florida 

Texas 

Iowa . 

Wisconsin 

California 

Minnesota 

Oregon 

Kansas 

West  Virginia 

Nevada 

Nebraska 

Colorado 

North   Dakota 

South  Dakota 

Montana 

Washington 

Wyoming 

Idaho 

Utah 

New  Mexico 

Arizona 

Oklahoma 


Population. 


White. 
1870. 


Total. 


88,278 
102,221 

3,456,609 
875,407 
638,926 
527,549 

1,443,156 
605,497 
289,667 
317,697 
712,089 

4,330,210 
678,470 
212,219 
329,613 

1,098,692 
936,119 
624,809 

2,601,946 
362,065 

1,655,837 
382,896 

2,511,096 
521,384 

1,603,146 
362,115 

1,167,282 

96,057 

564,700 

1,188,207 

1,051,351 

499,424 

438,257 

86,929 

346,377 

424,033 

38,959 

122,117 

39,221 

}      12,887 

18,306 
22,195 

8,726 
10,618 
86,044 
90,393 

9,581 


% 

45 

13 

21 

35 

8 

17 

18 

17 

Dec.  0.6 

Dec.  2 

Dec.  32 

13 

8 

24 

5 

19 

13 

Dec.  0.3 

13 

1 

24 

8 

47 

Dec.  0.9 

51 

12 

59 

24 

34 

76 

36 

55 

159 

67 

226 


472 

326 

15 

400 


99 


33,589,377 


114 
9 


Colored. 
1870. 


43,404 

22.794 

65,294 

30,658 

545,142 

9,668 

13,947 

175,391 

415,814 

680 

512,841 

52,081 

391,650 

4,980 

924 

222,210 

322,331 

1,606 

631213 

364,210 

24,560 

444,201 

28,762 

475,510 

118,071 

122,169 

11,849 

91,689 

253,475 

5,762 

2,113 

4,272 

759 

346 

17,108 

17,980 

35 

789 

456 

94 

183 

20 

183 

60 
118 
172 

26 


% 


25 


4,880,009 


c 

203 
5 
15 
21 
17 
12 
45 
2 

0.9 

17 

Dec.  7 

6 

8 

26 

30 

Dec.  6 

14 

21 

72 

4 

115 

2 

277 

9 

Dec.  0.4 

10 

74 

46 

39 

439 

80 

5 

193 

170 

2629 


693 
862 
891 


590 


100 
102 


10 


—  851 


Population. 

Population. 

White. 

1 

Colored. 

i 

White. 

Colored. 

i 

1880. 

1880. 

1 

1890. 

u 

1-1 

1890. 

1 

% 

% 

% 

% 

118,006 

34 

59,596 

37 

154,695 

31 

75,572 

27 

120,160 

18 

26,442 

16 

140,066 

17 

28,386 

7 

4,197,016 

21 

85,535 

31 

5,148,257 

23 

107,596 

26 

1,092,017 

25 

38,853 

27 

1,396,581 

28 

47,638 

23 

816,906 

28 

725,133 

33 

978,357 

20 

858,815 

18 

610,709 

16 

11,547 

19 

733,438 

20 

12,302 

7 

1,763,782 

22 

18,697 

34 

2,215,373 

26 

22,144 

18 

724,693 

20 

210,230 

20 

826,493 

14 

215,657 

3 

391,105 

35 

604,332 

45 

462,008 

18 

688,934 

14 

346,229 

9 

685 

18 

375,840 

9 

614 

Deo.  10 

880,858 

24 

631,616 

23 

1,020,122 

16 

635,438 

1 

5,016,022 

16 

65,104 

25 

5,923,952 

18 

70,092 

8 

867,242 

28 

531,277 

3G 

1,055,382 

22 

561,018 

6 

269,939 

27 

6,488 

30 

337,859 

25 

7,393 

14 

331,218 

0.5 

1,057 

14 

331,418 

0.1 

937 

Dec.  11 

1,377,179 

25 

271,451 

22 

1,590,462 

15 

268,071 

Decl 

1,138,831 

22 

403,151 

25 

1,336,637 

17 

430,678 

7 

646,852 

4 

1,451 

Dec.  10 

659,263 

2 

1,190 

Dec.  18 

3,117,920 

20 

79,900 

26 

3;584,805 

15 

87,110 

9 

454,954 

26 

483,655 

S3 

558,395 

23 

559.193 

16 

1,938,798 

17 

39,228 

60 

2,146,736 

11 

45,215 

15 

479,398 

25 

050,291 

46 

544,851 

14 

742,559 

14 

3,031,151 

21 

46,368 

61 

3,768,472 

24 

57,028 

23 

662,185 

27 

600,103 

26 

833,718 

26 

678,489 

13 

2,022,826 

26 

145,350 

23 

2,528,458 

25 

150,184 

3 

591,531 

63 

210,666 

72 

818,752 

38 

309,117 

47 

1,614,560 

38 

15,100 

27 

2,072,884 

28 

15,223 

1 

142,605 

48 

126,690 

38 

224,949 

58 

166,180 

31 

1,197,237 

112 

393,384 

55 

1,745,935 

46 

488,171 

24 

1,614,600 

36 

9,516 

65 

1,901,086 

18 

10,685 

12 

1,309,618 

25 

2,702 

28 

1,680,473 

2% 

2,444 

Dec  10 

767,181 

54 

■  6,018 

41 

1,111,672 

45 

11,322 

88 

776,884 

77 

1,564 

106 

1,296,159 

67 

3,683 

135 

163,075 

88 

487 

41 

301,758 

85 

1,186 

144 

952,155 

175 

43,107 

152 

1,376,553 

45 

49,710 

15 

592,537 

40 

25,886 

44 

730,077 

23 

32,690 

26 

53.556 

37 

488 

37 

39,084 

Dec.  27 

242 

50 

449,764 

268 

2,385 

202 

1,046,888 

133 

8,913 

274 

191,126 

387 

2,435 

434 

404,468 

112 

6,215 

155  . 

133,147 

933 

401 

327 

/  182,123 
\    327,290 

283 

914 

128 

35,385 

93 

346 

89 

127,271 

260 

1,490 

331 

67,199 

203 

325 

57 

340,513 

407 

1,602 

393 

19,437 

123 

298 

63 

59,275 

205 

922 

209 

29,013 

173 

53 

Dec.  12 

82,018 

183 

201 

279 

142,423 

66 

232 

97 

205,899 

45 

588 

153 

108,721 

20 

1,015 

490 

142,719 

31 

1,956 

93 

35,160 

267 

155 

496 

55,580 
58,826 

58 

1,357 
2,973 

775 

• 

43,402,970 

S9 

6,580,793 

35 

54,983,890 

27 

7,470,010 

14 

Y>-t^c< 


a^i^ru 


(j:ic-£^<u^^^t^^ih^/~^ . 


1 


APPENDIX. 


The  '*  Souvenir  "  presentation  was  made  on  Emancipa- 
tion Day,  September  22nd,  1893,  at  the  Art  Palace  in  Chicag-o, 
in  Columbian  Hall  of  the  World's  Parliament  of  Religions, 
in  the  presence  of  not  less  than  ^ve  thousand  people. 

In  this  edition  of  the  Souvenir,  we  add  the  appeal  made 
f:o  the  public  by  the  Publication  Committee  ;  the  address  of 
Hon.  Wm.  H.  Young-,  President  of  the  Afro-American 
Leag-ue  of  Tennessee,  and  Bishop  Arnett's  able  address,  with 
the  short  speech  of  his  little  son.  Master  Daniel  Payne  Ar- 
/lett,  and  Governor  Ashley's  admirable  response. 

This  appendix  when  added  to  the  matter  in  the  original 
Souvenir,  makes  a  complete  record  and  an  invaluable  his- 
toric volume. 


th:^  address  of 


BISHOP  BENJAMIN  WILLIAM  ARNETT,  D.  Do, 


OF  WILBERFORCE,    OHIO. 


At  Chicago,  Ili..,  September  22,  1893, 


ON  PRESENTING  A  SOUVENIR  VOLUME,   IN  BEHALF  OF  THE  AFRO- 
AMERICAN  LEAGUE   OF  TENNESSEE,    AND   OF  THE   FRIENDS 
OF   HUMAN   LIBERTY  THROUGHOUT  THE   WORLD. 


To  THE  Hon.  James  M.  Ashley,  of  Toledo,  Ohio, 


m 


IN^ART  PALACE   AND  IN  THE   PRESENCE     OF  THE    PARLIAMENT 

OF  RELIGIONS.      THE   REV.    JOHN   HENRY   BARROWS,  D.  D. , 

PRESIDING. 


i 


Mr.  President,  Members  of  the  Parliament  of  Re- 
ligions AND  Fellow-Citizens  of  the  Commonwealth  of 
Humanity  : 

In  the  name  of  my  countrymen  and  fellow-sufferers  of  the 
past  I  come  with  greetings  and  rejoicing's  this  night,  that 
our  night  has  turned  to  day,  our  former  prison  has  become  a 
mansion,  and  we  are  now  the  legitimate  heirs  of  the  heritage 
of  American  freemen.     We  are  to  congratulate  ourselves  that 


-cd-^^ 


^    Of'.    C^i^e//^ 


this  g-athering-  is  not  only  to  be  a  mount  of  toleration  and 
cordiality,  but  is  to  be  one  of  gratitude  and  thanksgiving-  to 
God,  and  to  one  of  the  foremost  heroes  in  the  battle  of  free- 
dom. This  is  one  of  the  greatest  honors  of  my  life,  to  be 
spokesman  of  the  Tennessee  League  and  of  7,500,000  of  my  fel- 
low-countrymen. It  will  be  my  privilege  to  review  the  work 
of  the  race  for  the  past  thirty  years,  and  to  follow  some  of 
the  steps  that  have  led  to  the  marvelous  triumphs  of  thirty 
years  of  labor  in  field,  study  and  schoolhouse.  We  are  also 
to  honor  one  to  whom  honor  is  due,  and  let  him  and  his 
friends  know  that  we  are  not  unmindful  of  the  workmen  of 
the  past.  The  battle  of  human  freedom  has  been  fought  in 
all  lands  for  all  races. 


THE    VICTORIES  WON. 

Fourteen  hundred  and  ninety-one  years  before  the  Star  of 
Bethlehem  was  hung  in  the  vaulted  skies,  or  the  celestial  or- 
chestra sung-  the  natal  song- of  the  *' Infant  Redeemer  of 
Man,"  Moses,  the  servant  of  God,  the  lawgiver  of  the  centu- 
ries, the  first  to  unite  in  his  person,  human  and  divine  law„ 
led  Israel,  the  children  of  God,  beneath  a  banner  of  vapor 
and  fire  from  the  house  of  bondag-e,  to  Mt.  Nebo,  in  sight  of 
the  land  of  liberty.  Joshua,  his  successor,  lifted  up  the  ban- 
ner, drew  the  sword,  rallied  his  forces,  crossed  the  Jordan,. 
Jericho  fell  ;  he  moved  on  to  Aiai  in  the  plain  of  Gilgal, 
erected  the  first  monument  to  the  triumph  of  liberty,  with 
the  stones  brought  from  the  Jordan  by  the  priests  of  the 
living-  God.  It  became  their  "Triumphal  Arch,"  and  our 
**  Bow  of  Hope,"  and  Joshua  spoke  to  the  children  of  Israel, 
saying- :  "When  your  children  shall  ask  their  fathers  in  time 
to  come,  saying,  *  What  mean  these  stones  ?'  then  shall  ye 
let  your  children  know,  saying  Israel  came  over  this  Jordan 
on  dry  land." 

And  in  the  future  men  and  women  shall  inquire,   "  What 
means  this  day,  the  22d  of  September  ?" 

When  our  children   and  their  children's  children  shall 
inquire  of  their  moral  and  religious  teachers,  why  the  22d  of 


September  is  set  down  in  the  calendar  as  the  day  of  hope  and 
joy  to  the  negro,  then  will  you  answer  them  and  say  : 

When  your  father's  father  was  in  bondag-e  there  was  a 
g-reat  war  between  the  northern  and  southern  States  of  the 
Union  ;  at  times  one  army  was  successful,  and  at  times  the 
other  was  successful. 

A  g-reat  and  g-ood  man  was  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  The  party  of  men  that  elected  him  were  opposed  to 
the  extension  of  slavery,  and  many  of  them  believed  in  uni- 
versal freedom  ;  others  of  them  believed  in  the  emancipation 
of  the  slaves,  while  another  class  believed  that  the  normal 
condition  of  the  negro  was  to  be  a  slave  to  the  white  man. 

There  was  a  division  among"  the  people  and  the  states- 
men in  reg-ard  to  the  powers  of  the  State  and  General  Gov- 
ernment. One  party  believed  that  the  General  Government 
was  superior  to  the  State  government.  The  Southerners  be- 
lieved that  the  State  government  was  superior  to  the  Nation, 
al  Government ;  the  logical  conclusion  of  this  was  that  a  part 
was  greater  than  the  whole.  Finally  on  the  twelfth  day  of 
April,  1861,  the  American  flag  was  fired  upon  at  Fort  Sum- 
ter, and  the  fort  was  compelled  to  surrender,  and  the  Ameri-» 
can  flag  was  lowered.  Thus  came  the  great  war  known  as 
the  Rebellion. 

The  leaders  on  both  sides  lifted  up  their  standard,  and 
hundreds  of  thousands  rallied  around  them.  Brave,  trained 
and  skilled  men  were  appointed  to  lead  them.  The  contest 
was  long,  bloody  and  dreadful.  The  war-cloud  hung  low 
and  dark  from  sea  to  sea.  Soldiers  were  vigilantly  guarding 
the  frontiers  of  liberty  on  one  side,  and  those  of  slavery  on 
the  other.  Every  man  was  brave  as  though  his  face  was 
brass,  his  muscles  of  iron  and  his  fingers  of  steel.  The 
minie-ball  whistled  its  favorite  song  of  death  ;  cannons 
spoke  to  cannons  in  the  voice  of  thunder  ;  the  earth  heard 
and  trembled,  and  the  sky  frowned  upon  the  scene,  grape  and 
canister  flew  like  birds  through  the  air,  bombs  like  meteors 
spread  destruction  in  their  path.  The  nights  were  made 
hideous  by  shells  screaming  and  screeching  like  wild  beasts 
of  prey,  contending  with  each  other.  The  midnight  air  was 
burdened  with  groans  of  the  wounded  and  the  wails  of  the 
dying.     Again  could  be  heard  the  shouts  of  the  advancing 


army  amid  the  din  of  battle.  The  curses  of  the  retreating 
foe  could  be  heard,  ming-ling-  with  the  shouts  of  triumph  and 
victory.  The  bass  voice  of  the  artillery  and  the  heavy  tramp 
of  the  cavalry  were  broken  by  the  shrill  cries  of  the  command- 
ers urging-  their  men  to  victory.  Doubtful  as  to  the  way  the 
battle  was  going",  the  President  of  the  United  States  issued  a 
proclamation,  inviting  all  (christians  and  people  to  assemble 
in  their  churches  and  places  of  worship  to  pray  to  the  God 
of  the  armies  of  heaven,  that  He  might  reinforce  the  armies 
of  the  Union  by  His  ever-conquering  legions.  The  people 
obeyed,  prayer  was  offered,  and  the  answer  from  on  High 
was  awaited  by  the  nation. 

On  the  16th  of  April,  1862,  the  first  victory  was  gained 
for  freedom  and  justice.  The  slaves  of  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia were  emancipated,  and  the  jubilant  shouts  were  heard 
throughout  the  land.  In  the  camp,  in  the  prison  and  on  the 
march  the  bands  played,  and  the  soldiers  sang,  "John 
Brown's  body  lies  moldering  in  the  grave,  but  his  soul  goes 
marching  on  ;  glory,  glory  hallelujah,"  etc.    [Applause.] 

While  this  and  other  songs  were  filling  the  homes,  hearts 
and  tents  of  the  land,  the  President  of  the  United  States,  the 
commander  of  the  Union  army,  stood  upon  the  rock  of  mili- 
tary necessity,  and  gave  the  confederate  army  100  days  to 
surrender  and  renew  their  allegiance  to  the  Constitution  and 
the  Union,  attaching  as  a  military  penalt}^  *'If  they  failed  to 
comply  he  would  on  the  first  day  of  January,  1863,  emanci- 
pate all  slaves  in  certain  designated  States  and  Territories 
of  the  country,  and  promising  protection  to  all  who  might 
come  within  the  lines  of  the  Union  army,  whether  as  labor- 
ers, teamsters  or  servants."  Freedom  was  to  be  their  re- 
ward. 

Thus  this  man  hung  the  bow  of  promise  over  the  prison  of 
the  negro,  and  bade  the  bondmen  believe,  pray  and  hope. 
Within  the  prison,  the  South,  prayers  ascended  daily  and 
nightly  from  the  cabin,  field  and  woods.  In  the  North,  daily 
and  nightly  meetings  were  held,  speeches  and  prayers  alter- 
nating with  each  other  ;  prayers  to  God,  and  petitions  to 
men. 

The  negro  wanted  the  Union  saved,  he  wanted  the  Union 
flag  to  triumph,  but  not  till  the  first  day  of  January,  1863,  had 


passed.  Days  increased  their  weary  marches  ;  weeks  drag-g-ed 
themselves  along*,  appearing-  to  be  months  in  leng-th,  and 
three  months  rolled  along-  as  though  they  were  three  years  to 
the  weary,  trusting-  and  hopeful  bondmen;  in  fact,  the  whole 
neg-ro  race  lived  a  lifetime  over,  between  the  22d  of  Septem- 
ber, 1862,  and  the  first  day  of  January,  1863,  for  the  liberty  of 
the  g-enerations,  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  millions,  and 
the  destiny  of  a  nation  hung-  upon  the  issue  of  the  hour  and 
the  resolve  of  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
Of  this  proclamation,  Mrs.  Harper  says  : 

**It  shall  flash  throug-h  coming*  ag-es, 
It  shall  lig-ht  the  distant  years, 
And  eyes  now  dim  with  sorrow 

Shall  be  brighter  through  their  tears." 

When  the  first  of  January,  1863,  came,  the  proclamation 
went  forth,  and  millions  of  the  slaves  were  made  freemen  in  one 
da3\  The  hut  of  the  bondman  was  deserted,  and  the  f  reedman, 
with  his  wife  and  with  his  children,  was  banished  from  the 
old  homestead,  and  they  started  to  a  land  they  knew  not  of  ; 
but  with  faith  in  God,  and  a  trust  in  His  word,  and  with  a 
lively  hope  in  the  final  triumph  of  right,  truth  and  justice, 
they  began  their  weary  march  to  the  land  of  liberty.  There 
was  joy  and  there  was  sadness  ;  joy  that  the  hour  of  deliver- 
ance had  come ;  sorrow  that  they  had  to  leave  behind  their 
associates.  They  started  out  not  as  the  Israelites  from 
Egypt,  with  the  clothes  and  jewels  of  the  Egyptians,  for 
they  had  only  the  garments  that  they  wore  in  bondage,  and 
their  only  jewel  was  the  jewel  of  freedom. 

The  scene  was  sad  and  joyful;  millions  of  people 
without  a  foot  of  land  to  stand  upon,  without  a  house  or 
home  to  protect  them  from  the  storm  of  winter  or  the  heat  of 
the  summer.  In  fact,  they  were  landless,  houseless  and 
nameless,  because  hitherto  they  had  borne  the  names  of  their 
masters  ;  now  having  no  masters,  they  had  no  names,  and 
each  family  had  to  choose  a  new  name  of  freedom,  and  they 
named  their  children  after  the  generals,  the  majors,  the 
colonels  and  captains  of  the  Union  army,  so  that  the  roster 


of  the  army  of  the  Union  is  the  key  to  the  g-enealog-ical  rec- 
ord of  the  new  sons  and  daughters  of  freedom,  and  the  two 
were  bound  tog-ether  forever  and  forever,  the  deliverer  and 
the  delivered.     [Great  applause.] 

Thirty  years  have  passed  away  with  all  of  their  scenes 
of  hope  and  joy,  life  and  death,  peace  and  war,  and  the  in- 
habitants of  the  city  of  the  living-  have  been  transferred  to 
the  city  of  the  dead,  and  there  await  their  final  summons  to 
appear  at  the  bar  of  judg-ment.  A  g-eneration  of  men  and 
women  have  appeared  on  the  stag-e  of  human  activities,  have 
entered  the  conflict  between  rig-ht  and  wrong-,  justice  and  in- 
justice, have  conquered  and  received  their  crown  of  reward, 
while  others  are  yet  contending-  for  the  faith  once  delivered 
to  the  saints,  and  for  which  the  saints  of  g-oodness  and  the 
heroes  of  virtue  have  died. 

The  question  now  is,  "What  has  the  neg-ro  done  with  his 
thirty  years  of  freedom  ?  "  The  following-  are  some  of  his 
achievements  in  the  field  of  politics  and  g-overnment. 

Hundreds  and  thousands  have  served  in  ward  meeting's, 
city  meeting-s,  county  and  state  conventions  ;  hundreds  have 
attended  the  national  conventions,  which  nominate  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  ;  and  John  R.  Lynch  and  others 
have  presided  over  the  national  convention. 

In  thirty  years  the  negro  has  been  elected,  and  served 
with  honor  to  himself  and  to  his  race  in  city  councils,  on 
boards  of  aldermen,  in  State  legislature,  in  State  senate, 
in  national  Congress  and  in  the  United  States  Senate,  and  in 
each  of  the  deliberative  bodies  has  he  presided  with  dignity. 
What  race  can  show  a  better  record  than  this  ?  I  challenge 
comparison  and  wait  for  a  parallel,  either  from  history, 
tradition,  observation  or  experience. 

Since  the  negro  left  the  house  of  bondage  he  has  been 
elected,  and  has  acted  as  mayor  of  a  town,  he  has  been 
constable  and  marshal,  the  county  'squire  and  the  city  jus- 
tice of  peace,  the  county  sheriff  and  the  United  States  mar- 
shal, the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  lieut.- 
governor,  presiding  over  the  State  senate,  acting  as  Governor 
of  Mississippi,  Louisiana  and  South  Carolina,  approving  the 
laws,  liberating  convicts,  commuting  sentences  of  death  to 


that  of  life,  the  embodiment  of  law  and  order  for  a  common- 
wealth. 

He  has  presided  over  the  national  House  of  Representa- 
tives, and  filled  the  chair  of  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States  with  honor  and  dignity.  The  Hon.  B.  K.  Bruce  was 
register  of  the  United  States  treasury  and  stamped  his  name 
upon  the  currency  of  our  country,  and  gave  the  negro's  con- 
sent to  pay  the  nation's  debt  in  silver  and  gold,  or  in  green- 
backs. 

In  thirty  years  the  negro  went  from  field,  shop  and  hotel, 
and  has  been  elected  and  served  as  secretary  of  state,  auditor 
of  state,  treasurer  of  state,  attorney-general  of  state,  super- 
intendent of  public  schools  in  county  and  state  ;  and  the 
negro  in  the  days  of  reconstruction  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  public  school  system  of  the  South,  and  to-day  it  stands  a 
monument  of  his  love  of  education  and  of  posterity. 

Since  1862  the  negro  has  studied  law,  been  admitted  ta 
the  bar,  has  been  elected  city  judge,  has  presided  in  the 
supreme  court  of  South  Carolina.  He  has  acted  as  prose- 
cuting attorney  and  persecuting  attorney  too.  He  has  been 
admitted  to  practice  in  the  district,  circuit  and  supreme 
courts.  Thus  the  negro  is  able  to  plead  his  cause  from  the 
police  courts  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

The  Hon.  James  M.  Townsend  and  D.  P.  Roberts  have 
acted  as  recorders  of  the  general  land  offices  of  the  United 
States,  one  of  the  most  important  offices  in  the  gift  of  the 
President,  for  not  one  foot  of  public  land  can  be  sold  or  trans- 
ferred without  the  signature  of  the  recorder  of  the  lands. 
He  is  the  custodian  of  the  great  seal  of  the  land  office,  and 
when  he  signs  his  name  and  stamps  with  the  seal,  he  repre- 
sents the  wishes  of  62,500,000  people. 

The  Hon.  Frederick  Douglass,  the  greatest  of  all  Ameri- 
can negroes,  acted  as  marshal  of  the  District  of  Columbia  ; 
he  was  the  representative  of  law  and  order  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  in  a  city  where  less  than  thirty  years  ago  his  kin- 
dred were  bought  and  sold.  What  a  wonderful  triumph  I 
"What  marvelous  progress  has  been  made  in  recognizing  the 
rights  of  the  new-made  freeman  !     [Great  applause.] 

Again,  inside  of  thirty  years  the  negro  has  been  appoint- 
ed by  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  serve  the  Gov- 


eminent  as  consul  in  Madag-ascar,  San  Domingo,  minister 
resident  and  consul  g-eneral  to  Hayti,  the  morning-  star  of 
neg-ro  independence  and  neg-ro  reign  ;  and  to  Liberia,  Africa, 
the  lone  star  of  hope  to  more  than  200,000,000  of  men, 
women  and  children,  bone  of  our  bone,  and  flesh  of  our  flesh. 
The  neg-ro  has  assisted -in  framing*  the  org-anic  laws  of  many 
States  of  the  Union,  since  his  freedom.  He  was  an  impor- 
tant factor  in  the  reconstruction  conventions,  and  has  assist- 
ed in  embodying-  in  the  organic  law  of  the  land  the  principles 
of  justice  and  right. 

WHAT  PROGRESS  HAS  THK  NEGRO  MADE  IN  EDUCATION  ? 

That  education  is  essential  to  the  success  of  an  individ- 
ual, family,  race  or  country  is,  a  common  axiom,  and  it  is  said 
on  every  side,  *'We  must  educate  or  perish."  This  is  relative- 
ly and  absolutely  true  with  us  as  a  race.  Therefore  we  desire 
to  •see  what  progress  we  have  made  since  our  chains  have 
been  broken,  and  we  stepped  out  into  freedom.  The  follow- 
ing communication  from  Hon.  W.  T.  Harris,  Commissioner 
of  Education  of  the  Uiiited  States,  tells  the  story  of  thirty 
years  of  freedom  and  education. 

NUMBER   OF   SCHOOLS   FOR   THE   COI.ORED   RACE. 

THE  ENROI^IvMENT    OP  THEM  BY  INSTITUTIONS    WITHOUT  REEERENCE  TO 

STATES. 

Teachers.        Scfiools.        Enrollment. 

Public  schools 22,956     21,520  1,327,822— '89 

Normal  schools 316  41  7,462 

Institutions  of   secondary   in- 
struction   354  53  11,480 

Universities   and  colleges 238  22  1,010 

Schools  of  theology 89  22  1,008 

Schools  of  law 15  4  42 

Schools  of  medicine 30  3  241 

Schools    of    deaf,   dumb    and 

blind 30  9  287 

Total 24,038    21,674     1,327,822— '89 

Grand  total  in  all  schools  of  all  grades 1,353,352 


IN   COIvI^EGE   AND   SEMINARY. 

The  students  in  our  colleges  and  seminaries  in  the  pur- 
suit of  their  studies  have  acquitted  themselves  nobly.  They 
have  made  excellent  records  in  the  study  of  the  classics,  in 
the  study  of  the  higher  mathematics,  in  the  contests  for 
class  honors  they  have  been  very  successful,  and  have  won 
victories  against  great  odds. 

In  thirty  years  they  have  captured  the  oratorical  prize  in 
century-crowned  Harvard;  have  borne  aloft  the  palm  of  victory 
in  Boston  University.  In  all  these  institutions  distinguished 
for  their  learning,  the  negro  student  has  shown  that  the  in- 
tellectual power  of  the  race  is  equal  to  that  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon,  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  and  I  firmly  believe 
that  time  and  circumstances  will  prove  that  he  possesses  the 
power  of  applying  his  knowledge  in  the  world  of  thoug^ht 
and  matter.  It  is  only  a  question  of  time,  for  time  is  an  essen- 
tial element,  until  the  latent  powers  of  the  race  will  manifest 
themselves  in  the  organization,  and  in  the  subsidizing  of  the 
moral  and  mental  forces,  and  utilizing  them  for  the  advance- 
ment of  science  and  the  development  of  art,  and  in  the  foster- 
ing of  the  higher  culture  of  our  young  men  and  our  young 
women  to  such  an  eminent  degree  that  the  doubt  that  hangs 
over  the  possibilities  of  the  race  will  be  removed,  and  con- 
fidence and  trust  and  hope  will  then  illumine  the  path  of  the 
future,  to  such  an  extent  that  the  seekers  after  truth  will  be 
permitted  to  join  in  the  excursions  of  investigation  and  study, 
regardless  of  race  and  color. 


THE   NEGRO   ON   THE   PI.ATFORM. 

Before  the  war  and  before  freedom,  it  was  a  strange  thing 
to  hear  of  a  negro  upon  the  platform,  or  a  platform  of  politi- 
cal parties,  for  he  has  had  some  connection  with  the  platform 
of  political  parties,  from  the  organization  of  our  Government. 
I  have  reference  to  the  public  platform  where  an  individual 
stands  before  an  audience,  presents  facts  of  history,  illus- 
trates by  instances  of  biography  or  recites  events  connected 


with^his  own  personal  observation  or  experience,  or  discusses 
principles,  men  and  policies  of  g-overnment,  approving-  one 
party  and  disapproving-  another,  using-  every  argument  of 
moral  suasion  to  have  an  individual  follow  the  standard  of  an 
organization  or  a  party,  and  to  accomplish  his  end,  uses 
logic,  rhetoric  and  elocution,  playing  upon  the  passions,  prej- 
udice and  sympathies  of  his  audience  as  the  musician  touches 
the  keys  of  his  instrument. 

In  thirty  years  the  neg-roes  have  produced  a  number  of 
spell-binders  or  orators  as  they  are  called  in  common  par- 
lance, among-  whom  are  the  Hon.  Frederick  Douglass,  old 
man  eloquent  of  the  old  school;  Rev.  J.  C.  Price,  of  the  new 
school;  Rev.  W.  B.  Derrick,  a  "child  of  the  Tropics";  the 
Hon.  Jno.  R.  Lynch,  a  product  of  the  Sunny  South;  Hon.  J. 
Madison  Bell,  the  man  that  sounded  the  key-note  of  freedom, 
on  the  morning-  of  emancipation  at  the  Golden  Gate.  Bishop 
T.  M.  D.  Ward,  whose  voice  and  speech  have  alike  cheered 
the  miner  in  the  Sierra  Nevada,  and  the  new  made  freed- 
men  in  the  savannah  and  the  everglades  of  Florida,  whose 
words  were  as  beautiful  as  the  mag-nolia,  and  as  sweet  as  the 
orange-blossom. 

Time  fails  me  to  speak,  for  the  coming  orators  are  too 
numerous.  'Twould  require  a  volume  to  record  their  names, 
their  hopes,  their  ambitions;  but  whether  in  religious  or 
political  connections,  at  home  or  abroad,  the  platform  orators 
of  the  negroes  have  been  heard  and  felt  within  thirty  years. 


THE   STAGE. 

The  negro  has  appeared  upon  the  stage,  and  the  dra- 
matic power  of  the  race  has  been  tested,  weighed  and  has  not 
been  found  wanting.  Several  stars  have  appeared  above  the 
horizon  in  the  dramatic  sky,  their  brilliant  light  softened 
the  midnight  darkness,  and  became  a  g-uide  to  those  strug- 
g-ling  to  rise  from  horizon  to  zenith,  until  we  now  have  a  con- 
stellation appearing  to  the  joy  of  all: 

Madame  Selika,  the  queen  of  song;  Miss  Hallie  Q. 
Brown,  the  queen  of  elocutionists;  Miss  Henrietta  Vinton 
Davis,    the   gifted    and    matchless,    magic,    emotional   and 


humorous  reader;  Miss  Sisseretta  Jones,  the  black  Patti,  has 
delig-hted  thousands  in  the,  East  and  West  in  the  United 
States,  and  has  won  laurels  for  herself  and  for  the  race  in  the 
West  Indies  and  in  foreign  lands;  Miss  Daisy  Nahar,  with 
wonderful  skill,  instructs  and  delig-hts  those  who  have  had 
the  pleasure  of  listening-  to  her  entertainments. 


THE   NEGRO  AS   A   PHYSICIAN. 


The  doctor  is  one  of  the  necessary  and  one  of  the  indis- 
pensable members  of  a  community.  The  healing  art  is  one 
of  the  most  important  of  professions.  It  is  so  intimately 
connected  with  life  and  death,  health  and  sickness,  that  a 
skillful  physician  is  a  blessing  to  his  fellow-men. 

Everybody  is  interested  in  his  success.  The  happiness  of 
homes,  the  success  of  enterprises,  the  prosperity  of  the  com- 
munity depend  upon  the  health  of  its  inhabitants.  When  the 
negro  race  assumed  the  responsibilities  of  freemen,  we  had 
no  physicians  of  our  own;  we  had  to  depend  on  others  to  care 
for  our  sick  and  to  relieve  our  ills.  But  since  that  day  our 
young  men  have  entered  college,  have  graduated  with  honor 
and  now  are  practicing  with  eminent  success. 

We  have  physicians  who  are  not  only  practitioners,  but 
are  eminent  as  surgeons  and  oculists.  Among  the  many  who 
have  distinguished  themselves  for  learning  and  skill  are: 
Drs.  Purvis,  Cook,  Francis  and  Powell,  of  Washington  City; 
Dr.  Ray,  of  Brooklyn;  Dr.  Thompson,  of  New  York;  Dr. 
Dames,  of  Jacksonville,  Fla.;  Dr.  Buckner,  of  Cincinnati, 
Ohio;  Dr.  D.  H.  Williams,  the  founder  of  Provident  Hospital 
and  Training  School,  of  Chicago,  and  one  of  the  surgeons  of 
the  World's  Fair.  Dr.  Boyd,  of  Nashville,  and  many  others 
whose  names  time  fails  me  to  mention. 

The  following  figures  will  give  some  idea  as  to  the  num- 
ber of  colored  physicians  of  the  United  States  of  thirty  years 
of  freedom,  for  when  freedom  came  we  had  only  Dr.  Delaney, 
and  one  or  two  others. 

The  Mahary  College  has  graduated  in  1891,  132  physi- 
cians. 


Howard  University,  1891,  graduated  being-  112  colored 
and  216  whites. 

The  Leonard  Medical  School  in  1891,  had  graduated  30 
students  and  had  54  on  the  way. 

The  Louisville  National  Medical  Colleg-e  has  g-raduated 
11  persons  and  had  an  enrollment  of  23. 

The  New  Orleans  University  graduated  4  in  1892,  and  a 
'  arge  number  have  graduated  from  Ann  Arbor,  and  Chicago 
md  other  places. 

There  are  a  large  number  of  dentists  in  the  country,  and 
pharmacists. 

The  number  of  young  men  is  increasing  in  those  pro- 
fessions. 


THE  MUSIC  OF  OUR  FATHERS. 

One  of  the  distinguishing  marks  of  a  people  is  its  music 
and  language.  The  last  things  of  a  race  to  die  are  its  songs 
and  its  language.  There  is  something  of  immortality^ 
stamped  upon  the  heart  and  the  human  soul.  They  being 
immortal,  their  utterances  are  immortal. 

Our  fathers  in  their  bondag-e  crystallized  their  sorrows 
and  their  woes  into  songs  and  into  hymns.  The  words  were 
stamped  on  the  memory  of  the  generations,  and  their  songs 
were  impressed  upon  the  souls  of  the  old  and  the  young, 
and  when  freedom  came,  and  they  marched  out  of  their 
prison  into  the  sunlight  of  liberty,  the  songs  of  the  night 
were  blended  with  the  songs  of  the  day.  The  minor  of  de- 
spair and  the  major  of  hope  were  set  to  the  music  of  liberty 
and  joy,  and  the  music  of  the  freedmen  became  the  hj^mns  of 
liberty.  The  songs  were  so  unique,  the  music  so  original, 
that  the  children  of  the  fathers  gave  concerts  to  the  multi- 
tudes, thus  transmitting  the  songs  of  the  fathers  to  the 
hymns  of  the  children. 

Temples  of  education  were  needed,  the  fathers  were  poor 
and  the  children  were  without  money,  so  a  company  was 
organized  and  named  the  ''Fisk  Jubilee  Singers."  They 
sang  in  the  East,  West,  North  and  South;  finally  they  went  to 
Europe  and  collected  means  and  built  a  temple  to  Christian 


education.  Other  companies  have  been  org-anized,  the  Wil- 
berforce  Concert  Co. ;  the  Hampton  Singers,  who  sang-  in  the 
interest  of  Hampton  Colleg-e;  the  Tennesseeans,  who  sang-  in 
the  interest  of  Tennessee  College;  the  F.  J.  Loudin  Co.,  who 
sang-  in  Europe,  America  and  Australia,  returning-  by  way  of 
the  Hawaiian  Islands  and  San  Francisco,  thus  circumnaviga- 
ting the  globe.  Thus,  within  thirty  years,  the  children  have 
sung  the  songs  of  the  fathers  to  the  common  people  of  the 
eastern,  western  and  southern  hemispheres. 

They  also  appeared  in  the  royal  presence  of  kings  and 
queens,  and  of  aristocrats  in  England,  Germany,  Spain,  Por- 
tugal and  Russia,  bringing  tears  from  the  eyes  of  the  distin- 
guished of  many  lands  as  they  sang,  *'  Steal  Away  to  Jesus." 

The  people  of  the  South  Sea  were  delighted  to  hear  the 
children  sing  their  father's  song  of  *' Swing  Low,  Sweet 
Chariot,  Coming  to  Carry  You  Home."  Thus  the  broken 
music  of  the  slave  became  the  harmony  of  the  children  of 
freedom,  and  everybody  delights  to  hear  the  plantation  melo- 
dies, the  only  original  music  of  America. 


DOMESTIC   ECONOMY. 


What  are  we  doing  toward  training  our  daughters?  Have 
we  done  our  duty  in  the  past,  and  are  we  doing  it  now  ? 

A  race  cannot  be  greater  than  its  women.  The  women 
are  the  teachers  and  molders  of  the  thought  and  sentiment 
of  the  rising  generation.  A  woman  is  the  teacher  at  the 
fireside,  the  priest  at  the  family  altar,  and  what  mother  or 
sister  says  cannot  be  changed  by  what  any  one  else  says. 

Hence  it  is  important  to  have  mothers  and  sisters  who 
are  intelligent  and  refined.  The  influence  of  woman  is  not 
limited  by  the  sides  of  the  house  or  the  boundaries  of  the 
premises,  but  she  is  one  of  the  principal  instructors  of  our 
Sunday-schools.  In  fact,  they  form  a  large  majority  of  our 
moral  and  religious  teachers  in  this  and  all  other  civilized 
countries,  and  I  am  told  that  she  is  the  principal  instructor  in 
the  semi-civilized  countries,  and  the  general  sentiment  is — I 
have  many  sisters,  many  wives,  but  only  one  mother. 


The  work  that  the  women  of  the  race  have  had  to  perform 
in  the  past  thirty  years;  they  have  had  heavy  burdens  to 
bear,  difficult  tasks  to  perform,  intricate  subjects  to  consider 
and  difficult  questions  to  decide.  They  were  moved  from  hut 
to  hut  of  slavery  to  the  house  of  freedom,  without  furniture, 
without  any  preparation.  They  had  to  leave  many  things 
behind  that  they  desired  to  bring"  with  them  ;  they  brought 
with  them  many  things  that  they  ought  to  have  left  behind. 

Thus  embarrassed  and  surrounded,  they  began  the  home 
work  of  reconstruction  without  a  model  or  a  teacher.  It  is 
true  that  a  few  noble  women  of  the  North  came  down,  visited 
the  cities  and  instructed  our  women  how  to  arrange  a  home 
for  free  men  and  free  women,  and  gave  lessons  in  training 
boys  and  girls  for  usefulness  in  this  life,  and  for  preparing 
them  for  usefulness  in  serving  God  through  eternity. 

Thirty  years  have  made  a  wonderful  change  in  our 
homes  and  in  the  social  circles  ;  our  women  have  made  won- 
derful progress.  To-day  the  model  home  of  the  negro  is  a 
place  of  refinement,  culture,  a  home  of  song,  a  temple  of  in- 
dustry, a  sanctuary  of  religion,  the  citadel  of  virtue  and  the 
altar  of  patriotism,  where  obedience  to  human  and  divine  law 
is  taught  in  theory  and  practice. 

God  bless  our  mothers,  sisters,  wives  and  daughters. 
The  progress  they  have  made,  the  advancement  they  are 
making,  is  a  marvel  in  our  sight,  and  a  source  of  joy  to  every 
man  who  loves  his  race  and  his  country. 


THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER. 

One  of  the  highest  qualities  of  manhood  is  that  which 
makes  a  soldier.  It  requires  obedience,  courage  and  love  of 
country  to  constitute  a  good  soldier.  He  must  obey  without 
questioning  authority  ;  he  must  endure  fatigue  without  com- 
plaining ;  he  must  leave  his  mother  or  wife  and  children  be- 
hind without  grieving ;  he  must  run  and  not  weary  ;  he  must 
walk  and  not  faint. 

At  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war  the  negro  was 
denied  the  right  to  bear  arms  in  many  of  the  States,  which 
was  against  the  Constitution  of  the  country.     But  he  bore  it 


Tvith  patience,  trusting-  in  God,  hoping-  for  the  final  triumph 
of  right.  When  the  civil  war  broke  out,  he  offered  his  ser- 
vices to  the  governors  of  the  States  to  help  fill  the  quotas  of 
the  State.  He  received  answer  that  *'  this  is  a  white  man's  war, 
and  that  the  negro  has  nothing  to  do  with  it."  But  times 
changed,  and  after  numerous  defeats  to  the  Union  army,  the 
leaders  were  convinced  that  the  white  man  could  not  settle 
the  war,  and  the  negro  was  called  in  as  an  umpire  ;  but  he 
would  not  enter  without  conditions,  and  one  of  the  conditions 
was  :  '*  Give  us  a  flag,  all  free  without  a  slave,  and  we  will 
defend  it  as  our  fathers  did  so  brave." 

When  the  conditions  were  complied  with,  the  refrain  was 
caught  up  by  the  negro,  east,  west,  north  and  south,  and  he 
sans" : 


* 'Onward,  boys,  onward. 

This  is  the  3- ear  of  jubilee 
God  bless  America, 
The  land  of  liberty." 


And  during  the  civil  war  in  America,  from  1861  to  1865, 
there  were  178,975  negro  soldiers  who  enrolled  in  the  United 
States  volunteer  army.  Of  this  number  99,337  were  enlisted 
by  the  authority  of  the  National  government,  79,638  by  the 
States  and  Territories,  36,847  soldiers  died  in  the  service  of 
the  country,  and  in  the  449  engagements  in  which  they  par- 
ticipated they  proved  themselves  worthy  to  be  entrusted  with 
the  nation's  flag  and  honor.  And  it  has  become  a  proverb  in 
military  parlance  that  the  colored  troops  fought  nobly,  and  the 
children  of  the  soldiers  have  sung  and  continue  to  sing : 

**  We  have  stood  and  fought  like  demons. 

Upon  the  battlefield. 
Both  slave  and  valiant  freemen 

Have  faced  the  glittering  steel. 
Our  blood  beneath  the  banner 

Has  mingled  with  the  whites'. 
And  beneath  its  folds  we  now  demand 


Our  just  and  equal  rights. 
We  fed  the  Union  soldier 

When  fleeing"  from  the  foe. 
We  led  him  through  the  mountains, 

Where  white  men  dared  not  go. 
Our  hoecake  and  our  cabbage 

And  our  pork  we  freely  gave, 
That  this  old  flag  might  be  sustained, 

Now  let  it  proudly  wave. 

Let  it  wave,  let  it  wave, 
But  never  over  a  slave." 

After  the  war  had  closed  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Repub- 
lic was  organized.  The  negro  was  admitted  as  a  comrade, 
and  to-day  he  is  received  as  other  comrades  in  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic,  sometimes  in  separate  posts,  some- 
times together  ;  be  it  as  it  may,  they  have  one  flag  and  one 
country.  When  the  National  Guard  was  organized  the  negro 
was  received  as  a  soldier,  and  is  treated  as  all  other  mem- 
bers of  this  important  branch  of  public  service. 

We  have  companies,  regiments,  battalions  of  infantry, 
cavalry  and  of  artillery.  Colored  men  to-day  bear  commissions 
as  captains,  majors,  colonels  and  generals,  as  well  as  chap- 
lains. 

Among  the  best  military  organizations  in  the  country 
are  those  in  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Ohio,  and  other  North- 
ern States  have  encouraged  and  supported  these  organiza- 
tions. In  thirty  years  we  have  had  several  young  men  to  at- 
tend West  Point  and  graduate,  also  to  attend  the  United 
States  Naval  Academy  at  Annapolis,  Md.  We  have  a  num. 
ber  of  regular  troops  in  the  regular  army.  In  the  last  Indi- 
an war  one  of  the  colored  companies  distinguished  itself 
for  bravery  and  saved  the  army  from  defeat  and  destruction. 
They  were  commended  by  the  commanding  general,  thanked 
by  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  transferred  from  the  field  in  the 
west  to  Washington,  D.  C,  as  a  mark  of  honor  and  distinc- 
tion for  their  bravery,  and  to-day  they  are  guarding  the  na- 
tion's capital. 

All  this  within  thirty  years. 


SKILLED   LABOR. 

The  mechanic  is  an  important  factor  in  every  community. 
Skilled  labor  is  more  effective  than  unskilled  labor.  Brain 
and  muscle  combined  can  do  more  than  brain  alone  or  muscle 
alone.  The  man  or  race  that  has  the  largest  amount  of 
brain  in  the  hand  and  the  fing-ers  will  be  more  serviceable 
to  humanity  than  the  one  with  no  brain  in  his  hand.  There- 
fore it  is  the  duty  of  every  father  and  guardian  to  so  train  the 
children  that  they  can  perform  the  greatest  amount  of  skilled 
labor.  In  order  to  do  this  we  must  encourage  the  industrial 
schools  by  sending  our  children  to  them,  by  contributing  of 
our  means,  by  making  friends  for  them. 

We  must  be  able  to  build  our  own  houses,  make  our  own 
furniture,  weave  our  own  carpets.  We  must  teach  our  boys 
to  make  brick;  to  be  blacksmiths;  to  be  tinners;  to  be  wagon 
and  carriage  makers. 

We  have  now  a  large  number  of  young  men  who  are  be- 
ing trained  in  the  mechanical  arts  at  Pine  Bluffs,  Ark.;  at 
Tuskegee,  Ala. ;  at  Normal,  Ala. ;  at  Kittrell,  N.  C. ;  at  Paul 
Quinn,  Waco,  Tex. ;  and  at  Wilberf orce,  Ohio. 

Our  boys  throughout  the  country  have  awakened  to  the 
situation  and  are  preparing  themselves  for  the  future.  The 
following  figures  will  give  the  number  of  teachers  and  pupils 
engaged  in  the  work  of  mechanical  instruction: 


THE   ARENA. 

Man  is  a  physical,  intellectual  and  moral  being,  composed 
of  mind  and  matter.  The  culture  of  the  physical  man 
was  the  care  of  the  ancient.  Greece  and  Rome  cultivated 
the  physical  and  the  mental  man  to  the  neglect  of  the  moral 
and  the  spiritual,  while  the  Jews  cultivated  the  moral  and 
spiritual  to  the  neglect  of  the  physical  and  mental. 

The  racer,  the  boxer  and  the  gladiator  were  the  greatest 
of  physical  men,  or  the  athlete,  as  the  model  physical  man  is 
called. 


i 


In  the  intellectual  world  the  greatest  are  orators,  rhetori- 
cians, g-rammarians,  mathematicians,  poets,  dramatists  and 
philosophers.  Pericles,  of  Athens,  was  the  patron  and  de- 
fender of  this  class  of  men  to  a  g-reater  extent  than  any  of 
his  predecessors  or  his  successors. 

Christianity,  recognizing-  man  to  be  a  tripartite  being, 
lias  encourag-ed  and  fostered  the  development  of  the  body, 
mind  and  soul  to  their  uttermost.  For  200  years  or  more  the 
race  has  not  had  systematical  culture  or  training,  but  that 
'which  has  come  incidentally  throug-h  work  in  the  field  and 
shop. 

Within  the  past  thirty  years  the  race  has  had  time  to 
train  the  muscles,  the  arms,  the  legs  and  the  feet.  Hart  has 
been  known  as  the  champion  walker.  Pugilist  Dixon  wears 
the  champion  belt  of  his  class;  Peter  Jackson  stands  with  the 
•champion  of  the  world,  for  the  champion  of  the  world  failed 
to  conquer  Jackson;  he  foug-ht  a  draw  with  Jackson,  then 
challenged  the  champion  of  the  world,  and  after  defeating 
him  still  has  Jackson  to  conquer.  Thus  Jackson  and  Cor- 
bett  are  champions  of  the  world. 


THK   NEGRO   IN  THE  PULPIT. 

The  pulpit  is  one  of  the  g-reat  forces  in  the  elevation  of 
the  race.     The  g-rowth  of  the  church  since  the  war  has  been 
marvelous.     The  Christian  ministry  has  been  the  leader  of 
the  people  in  church  and  in  state ;  but  now  we  are  getting- 
leaders  in  other  branches  of  activity. 

The  followintr  is  the  status  of  the  Methodist  churches  : 


Pes  (3 


1-i  to 

)_«  v-i  00  K> 
05  OS^iii.  <yi 


4x  too  W 
t-i  ^J  t— '  CO 
C;xOi  4^  OS 


Oi  to 

^.-^lOOC 

o'o'bs'bT 
o  o  at  o 
0000 


■w» 

C5 

01 

to  j 

b3 

en  I 

Sj 

too 

"e'en 

88 


g. 


25 

ca 

d 
o 
o 

•^» 

It"  in 

>2 


g5 


•^  00 

P  o 

j3      Hi. 


to 

00  to 

to  00 

00  00 


02 

o     ^ 


QQ 


Jo 

00  ^ 
Crto 


» 

w 

or 

CD    fi) 

P  o 
P  o 

o  • 


OCO 


°°  5  ^  3  P  C3 

p 


h-i  00  C2  •— »  05 
CO  •-'  O  en  Oi  to 

tooiooo^ 


OCO  CO  00 
Oi  ^j  to  to  t-*  Q 
O  or  I*'  Ci  W  O 


1— I  rfi.  rfi.  to 

CO  to  ^J  4i. 

^1  CO  O  Ot  pijvi 

"o"bo  QC  O  Ot"4^ 
CO  O^'  to  O  Oi  CO 
h—  O  ^  O  en  O 


rfi.  to  4i.  O 
to  v-i  CO  Cn  00  or 

o'oi- Oi^^lOO 
O  -1  ^  en  O  O 

O  O'  O  O  O  o 


»-'  CO  to  to. to 
^5  I-'  Oi  O  ^J  o 
Oi  Or  (-'  O  Ci^ 


^1  ^  ^  cn  CO  00 

4^  en  CO  03  en  03 
O  »-'  h-  O  03  O 


,  CO  CO  i-" 
T5  o  to  ^^ 

05  CO  00  O  en  CO 


j:o^co  ►^.  to 

i-'T-'~en'ol>o 
00  >-'  CO  O  O  CO 
to  C;i  01  O  CO  O 


loo"^  4^ 

O  O  ^1  CO 
JDOK)  4^^ 

"ooloio 


Pastors. 


Local 

Ministers 


Members 


Adher'nts 


Sunday 
Schools. 


Officers 

and 

Teachers. 


Scholar?. 


Churches. 


Church 

and 

School 

Property. 


THE   NEGRO  AS  AN   AUTHOR. 

The  race  is  now  producing"  some  very  fine  books,  among* 
them  the  Hon.  G.  W.  Williams's  "History  of  the  Negro 
Race  ;"  "  The  History  of  A.  M.  E.  Church,"  by  Bishop  D. 
A.  Payne;  "The  Voice  from  the  South,"  by  Mrs.  A.  J. 
Cooper;  "The  Divine  Log-os,"  by  Rev.  H.  T.  Johnson; 
"Theolog-y,"  by  Rev.  J.  C.  Kmbry,  and  many  others  are  the 
first  crop  of  authors  in  thirty  years.  I  have  in  my  own  li- 
brary ninety-two,  and  the  list  covers  more  than  100. 

THE   NEGRO   PRESS. 

The  press  is  a  power.  It  was  formerly  used  ag-ainst  the 
interest  of  the  neg-ro,  but  now  the  negro  has  his  own  papers 
and  can  speak  for  the  race,  demand  his  rights  and  present 
his  wrongs  to  the  world.  The  Christian  Recorder  is  the 
oldest  religious  press  in  this  country.  Rev.  H.  T.  Johnson 
is  its  editor.  It  is  the  organ  of  the  A.  M.  E.  Church.  The 
'  A.  M.  E.  Church  Review,  Rev.  L.  J.  Cooper,  editor,  and  the 
A.  M.  E.  Zion  Church  Review,  Hon.  J.  C.  Dancy,  editor,  are 
doing  good  work.  We  have  now  about  150  newspapers,  plead- 
ing the  cause  of  the  race  every  week,  all  since  the  emancipa- 
tion. 

After  having  reviewed  the  progress  of  the  race  for  thirty 
years,  and  witnessed  the  advance  it  has  made,  it  is  with 
more  than  ordinary  satisfaction  that  I  appear  in  the  presence 
of  this  great  audience  to  discharge  the  very  pleasant  duty 
which  has  been  assigned  me  and  to  show  the  world  that  we 
are  not  a  race  of  ingrate's,  nor  are  we  forgetful  of  the  bless- 
ings received,  nor  is  our  memory  bad  when  recording  the 
wrongs  we  have  suffered  in  this  land  of  freedom. 

Now,  Hon.  James  M.  Ashley,  when  in  1865  I  sat  in  the 
gallery  of  the  House  of  Representatives  and  witnessed  your 
successful  leadership  in  the  last  great  congressional  battle 
for  freedom,  I  did  not  think  that  I  would  be  called  on  to  per- 
form so  pleasant  a  duty  as  this.  I  was  there  when  the  Speak- 
er  announced   that   the   13th    amendment    had   passed.      I 


joined  in  the  song-  of  *'My  Country,  'Tis  of  Thee."  I  heard 
the  cannons  in  the  city  carrying-  the  g-lad  tiding-s  in  the  air. 
The  bells  of  the  city  shouted  for  joy.  Having-  done  your  duty 
at  all  times — and  the  present  g-eneration  of  black  men  are 
aware  of.it  —  and  in  their  name  and  on  their  behalf  I  have 
headed  the  committee  of  compilation.  It  has  been  a  work  of 
love  and  pleasure  to  collect  your  orations  and  speeches  which 
in  their  day  were  our  army  and  battle  axes,  and  became  our 
victory  and  liberty.     [Applause.] 

In  all  you  then  said  or  did  in  our  behalf,  we  have  found 
no  word  or  thoug-ht  or  act,  which  we  or  any  black  man  could 
wish  to  chang-e  or  blot.  [Applause.]  In  1864,  when  you 
said  (and  we  have  preserved  it  in  this  Souvenir)  *'that  if 
true  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  the  very  stones  cast  at  you 
would  one  day  be  made  into  your  monument,"  you  uttered 
a  prophecy  which  to-nig-ht  is  fulfilled.     [Applause.] 

To  fulfill  that  prophecy  we  thoug-ht  that  to  collect  your 
speeches  and  put  them  in  a  volume,  to  be  read  for  many  genera^ 
tions,  would  be  better  than  a  shaft  of  marble  or  a  statue  of 
bronze,  for  the  marble  would  crumble  beneath  the  weig-ht  of 
years  and  the.bronze  would  tarnish  in  the  breath  of  time,  but 
this  volume  will  be  sent  to  the  public  libraries  of  this  and 
other  lands  and  be  read  by  the  coming-  g-enerations. 

Accept  this  token  from  the  present  g-eneration,  and  on 
behalf  of  the  coming-  g-eneration  I  thank  you  for  what  you. 
have  done  for  them,  and  with  you  I  rejoice  that  the  door  of 
our  prison  is  closed  forever  and  the  g-ateway  of  freedom  is. 
opened  for  all  the  generations  to  come.     [Applause.] 


The  following-  presentation  address  was  prepared  by 
the  Hon.  Wm.  H.  Young-,  President  of  the  Afro-American 
Iveag-ue  of  Nashville,  Tennessee. 

As  Mr.  Young-  was  unavoidably  detained  at  home,  we 
publish  this  address  in  full. 

Bishop  Arnett  (with  the  aid  of  his  little  son,  Daniel 
Payne  Arnett)  took  Mr.  Young-'s  place. 


MR.  YOUNG'S  ADDRESS. 

Mr.  President  :  As  the  representatives  of  the  Afro- 
American  Leag-ue  of  Tennessee,  we  have  met  th^s  evening, 
in  this  great  city,  the  Mecca  toward  which  the  heart  of 
civilization  has  been  turned  during-  this  Columbian  jubilee  oc- 
casion, to  erect  a  monument  founded  in  the  g-ratitude  of  the 
ex-slaves  and  their  children  of  the  United  States  of  America. 

The  spirit  which  actuated  us  in  the  movement,  whose 
consummation  we  shall  this  nig-ht  witness,  impelled  the 
nation  to  dedicate  monuments  to  the  champions  of  the  cause 
of  the  Union,  and  the  devotees  of  States'  sovereignty  to  foster 
as  an  abiding-  possession  the  memory  of  heroes  whose  convic- 
tions were  dearer  to  them  than  life. 

Forty  years  ago  the  social  fabric  of  our  g-reat  country 
consisted  of  four  distinct  threads  : — 

(1)  The  slave,  who  by  nativity,  residence  and. conquest 
had  become  an  essential  part  of  the  nation  ; 

(2)  The  abolitionist,  who  stood  upon  the  broad  doctrine 
announced  by  the  revolutionary  fathers,  that  **all  men  are 
created  free  and  equal ;" 

(3)  A  larg-e  element,  who  professed  to  believe  that 
**  there  were  races"  who  could  be  chattelized  without  sin  or 
crime. 

And  (4)  a  larger  number  who  cared  little  for  the  equality 


of  men.  so  long-  as  their  own  rights  remained  intact,  and  the 
integrity  ot  the  National  Government  was  undisturbed. 

In  the  strug"g"le  which  followed  the  slave  remained  for  a 
time  a  passive  quantity. 

The  abolitionist  demanded  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves. 

The  devotees  of  States'  rights  maintained  that  the  slave, 
being  property,  was  wholly  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
States,  and  that  ajiy  infringement  upon  property  rights  by  the 
National  Government  would  justify  a  dissolution  of  the 
Union. 

This  dictum  left  to  the  unconditional  Unionist  but  one 
alternative,  a  coalition  with  the  abolitionist  for  the  purpose 
of  saving  the  Union. 

The  war  is  ended.  Its  results  and  subsequent  legislation 
are  enshrined  in  the  nation's  history. 

Under  Providence,  the  Union  is  restored,  slavery  is  abol- 
ished and  the  entire  nation.  North  and  South,  rejoices  in  the 
accomplishment  of  both. 

We  are  not  here  to  revive  the  unpleasant  memories  of 
the  past,  nor  to  rekindle  the  camp-fires  which  are  possessions 
of  the  dead  past ;  but  we  are  here  to  crown  the  head  of  him 
from  the  fullness  of  whose  great  heart  the  second  declaration 
of  independence  sprung : 

'  Neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude,  except  as 
punishment  for  crime  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly 
convicted,  shall  exist  within  the  United  States,  or  any  place 
subject  to  their  jurisdiction." 

This  declaration  contains  the  essential  element  of  dem- 
ocratic institutions ;  and  secures  the  perpetuity  of  the 
American  republic. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  the  mouth-piece  of  Unionism;  Mr.  Davis 
of  State  sovereignty,  Mr.  Ashley  of  freedom. 

The  two  former  championed  the  cause  of  peculiar  forms 
ot  government,  the  latter  the  cause  of  humanity. 

The  followers  of  Lincoln  have  seen  the  Union  re-estab- 
lished. 

The  followers  of  Mr.  Davis  have  seen  State  sovereignty 
maintained  in  part  with  the  exception  of  the  right  of  secession. 


The  followers  of  Mr.  Ashley  have  seen  the  freedom  of  all 
men  acknowledg-ed  in  theory  at  least. 

Each  has  his  reward  in  the  gratitude  of  his  chosen  con- 
stituency. 

The  imag-es  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Davis  are  perpetu- 
ated in  marble  and  bronze  as  a  lasting-  reminder  to  the  g^en- 
<erations  to  come. 

But  to-night  we  erect  a  unique  monument  of  the  charter 
of  **  the  Tribune  of  the  people." 

We  come  not  as  partisans,  but  as  freedmen  and  citizens, 
the  immediate  beneficiaries  of  the  crowning-  act  of  Mr.  Ash- 
ley's noble  life. 

We  come  to  snatch  from  the  consummate  statesman, 
patriot,  philanthropist  and  benefactor,  the  chill  and  g-loom  of 
ing-ratitude  and  to  reinvest  his  being-  with  new  life. 

We  come  to  reassure  him  that  the  years  of  strife,  turmoil, 
and  self-abneg-ation  spent  for  a  despised  race  were  "  as  bread 
cast  upon  the  water." 

We  come  to  remind  him  that  we  to-nig-ht  intend  that  his 
name  and  life-work  shall  be  a  precious  legacy  to  our  chil- 
dren's children. 

That  they  shall  rise  up  and  call  him  blessed. 

We  have  come  to  announce  to  the  wo«ld  that  henceforth 
he  who  shall  merit  our  g-ratitude  shall  not  go  unrewarded. 

This  souvenir  is  the  tribute  of  the  Afro- Americans  to  the 
Hon.  Jas.  M.  Ashley. 


PRESENTATION. 

At  the  conclusion  of  Bishop  Arnett's  address,  he  invited 
Gov.  Ashley  to  arise.  , 

Thereupon  Master  Daniel  Payne  Arnett,  the  Bishop's 
little  son,  stepped  forward  and  presented  him  the  volume  and 
said: 

Gov.  Ashley:— I  present  you  this  volume  in  the  name  of 
the  coming-  generations,  thanking-  you  for  what  you  have 
done  for  us  in  the  past.  May  God  bless  you  and  give  you 
long  life. 

Gov.  Ashley's  response  to  Master  Arnett's  speech  was  as 
follows  : 

This  is  indeed  a  welcome  surprise,  and  I  take  this  book 
from  your  little  son's  hand  with  mingled  feelings  of  satisfac- 
tion and  delight. 

To  me  childhood  is  the  connecting  link  between  man 
and  his  Creator.  When  Jesus  said  "  Suffer  little  children  to 
come  unto  me,"  He  touched  all  unperverted  human  hearts. 

My  little  man,  vour  speech  and  act  touches  my  heart  with 
pleasurable  emotions  which  words  cannot  fully  express.  May 
you  always  remember  with  pride  the  occasion  on  which  you 
represented  President  Young  of  the  Afro-American  League 
of  Tennessee,  and  when  you  reach  man's  estate  may  you 
appreciate  in  all  its  length  and  breadth  the  work  of  the 
Grand  Men,  who  were  the  recognized  Leaders  of  this  great 
Parliament  of  Religions.  As  a  citizen  may  you  prove  worthy 
of  the  priceless  heritage  secured  to  you  by  the  heroism  and 
valor  of  the  liberating  Army  of  Anti-Slavery  Heroes,  and 
worthy  of  the  noble  man  for  whom  you  were  named. 


'/e 


tzdie4^  LCft^'J^f^e 


4^a^ei 


J^ 


€^^n 


MR.  ASHLEY'S  RESPONSE 
TO  Bishop   Arnktt  and  President  Young. 

Mr.  President  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  :  Some  seer 
or  sag-e  has  said,  *'that  the  unexpected  always  happens." 
That  the  unexpected  often  happens,  you  and  all  observing^ 
men  can  testify.  Certainly,  in  my  most  impassioned  and 
vividly  illuminated  moments,  when  denouncing-  this  nation, 
as  I  often  did,  for  its  great  crime  ag-ainst  the  neg-ro,  and  de- 
scribing- him  after  he  should  be  free,  as  in  my  mind's  eye  I 
then  saw  him  liberated  and  marching-  in  solid  black  columns 
of  advancing-  civilization,  I  did  not  comprehend,  in  all  its 
moral  power  and  stately  g-randeur,  that  which  greets  me  as  a 
living  reality  to-night. 

Here  in  this  magnificent  building,  on  an  occasion  made 
forever  memorable  and  historic,  I  am  told  that  in  the  vast 
audience  before  me,  I  can  look  upon  eleven  negro  bishops 
and  not  less  than  150  regularly  ordained  negro  clergy- 
men of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  represent- 
ing an  actual  membership  of  five  hundred  thousand  souls. 

And  I  am  told  that  there  are  here  present  negro  clergymen 
from  all  branches  of  the  Christian  church,  representing  nearly 
a  million  communicants  more,  and  that  in  addition  to  these 
clergymen,  there  are  before  me  representatives  of  numerous 
schools  and  colleges,  and  editors,  law3^ers,  physicians  and 
authors,  with  many  men  of  recognized  ability  in  artistic, 
mechanical  and  business  pursuits  ;  and  last  though  not  least,  a 
large  representation  of  organized  wage-workers,  and  of  negro 
farmers  and  planters. 

This  is  indeed  a  convocation  of  black  men,  such  as  the 
world  has  never  before  witnessed,  and  such  as  the  most 
sanguine  of  the  "old  liberty  guard,"  never  expected  to  live 
long  enough  to  see.     [Applause.] 


Fellow-Citizens  :  On  a  day  such  as  this,  filled  with  historic 
memories,  it  is  proper  that  I  should  say  to  you,  that  I  did  not 
want  Mr.  Lincoln  to  issue  his  one  hundred  days  preliminary 
proclamation.  I  knew  that  such  a  proclamation  would 
streng-then  me  personally  and  politically  in  the  congressional 
contest  of  that  year,  and  beyond  doubt  secure  my  re-election. 
But  I  was  not  fig-hting-  for  a  personal  triumph,  nor  was  I  fight- 
ing" to  save  the  Union  with  slavery.  I  was  fighting  for  free- 
dom and  national  unity,  and  national  peace  through  the 
liberation  and  enfranchisement  of  the  negro.  I  believed 
then,  as  I  believe  now,  that  no  union  could  be  honorable  and 
enduring  whose  government  was  administered  over  the  pros- 
trate form  of  Justice.     [Applause.] 

As  soon  as  the  result  of  our  State  election  in  1862  was 
known,  Mr.  lyincoln  invited  me  to  come  to  Washington. 
The  morning  after  reaching  the  city,  I  walked  over  from  the 
Treasury  Department  with  Mr.  Chase  to  the  White  House. 
The  President,  Mr.  Stanton,  and  others  who  were  present, 
cordially  congratulated  me  on  my  re-election  (I  was  the 
only  Republican  member  of  the  Ohio  delegation  who  with- 
stood the  mad  political  cyclone  of  that  year),  and  they  were 
all  anxious  to  know  how  I  escaped.  I  answered:  '*Itwas 
your  proclamation,  Mr.  President,  that  did  it."  In  a  moment 
or  two,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  :  *' Well,  General,  how  do  you  like 
the  proclamation?"  I  answered:  "That  had  I  been  com- 
mander-in-chief, I  should  not  have  given  the  enemy  one  hun- 
dred days'  notice  of  my  purpose  to  strike  him  in  his  weakest 
and  most  vulnerable  point,  nor  would  I  have  made  an  apology 
for  doing  so  just  and  noble  an  .act."  And  I  added  by  way  of 
quiet  protest  against  recognizing  the  slave-baron  conspirators 
as  entitled  to  any  such  consideration,  "That  I  certainly 
should  not  have  given  General  Lee  one  hundred  days'  notice 
of  my  purpose  to  move  on  the  weakest  point  of  his  fortifica- 
tions around  Richmond,  and  publicly  designate  that  point  as 
this  proclamation  does."  Mr.  Lincoln  enjoyed  my  way  of 
answering  him,  and  acknowledged  my  "hit,"  as  he  called  it. 

But  though  I  did  not  want  the  one  hundred  days  proclama- 
tion issued,  I  nevertheless  hailed  it  with  joy,  because  I  knew 
that  it  was  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  and  one  from  which 
there  could  be  no  retreat.     I  felt  confident,    that  the   slave 


barons  in  their  blindness  and  madness  would  not  accept  its 
terms,  and  that  on  the  expiration  of  one  hundred  days,  the 
promised  proclamation  must  be  issued  if  Mr.  Lincoln  lived. 
Many  of  us  were  at  that  time  apprehensive  that  he  would  be 
assassinated,  or  that  some  unexpected  and  untoward  event 
might  happen,  to  postpone  or  defeat  the  issuing"  of  the  final 
proclamation.  It  was  because  of  this  fear  and  anxiety,  that  I 
preferred  to  have  but  one  proclamation  issued,  and  I  was  per- 
sistent, as  all  know,  that  it  should  be  issued  at  once.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

Certainly  you  and  all  honest  men  understand  that  I  was 
thankful,  as  were  the  great  body  of  Union  men,  for  the 
promise  which  that  one  hundred  days  proclamation  gave! 
I  hoped  that  the  Confederates,  like  the  Egyptians  of  old, 
would  harden  their  hearts,  and  refuse  to  accept  Mr.  Lincoln's 
offer  of  peace,  and  believing  that  they  would  do  so,  this  one 
hundred  days'  delay  did  not  at  any  time  shake  my  faith  as  to 
the  final  result,  and  they  were  to  me  days  of  hopefulness  and 
thankfulness. 

I  am  a  born  optimist.  No  matter  how  dark  the  cloud  my 
hopeful  vision  penetrates  it  and  my  eyes  catch  early  glimpses 
of  the  golden  light  beyond.     [Applause.] 

Mr.  President,  often  during  the  war,  a  number  of  my 
associates  in  Congress  were  wont  to  say,  *'  that  w'hen  Wendell 
Phillips  blew  a  blast  upon  his  bugle  horn,  'twas  worth  a 
thousand  men  ! " 

After  the  first  of  January,  1863,  we  all  came  to  know,  that 
Mr.  Lincoln's  Emancipation  Proclamation  was  worth  a 
hundred  thousand  men.  As  we  now  look  back,  we  all  realize, 
that  when  Mr.  Lincoln  blew  a  blast  upon  his  bugle  horn,  the 
nation  paused,  and  listened  and  approved. 

At  Springfield,  Illinois,  in  1858,  Mr.  Lincoln  said,  **A 
house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.  I  believe  this  gov- 
ernment cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.'^ 
The  people  heard  him,  and  believed  him  and  made  him  Presi- 
dent. 

In  closing  his  immortal  Emancipation  Proclamation,  he 
spoke  in  language  that  will  live  in  history  forever  I  These 
are  his  golden  words:  *'And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  be- 
lieved to  be  an  act  of  justice,  warranted  by  the  Constitution 


upon  military  necessity,  I  invoke  the  considerate  judg-ment  of 
mankind,  and  the  g-racious  favor  of  Almighty  God." 

This  blast  upon  his  bugle  horn  reverberated  from  center  to 
circumference,  and  was  hailed  with  joy  by  all  patriotic 
Americans.  It  was  also  heard  and  welcomed  by  the  friends 
of  liberty  all  around  the  world.      [Applause.] 

Mr.  President,  I  am  g-lad  your  committee  has  preserved  in 
this  volume  a  speech  of  mine  made  in  Congress  before  Mr. 
Lincoln's  inauguration.  It  was  made  ag-ainst  the  amazing- 
surrender  of  the  House  Committee,  known  in  those  days  as  the 
"Union  Saving-  Committee  of  33."  That  committee  pro- 
posed a  compromise  which  they  intended  should  silence  for 
all  time,  the  troublesome  abolitionist,  and  g-ive  the  slave 
barons  the  ease  and  peace,  the  security  and  perpetual  power 
they  sought.  This  so-called  final  compromise,  was  an  amend- 
ment to  our  national  Constitution,  which  reads  as  follows : 

"Article  12.  No  amendment  shall  be  made  to  the  Consti- 
tution, which  shall  authorize  or  give  Congress  the  power  to 
abolish  or  interfere  within  any  State,  with  the  domestic  insti- 
tutions thereof,  including  that  of  persons  held  to  labor  or  ser- 
vice, by  the  laws  of  such  State." 

As  an  American,  I  blush  to  state  that  this  proposed  amend- 
ment passed  both  Houses  of  Congress,  with  the  active  sup- 
port of  President  Buchanan,  two  days  before  Mr.  Lincoln's 
inauguration.  Had  it  been  ratified  by  the  requisite  num- 
ber of  States,  it  would  have  made  the  chattelization  of  men, 
everywhere  beneath  our  flag,  whether  white  or  black,  consti- 
tutional and  perpetual.  In  all  coming  time,  this  humiliat- 
ing and  shameless  proposition  will  confront  us,  as  the  black- 
est act  proposed  by  the  American  Congress  during  all  our 
dark  history!  Nor  need  I  add,  that  its  passage  by  Congress 
completed  our  national  degradation. 

I  cannot  describe  to  you  how  this  appalling  weakness  of 
loyal  men  in  our  own  ranks,  who  voted  with  the  conspirators 
for  this  abomination  of  abominations,  oppressed  and  over- 
whelmed me  with  shame  and  sorrow.  Often  in  my  agony  I 
cried  out: 

"  God  give  us  men  !    A  time  like  this  demands 

Strong  minds,  great  hearts,  true  faith  and  ready  hands; 


Men  whom  the  lust  of  ofi&ce  does  not  kill; 
Men  whom  the  spoils  of  office  cannot  buy; 
Men  who  possess  opinions  and  a  will; 
Men  who  have  honor;  men  who  will  not  lie; 
Men  who  can  stand  before  a  demag-og-ue, 
And  damn  his  treacherous  flatteries  without  winking". 
Tall  men,  sun-crowned,  who  live  above  the  fog- 
In  public  duty  and  in  private  thinking-." 

[Applause.] 

On  pag-e  126  of  this  volume  may  be  found  what  I  said  in 
Cong-ress  on  the  17th  of  January,  1861,  ag-ainst  this  Christless 
proposition  of  the  Committee  of  33: 

*'The  basis  of  the  new  Union  is  to  be  the  recog-nition  of 
slaves  as  property  by 'constitutional  provision,  unalterable 
except  with  the  consent  of  every  slave  State."     .     .     . 

'*That  such  demands  will  ever  be  acceded  to  by  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States  I  do  not  believe  possible.  But  what- 
ever MAY  BE  THE  COURSE  OF  OTHERS,  BE  THE  CONSEQUENCES 
WHAT  THEY  MAY,  BY  NO  ACT  OR  VOTE  OF  MINE  SHAI,!,  THE  CON- 
STITUTION OF  MY  COUNTRY  EVER  BE  SO  AMENDED  AS  TO  REC- 
OGNIZE PROPERTY  IN  MAN."       [ApplaUSe.] 

Contrast  the  proposed  amendment  of  the  Compromise  Com- 
mittee of  33,  with  the  13th  amendment,  introduced  by  me  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  on  the  14th  of  December,  1863, 
which  reads : 

Article  13. 

*'  Section  1.  Neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude, 
except  as  a  punishment  for  crime,  whereof  the  party  shall 
have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  exist  in  the  United  States,  or 
any  place  subject  to  its  jurisdiction. 

*'  Sec.  2.  The  Cong-ress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  this 
article  by  law  duly  enacted." 

This  amendment,  with  the  chang-es  stated  by  me  on  pag-c 
331  of  this  volume,  is  now  part  of  our  national  Constitution, 
and  you  and  I  know  that  it  will  remain  there  forever.  [Ap- 
plause.] 


If,  when  delivering:  the  earlier  speeches,  which  your  pub- 
lication committee  has  compiled  in  this  volume  before  me, 
the  announcement  had  been  publicly  made,  that  within  the 
life-time  of  their  author,  the  four  million  or  more  of  black 
men  who  were  then  in  bondag-e  would  so  soon  thereafter 
be  liberated  and  made  citizens,  and  that  out  of  their  poverty 
and  helplessness  they  would  be  advanced  in  civilization  so 
rapidly  as  to  accomplish  all  the  black  man  in  the  first 
quarter  of  a  century  after  his  freedom  has  accomplished,  and 
that  in  their  g-ratitude  they  would  compile  and  publish,  as 
they  have  done  in  this  book,  some  of  the  appeals  made  for  their 
liberation  and  enfranchisement,  such  an  announcement  would 
have  been  received  by  a  majority  of  my  countrymen,  as  "  mid- 
summer madness."  And  yet  if  the  interpretations  put  upon 
some  of  my  utterances  by  your  Bishop  are  not  purely  imag-- 
inative,  I  seem  before  the  war,  by  a  process  of  reasoning- 
satisfactory  to  myself,  to  have  comprehended  something*  of 
the  mag-nitude  of  the  impending-  conflict  and  its  results. 
[Applause.] 

Mr.  President,  in  every  period  of  the  world's  history  and 
among-  all  peoples,  there  have  been  those  who  unconsciously 
were  illuminated  with  what  the  poet  calls  *'the  inner 
lig-ht,"  those  whose  eyes  were  permitted  to  look  into  the 
future  and  to  behold  the  g"lory  of  the  coming-  day,  before  the 
breaking-  of  the  dawn,  and  to  see  visions,  such  as  come  to 
human  souls  only  when  lig-hted  with  the  g"lory  of  regions 
celestial.  Such  was  the  "inner  light,"  which  illuminated 
the  great  men  of  the  Revolution  of  1776,  when  they  launched 
our  ship  of  state,  and  promulgated  our  immortal  Declaration 
of  Independence  and  formed  our  national  Constitution. 

This  is  the  "inner  light "  which  illuminated  the  souls  of 
all  the  leaders  of  our  great  anti-slavery  revolution.  "A  pil- 
lar of  cloud  by  day  and  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night,"  it  inspired 
the  faith  of  every  living  and  of  every  dying  anti-slavery 
hero.     [Applause.] 

It  inspired  John  G.  Whittier,  our  beloved  Quaker  poet,  and 
Frederick  Douglass,  the  negro's  matchless  representative.  It 
inspired  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  and  Wendell  Phillips,  James 
G.  Berney  and  Nathaniel  P.  Rogers,  Gerrit  Smith  and  William 
Leggett,   Cassius  M.  Clay  and  John  G.  Fee,  Gamaliel  Bailey 


and  William  Goodell,  Theodore  Parker  and  Samuel  J.  May, 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  and  Wm.  CuUen  Bryant,  Horace  Gree- 
ley and  Wm.  H.  Seward,  John  P.  Hale  and  Robert  Rantoul, 
Salmon  P.  Chase  and  Charles  Sumner,  Joshua  R.  Gidding-s 
and  Benjamin  F.  Wade,  Georg-e  W.  Julian  and  David  Wilmot ; 
the  martyred  Lovejoy  and  the  immortal  Lincoln ;  and  I  must 
not  omit  to  name  with  these  memorable  men,  such  illus- 
trious women  as  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  Lydia  Maria  Child, 
Ivucretia  Mott  and  Julia  Ward  Howe,  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton 
and  Miss  Susan  B.  Anthony. 

To  this  recog-nized  galaxy  of  matchless  men  and  women 
must  be  added  a  larg"e  number  whom  no  man  can  name  in 
one  short  address,  names  worthy  of  our  profoundest  reg-ard 
and  g-rateful  remembrance.  This  wonderful  army  was  made 
up  of  the  g-randest  men  and  women  who  ever  walked  the 
earth,  and  made  it  better  for  having-  lived  in  it.  I  mean  the 
g-reat  body  of  anti-slavery  men  and  women  whom  we  always 
desig-nated  as  * '  the  old  liberty  g-uard. "  These  are  the  men  and 
women  who  never  bowed  the  knee  to  the  Moloch  of  Slavery, 
nor  voted  to  compromise  with  that  indescribable  villainy, 
and  who  practically^  made  the  creed,  and  g"ave  life  and  dig-nity 
and  g-lory  to  the  Republican  party,  and  to  each  of  whom, 
in  the  dark  days  of  slavery  domination,  there  came  in  full 
measure  the  faith  they  soug-ht,  so  that  at  times  they  were 
illuminated  with  the  *' inner  lig-ht"  from  realms  beyond  our 
reach,  and  were  thus  able  to  prophesy  our  impending- 
triumph.      [Applause.] 

Mr.  President,  the  memory  of  the  22d  of  September,  1862, 
oug-ht  to  make  jubilant  our  hearts  and  quicken  our  footsteps. 
On  that  day,  eventful  to  every  black  man  and  to  the  lovers  of 
liberty  in  every  land,  Abraham  Lincoln  issued  his  prelimi- 
nary proclamation  of  emancipation !  It  proved  to  be  a  day 
ever  memorable  in  our  history,  and  a  day  of  thanksg-iving- 
to  every  bondman.  But  the  day  of  its  issue  was  also  a  day  of 
anxiety  and  fear  to  millions,  and  this  fear  and  anxiety  was 
especially  oppressive  to  the  impassioned  leaders  of  the  **old 
anti-slavery  g-uard."  All  the  long"  dark  nig-ht  of  that  one 
hundred  days,  they  endured  the  Gethsemane  which  evermore 
comes  to  all  g-reat  souls,  and  in  prayerful  supplication 
walked  with  the  nation  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 


death.  They  knew  that  without  the  liberation  of  the  negro 
the  republic  was  doomed  !  They  believed  that  with  the  Presi- 
dent's Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  it  could  be  saved  and 
redeemed.  In  this  sublime  and  patriotic  faith  they  walked 
with  unfaltering-  tread,  until  the  year  1862  expired, 
and  the  immortal  proclamation  of  January  1,  1863,  was  born. 
[Applause.] 

When  this  welcome  proclamation  appeared,  the  soul  of  the 
nation,  out  of  its  sackcloth  and  ashes,  was  uplifted  to  heaven 
in  an  all-forgiving  aspirational  thanksg-iving-,  and  the  long- 
pent-up  hopes  of  our  old  anti-slavery  champions  broke  forth 
in  songs  of  joy  and  shouts  of  triumph. 

Whittier  declared,  that  there  were  no  words  in  his  Quaker 
vocabulary,  with  which  he  could  fitting-ly  express  in  crisp 
terms,  the  emotions  of  his  heart,  and  that  he  was  compelled 
to  use  the  short,  but  comprehensive  and  favorite  exclamation 
of  his  Methodist  brethren,  and  simply  shout,  *' Glory  to 
God." 

I  do  not  know  what  words  my  friend  Doug-lass  used,  but  I 
am  sure  they  were  strong-  and  clear  and  true.  Every  loyal 
soul  broke  forth  in  words  of  thankfulness  and  gladness,  as  on 
that  memorable  day,  the  bells  rang-  out  the  old  and  rang-  in 
the  new  order  of  things!  In  memory,  I  now  hear  the  g"lad 
booming  of  cannon,  the  wild  roll  of  drums,  and  the  quickened 
and  determined  footsteps  of  our  triumphal  arm}^,  and  to- 
nig-ht  feel  like  shouting-  ag-ain  as  I  did  then:  "  Glory  to  God 
in  the  highest,  peace  on  earth  to  g-ood-willing-  men."  On 
that  day,  in  every  loyal  church  and  around  every  loyal 
hearthstone,  songs  of  triumph  and  tears  of  joy  were  melted 
into  one  united  hallelujah! 

What  wonder  then,  after  so  long-  a  strain,  that  these  shouts 
and  song's,  mingled  with  the  peals  of  cannon  and  the  chim- 
ing- of  bells,  thrilled  our  g-lad  hearts  as  they  did,  with  a  tri- 
umphal melody,  akin  to  the 

f' 

*' Songs  of  praise,  that  awoke  the  morn, 
When  the  Prince  of  Peace  was  born." 

[Applause.] 


Mr.  President,  monuments  are  usually  erected  by  friends 
or  by  the  public  long-  after  men  are  dead.  Never,  so  far  as  I 
know,  has  there  been  erected  a  monument  to  the  memory  of 
a  public  man  during-  his  lifetime  I  But  I  who  (  barring-  acci- 
dents) have  fifteen  or  twenty  years  of  fighting  material  in 
me  yet,  find  myself  at  this  moment  confronted  with  what 
President  Young  and  your  Bishop  are  pleased  to  call 
my  monument,  and  you  appear  by  your  approval  to 
recognize  the  claim  which  each  has  made.  I  certainly 
recognize  the  fact,  that  in  compiling  and  publishing  this 
volume,  the  American  negro  has  builded  me  a  monu- 
ment more  enduring  than  any  which  my  family  or  my 
friends  can  erect,  after  I  shall  have  quit  this  mortal  life ;  a 
monument  more  appropriate  and  welcome  than  the  one  which 
your  Bishop  says  was  foreshadowed  in  the  quotation  which 
he  made  a  few  moments  ago  from  one  of  my  addresses  in 
this  volume,  an  utterance  which  he  affirms  is  a  prophecy 
now  fulfilled,  and  certainly,  if  he  claims  that  his  interpreta- 
tion is  authoritative,  I  shall  not,  on  an  occasion  like  this,  un- 
dertake to  question  it.     [Laughter  and  applause.] 

But  whether  authoritative  or  not,  I  can  truthfully  and  with 
propriety  say,  that  this  '*  Souvenir  "  is  to  me  a  more  desirable 
monument  than  any  other  which  my  colored  friends  could 
have  designed  or  presented  to  me,  for  I  recognize  that  it 
was  conceived  by  generous  and  grateful  hearts,  and  built 
with  honest  hands.  I  accept  it  as  the  black  man's  tribute 
and  testimony.  It  is  a  monument  which  the  maligner  can- 
not misinterpret,  nor  vandals  deface,  nor  the  hired  assassin 
destroy,  for  I  am  told  you  are  to  duplicate  it  by  thousands  ! 

And  now,  what  shall  I  say  to  my  friends  of  the  "Afro- 
American  League  of  Tennessee,"  and  to  the  gentlemen  of  the 
Publication  Committee,  who  from  the  public  records  and 
from  the  voluminous  yet  fragmentary  material  placed  in 
their  hands,  have  with  such  care  and  fidelity  compiled  this 
volume,  in  which  is  reflected  so  faithfully  from  my  lips  and 
pen  the  views  held  by  me  and  the  measures  which  I  advocat- 
ed, prior  to  and  during  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  and  since. 

The  truth  is,  that  I  do  not  know  what  to  say!  To  make 
fitting  answer  I  should  have  need  of  golden-voweled  words, 
the  poet's  prophetic  vision  and  the  thoughts  of  a  philosopher. 


As  I  have  them  not,  I  simply  say  I  thank  you.  Again  and 
again,  out  of  a  full  heart,  I  thank  both  the  *'  Afro-American 
Leag-ue  of  Tennessee,"  and  your  able  and  painstaking-  Pub- 
lication Committee.  The  declaration  of  your  Bishop,  "that 
your  Publication  Committee  found  no  word  or  thought  or 
vote  of  mine,  which  they  or  any  black  man,  could  wish  to 
change  or  blot" — gives  me  a  satisfaction  so  pure  and  unalloy- 
ed that  no  words  at  my  command  can  fittingly  express  the 
emotions  that  stir  my  heart.  Certainly,  when  these  speeches 
and  orations  were  delivered,  I  did  not  expect  to  have  this 
priceless  testimony  come  to  me.     [Applause.] 

Mr.  President,  as  I  interpret  this  occasion  and  this  testi- 
mony it  also  means  much  for  the  negro.  It  means,  a  testi- 
mony of  his  fidelity  and  gratitude!  It  means,  that  how- 
ever poor  or  however  black,  "A  man's  a  man  for  a'  that."  It 
means,  that  everywhere  beneath  that  flag  crime  and  wrong 
against  your  race  must  cease.  It  means,  a  recognition  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  —  and  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

It  means  that  jour  long  dark  night  of  sorrow  will  soon  be 
over,  that  the  day  is  dawning  and  that  the  hour  now 
draweth  nigh,  in  which  the  children  of  Ethiopia  may  stretch 
forth  their  glad  hands  to  their  Creator  and  to  ours,  and  with 
confidence  claim  fulfillment  of  the  Divine  promise  delivered 
to  the  world  by  His  Apostles  and  Prophets. 

"O,  clear-eyed  Faith,  and  Patience,  thou 

So  calm  and  strong! 
Lend  strength  to  weakness;  teach  us  how 
The  sleepless  eyes  of  God  look  through 

This  night  of  wrong." 

[*'  Amen"  and  "  amen"  and  applause.] 

A.t  the  conclusion  of  this  masterly  address  the  whole 
audience  rose  to  their  feet  with  cheers,  and  united  in  sing- 
ing Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe's  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic. 

This  hymn  may  be  found  in  full  on  page  262  of  this  volume. 


<^e..  e.  ^.  <#.. 


Bishop  Arnett  called  Rev.  O.  P.  Ross,  of  Vicksburg, 
Mississippi,  who  presented  a  duplicate  volume  of  the  Souvenir 
to  Rev.  John  Henry  Barrows,  D.  D.,  President  of  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Relig-ions  of  the  World,  and  also  presented  one  to 
the  Hon.  C.  C.  Bonny,  President  of  the  Columbian  Auxiliary 
Congresses,  in  the  name  of  the  Afro-American  League  of 
Tennessee,  and  the  lovers  of  human  liberty  throughout  the 
world. 


THE  PUBLICATION  COMMITTEE 

To  THE  Public  : 

The  personal  correspondence  on  pages  9  to  12  inclusive 
is  self-explanatory.  In  addition  thereto,  it  is  proper  to  state, 
that  after  the  material  for  this  book  had  been  compiled,  and 
made  ready  for  the  printer,  we  obtained  from  Mr.  Ashley 
his  consent  to  have  the  matter  thus  selected,  electrotyped  as 
it  was  set  up,  so  that  a  book  which  should  be  an  exact  dupli- 
cate copy  of  the  *' Souvenir,"  as  to  its  contents,  mig-ht  be 
copyrighted  by  us,  published  from  the  electrotyped  plates 
and  sold  to  the  public  at  moderate  cost. 

The  only  conditions  prescribed  by  Mr.  Ashley  were  that 
the  net  proceeds  arising  from  the  sale  of  the  book  should  be 
applied  to  preparing  young  men  and  women  of  our  race  to 
become  teachers  in  the  public  and  private  negro  schools  of 
the  South. 

Our  purpose  was,  that  the  book  when  published  should 
be  within  the  reach  of  all,  and  be  especially  for  use  in  Afro- 
American  public  libraries  and  in  the  libraries  of  our  own 
colleges  and  public  and  private  schools,  also  for  the  home 
libraries  of  all  our  people  and  of  our  lawyers  and  clergy- 
men and  members  of  other  liberal  professions. 

It  will  be  observed,  that  a  number  of  the  speeches  and 
addresses  selected,  were  made  by  Mr.  Ashley  when  he  was  a 
very  young  man,  and  that  they  were  made  at  a  time  when 
the  champions  of  slavery  were  masters  of  the  nation,  as  well 
as  our  masters. 

The  high  moral  tone  of  all  the  speeches,  addresses  and 
orations  contained  in  the  book,  their  earnestness  and  ability, 
can  not  fail  to  command  the  attention  and  respect  of  even 
the  most  partisan  political  opponent. 

In  the  light  of  history,  the  reader  will  recognize  that 
the  time  and  conditions  under  which  these  speeches  were  de- 
livered, stamp  them  as  both  masterly  and  prophetic. 


In  these  speeches  will  be  found  a  living-  reflex  of  Mr. 
Ashley's  life  and  character  and  a  faithfully  condensed  his- 
tory of  the  g-reat  battle  waged  for  our  liberation. 

They  are  calm  and  eloquent  appeals  for  the  rig-hts  of  our 
race  and  of  all  races  of  men. 

No  one  of  these  speeches  contains  a  partisan  appeal  or 
an  appeal  in  behalf  of  any  clique  or  faction  nor  for  himself. 
Firm,  faithful  and  just  —  they  are  as  potent  now  for  liberty 
protected  by  law,  and  for  the  equal  rights  of  all  men  before 
the  law,  as  they  were  at  the  time  of  their  delivery. 

We  know  of  no  book  in  which  can  be  found  grander  ap- 
peals for  the  rights  of  man,  and  in  which  there  appears  no 
word  or  thought  that  the  negro  could  wish  to  change  or 
blot. 

For  a  clearer  and  more  specific  statement  of  the  contents 
and  value  of  the  book,  we  beg  to  refer  to  the  **  Introduction,*' 
written  by  Hon.  Frederick  Douglass  and  to  the  letters  which 
appear  as  editorial  foot-notes,  written  by  some  of  our  ablest 
men.  These  notes  with  the  likenesses  of  some  of  the  writers 
are  interspersed  througout  the  book.  We  respectfully  com- 
mend this  book  to  our  race  and  to  the  liberal  statesmen  of 

America. 

Benjamin  W.  Aenett, 

Wilberforce,  Ohio, 
Chairman  Publication  Committee. 
Bishop  Benjamin  F.  Lee, 

Waco,  Texas. 
Rev.  Charles  S.  Smith, 

NashvUle,  Tennessee. 
Pres't  I.  T.  Montgomery, 

Mound  Bayou,  Miss. 

Bishop  W.  J.  Gaines, 

Atlanta,  Ga. 

Rev.  J.  C.  Embry, 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Rev.  a.  H.  Ross, 

Cynthiana,  Ky. 

Prof.  B.  W.  Arnett,  Jr., 

Little  Rock,  Ark. 


Cl444A<i.    iM^ 


As  he  Appears  now. 


THE  PA.RUAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS 

MET  IN  Chicago,  III.,  in  connection   with   the  World's 

Fair. 

The  22d  of  September,  1893,  was  set  apart  to  celebrate 
the  thirtieth  anniversary  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  which  liberated  over  3,500,000  slaves  in 
1863.  The  occasion  was  thought  to  be  appropriate  to  take 
notice  of  the  fact  that  there  was  not  a  legal  slave  on  the 
American  continent — every  man,  woman  and  child  were  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  freedom.  This  occasion  was  made 
historic,  by  the  Afro-American  League  of  Tennessee,  who 
presented  to  the  Hon.  James  M.  Ashley  a  souvenir,  as  a  token 
of  the  regard  of  the  Afro-Americans  for  his  work  in  the  in- 
terest of  universal  freedom,  and  especially  in  the  passage  of 
the  Thirteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  1865. 

The  program  was  arranged  under  the  direction  of  Bishop 
B.  W.  Arnett,  who  acted  for  the  general  committee. 

Friday  evening,  at  eight  o'clock,  Columbus  Hall  was 
crowded  with  an  audience  of  not  less  than  five  thousand  per- 
sons, from  all  parts  of  the  world. 

Rev.  John  Henry  Barrows  was  president.  Bishop  Daniel 
A.  Payne,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  acted  as  the  chairman. 

The  choirs  of  Quinn  Chapel  and  Bethel  A.  M.  E. 
Church  furnished  the  anthems  of  freedom. 

Prof.  John  T.  Layton,  Washington,  D.  C,  sang  an  orig- 
inal solo. 

Madam  Flora  Batsen  Burgan,  of  Chicago,  sang  a  solo. 

Prof.  T.  P.  Morgan,  of  Chicago,  and  Rev.  B.  F.  Watson, 
of  Kansas,  led  the  Battle  Hymn  of  Freedom  and  other  cho- 
ruses. 

Father  Slatterly,  of  Baltimore,  read  a  paper,  **The 
Catholic  Church  and  the  Colored  Race." 


Bishop  Benjamin  William  Arnett  delivered  the  oration 
on  the  Principles  of  Liberty,  and  also  delivered  the  presenta- 
tion address  in  behalf  of  the  Afro- American  League,  to  Hon. 
J.  M.  Ashley. 

The  following-  will  give  the  reader  some  idea  of  the  com- 
position of  the  Parliament  of  Religions,  and  the  distin- 
guished persons  who  were  in  attendance.  We  also  give  an 
account  of  the  opening  of  the  Congress  of  the  African  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  and  the  names  of  the  distinguished 
men  and  women  who  were  in  attendance.  It  was  these  two 
distinguished  bodies  that  met  to  celebrate  the  jubilee  of 
freedom,  and  to  present  the  volumes  to  the  Hon.  James  M. 
Ashley.  It  was  the  most  distinguished  body  that  has  ever 
met  on  the  American  continent,  or  in  the  world. 

A  writer  has  given  the  following  description  of  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Parliament,  September  11,  1893: 

**  Under  the  banner  of  a  common  hope  met  yesterday  the 
strangest  gathering  of  men  the  world  has  seen.  No  tie  of 
blood  bound  them.  Jew  sat  by  Gentile;  Russian  by  Hindoo; 
Greek  by  negro;  Saxon  by  Gaul.  There  were  black  faces 
and  white;  yellow  and  red;  bearded  and  shaven. 

"No  great  scheme  of  universal  power  or  conquest  held 
them.  Men  were  on  that  platform  who  owe  allegiance  to 
the  kings  of  twenty  empires.  Yet  some  of  them  had  traveled 
13,000  miles  around  the  world  to  meet  under  the  bare  rafters 
of  the  Hall  of  Columbus. 

*'To  the  eye  they  had  nothing  in  common.  They  were 
men  of  many  tongues;  of  all  races.  They  wore  strange  robes; 
turbans  and  tunics;  crosses  and  crescents;  flowing  hair  and 
tonsured  scalps.  There  were  spots  of  Oriental  color  and  bits 
of  Occidental  gloom. 

'*  From  the  four  corners  of  the  earth  these  men  had  come 
together  to  forward  the  cause  of  a  common  humanity  here 
and  hereafter.  They  had  come  to  demonstrate  by  their 
presence  the  vital  power  of  that  universal  spirit  which  drives 
men  everywhere  to  look  upward  at  a  star.  They  had  come  to 
teach  the  ancient  lesson,  professed  but  never  practiced,  that 
men  are  brothers  and  all  the  world  is  kin.     They  had  come 


to  make  memorable  the  most  historic  day  of  all  this  latest 
centur)% 

"It  was  the  peaceful  g-athering-  of  warring-  creeds;  the 
parliament  of  the  world's  religions.  Proselytism  and  per- 
secution were  forg-otten.  New  England  Puritan  shook  hands 
with  a  Prince  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  The  high  priest 
of  the  Brahmins,  oldest  of  all  relig-ions,  leaned  upon  the 
shoulder  of  a  Bishop  of  the  Reformed  Episcopal  Church, 
himself  the  founder  of  the  sect.  Over  them  all  was  lifted  the 
common  idea  of  a  great  Divinity,  and  in  that  idea  they  were 
one. 

DISCIPI,ES   OF  ALL   CREEDS. 

**  Many  notable  g-atherings  have  the  gray  walls  of  the 
Art  Institute  sheltered  since  the  opening  of  the  world's  con- 
gresses. Leaders  in  every  line  of  human  effort  and  endeavor 
have  met  and  laid  before  the  world  the  ripest  fruits  of  their 
toil.  Great  men  have  told  how  nature  was  being  robbed 
of  her  secrets;  how  the  lightning  was  tamed;  how  the  ocean 
was  bridged;  how  the  stars  were  measured. 

**But,  on  the  platform  met  disciples  of  Christ,  disciples 
of  Mohammed,  disciples  of  Buddha,  disciples  of  Brahma, 
and,  standing  together  in  the  name  of  a  common  God,  asked 
a  blessing  upon  mankind  and  all  the  works  of  man.  It  was 
the  crown  upon  the  head  of  gathered  nations;  the  climax 
the  Columbian  Exposition  has  made  possible. 

**The  people  felt  the  importance  of  the  day.  Early 
they  moved  toward  the  Art  Palace.  They  filled  the  great 
Hall  of  Columbus. 

'  *  Before  ten  o'clock,  the  hour  set  for  the  great  congress 
to  open,  men  and  women  were  turned  away  to  fill  other  halls 
where  overflow  meetings  were  held.  In  the  splendid  audience, 
numbering  all  of  4,000,  were  hundreds  of  notable  men.  They 
were  scholars,  teachers,  dreamers,  men  who  have  looked  for- 
ward to  the  day  when  the  united  religionists  of  the  world 
might  move  forward,  unbroken,  against  the  forces  of  in- 
fidelity and  disbelief.  They  were  broad-minded,  liberal 
men,  who  have  worked  their  lives  through  to  forward  the 
coming  of  that  day.     To  them  the  opening  of  the  World's 


Parliament  of  Religions  was  like  the  dawning-  of  a  long-ex- 
pected sun.  When  the  long"  line  of  deleg-ates,  many  of  them 
in  splendid  robes,  moved  forward  to  the  platform,  tears  of  joy 
glistened  in  many  earnest  eyes. 


ALL  JOIN  IN  THE  DOXOLOGY. 

**But  wait!  From  the  grand  organ  peal  the  inspiring 
strains  of  'Praise  God  from  Whom  All  Blessings  Flow.' 
All  are  on  their  feet.  Men  of  all  religions  are  singing  the 
doxology.  Then  his  Eminence,  James,  Cardinal  Gibbons, 
splendid  in  the  scarlet  and  black  robes  of  his  office,  steps  to 
the  front  of  the  platform.  He  lifts  his  thin  white  hands 
above  the  bowed  heads.  **  Our  Father,  who  art  in  Heaven," 
he  begins.  Thousands  follow  him  in  repeating  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  among  them  many  of  the  distinguished  delegates  up- 
on the  platform.  Already  the  men  of  all  religions  have 
found  a  common  creed. 

**But  if  the  deep  significance  of  the  great  parliament 
was  stirring  in  the  hearts  of  men,  no  less  striking  and 
picturesque  was  the  scene  set  before  their  eyes  when  the 
delegates  sat  down  in  long  triple  lines  upon  the  platform. 
In  the  middle  a  flash  of  flaming  scarlet  reflected  from  the 
robes  of  the  Cardinal;  at  his  right  the  lavender  and  black 
lace  gown,  which  set  o£E  the  beauty  of  the  President  of 
the  Board  of  Lady  Managers;  at  his  left  the  high  black 
peaked  cap,  the  trailing  robes  and  the  golden  chains  of  the 
Bishop  of  the  Greek  Church;  further  on,  the  green  and 
garnet  velvet  tunics  of  East  Indian  Punjabs;  here  the  single 
violet  orange  garment  of  a  Hindoo  monk;  there  the  pinks  of 
a  Japanese  Bishop  and  his  suite;  on  one  side  black  and  royal 
purple  where  sit  a  group  of  Archbishops  of  the  Catholic 
Church;  on  the  other,  the  gorgeous  red  and  gold  of  a  mem- 
ber of  a  Hindoo  Sisterhood  —  a  confusion  of  colors,  as  strange 
as  the  confusion  of  tongues,  of  races  and  of  religions. 

**  Through  all  the  addresses  of  welcome  and  many  re- 
sponses ran  one  clear  note.  It  spoke  of  the  Fatherhood  of 
God  and  the  Brotherhood  of  man.  From  the  great  leaders 
of  all  religions  came  the  same  message. 


Cd-fZ^^, 


\  C^. 


iZ^U'T^e 


*'It  was  an  imposing*  procession  that  filed  upon  the  plat- 
form of  the  Hall  of  Columbus,  led  by  President  Bonney, 
escorting-  the  head  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  America,  Car- 
dinal Gibbons.  There  were  Caucasians,  Mong-olians  and 
Ethiopians,  men  from  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  represent- 
ing* all  the  relig-ions  of  the  earth.  They  seated  themselves 
closely  tog-ether  upon  the  hug*e  platform,  the  strangers  from 
the  farther  points  of  the  world  with  their  picturesque  g-arbs, 
in  front.  •  Those  upon  the  platform  were  : 
V  i^'fBishop  D.  A.  Payne,  A.  M.  E.  Church,  of  Wilberforce, 
O.  ;rSiddhuRam,  appeal  writer,  Mooltan  Punjab,  East  India  ; 
Carl  von.Berg-en,  Ph.  D.,  President  of  the  Swedish  Society 
for  Psychical  Research,  Stockholm,  Sweden  ;  Birchard 
Raghavji  Gandhi,  B.  A.,  Honorary  Secretary  to  the  Jain 
Association  of  I^dia,  Bombay  ;  Sward  Vivekananda,  a  nionk 
of  the  orthodox  Brahminical  religion  ;  the  Rev.  B.  B.  Nag-ar- 
kar,  minister,  Brahmo  Somaj  of  Bombay,  India  ;  the  Rev. 
P.  C.  Mazoomdar,  minister  and  leader  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj  of 
India,  Calcutta ;  Jinda  Ram,  a  lawyer,  President  of  the 
Temperance  Society,  Vedic,  Muzaffarg-arh,  India ;  the  Rev. 
P.  G.  Phiambolis,  Oeconomus,  a  priest  of  the  Greek  Church  ; 
his  Grace  the  Archbishop  of  Zante,  of  the  Greek  Church  ; 
Homer  Peratis,  Archdeacon  of  the  Greek  Church  ;  Reiich 
Shibata,  President  of  one  of  the  Shinto  sects,  Tokio,  Japan  ; 
Ashitsu  Zitsuzen,  representative  from  the  Tendai  sect,  Omi, 
Japan  ;  Banrin  Yatsubuehi,  President  of  Hoju  Buddhist  So- 
ciety, Hamemsto,  Japan  ;  Shaka  Soon,  Archbishop  of  one  of 
the  Buddhist  sects,  Kamakura,  Japan  ;  Horin  Toki,  Professor 
of  Shingen  sect,  and  its  Bishop,  Sanuki,  Japan ;  Noguchi 
and  Negura,  interpreters,  Tokio,  Japan  ;  Dharmapala,  Gen- 
eral Secretary,  Maha  Bodhi  Society,  Calcutta ;  Prof.  G.  N. 
Chakravarti,  Allahabad,  India ;  Dr.  F.  A.  Noble,  Prince 
Serge  Wolkonsky  of  Russia  ;  D.  G.  Crandon,  Secretary  of 
the  Free  Religious  Society  of  Boston  ;  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Ma- 
cauber,  chaplain  U.  S.  A.,  Angel  Island,  Cal.;  Yungkwai, 
China,  Miss  Jeanne  Serabji  K.  Langrana  ;  G.  Benet  Maury, 
Professor  a  la  Fauilte  de  Theologic,  Paris  ;  Prince  Momolu 
Massaquoi  of  Liberia;  Bishop  Jenner,  Anglican  Free  Church; 
the  Rev.  Augusta  J.  Chapin,  D.  D.,  Chicago;  Mrs.  Potter 
Palmer,    Mrs.   Charles   Henrotin,    Cardinal  Gibbons,    Arch- 


bishop  Feehan,  Archbishop  Ryan,  Archbishop  Redwood,  of 
New  Zealand;  President  C.  C.  Bonney,  Dr.  Adolf  Bredbeck, 
Count  Bernsterff,  %.  Zmig-rowski,  John  W.  Hoyt,  Bishop 
Keane,  H.  N.  Hig-inbotham,  W.  J.  Onahan,  the  Rev.  Jenkin 
Lloyd  Jones,  Bishop  B.  W.  Arnett,  Bishop  J.  A.  Handy,  Prin- 
cipal Grant,  of  Canada,  the  Rev.  Alfred  Williams  Momerie, 
D.  D.,  the  Rev.  Maurice  Phillips  of  Madras,  India  ;  Prof.  N. 
Valentine,  William  T.  Harris,  Commissioner  Education  of 
United  States,  Dr.  Ernest  Faber,  the  Rev.  Geo.  T.  Candlin, 
Prof.  Kosahi,  Bishop  Cotter,  of  Winona;  Prof.  Chakravarti, 
Rt.  Rev.  Banrin  Yatsubuchu,  Hon.  Pung-  Quang  Yu,  Chinese 
Leg-ation." 

September  22d,  1893,  was  the  day  of  the  meeting"  of  the 
African  M.  E.  Cong-ress.  At  an  early  hour  the  men,  women 
and  children  of  the  church  were  seen  making"  their  way  to 
Art  Palace.  The  reception  room  of  Hon.  C.  C.  Bonney  was 
given  us  for  a  place  of  meeting.  When  the  bishops,  general 
officers,  presiding  elders,  elders,  members  and  friends  of  the 
church  met,  a  procession  was  formed  and  all  marched  to  the 
Hall  of  Washington.  There  we  found  a  large  audience 
waiting  for  us,  who  cheered  as  the  procession  marched  on  the 
platform. 

The  organist  played  a  march,  and  choruses  were  sung 
and  a  song  of  praise  to  God  was  sung,  and  when  we  were  all 
seated  on  the  stage  all  joined  in  singing  "  Praise  God  from 
whom  all  blessings  flow."  It  was  a  grand  sight  to  see  men 
and  women  of  every  nation  and  race  joining  with  the  chorus 
of  freedom  and  with  the  children  of  freedom  in  singing  songs 
of  praise  to  God. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  distinguished  persons 
present  : 

Bishop  D.  A.  Payne,  Wilberforce,  Ohio;  Bishop  A.  W. 
Wayman,  Baltimore,  Md.;  Bishop  H.  M.  Turner,  Atlanta, 
Ga. ;  Bishop  W.  J.  Gaines,  Atlanta,  Ga. ;  Bishop  B.  T.  Tan- 
ner, Philadelphia,  Pa.;  Bishop  A.  Grant,  Atlanta,  Ga.; 
Bishop  J.  A.  Handy,  Kansas  City,  Kan.;  Bishop  B.  W. 
Arnett,  Wilberforce,  Ohio;  Bishop  Walters,  D.  D.,  A.  M.  E." 
Zion  Church;  Hon.  C.  C.  Bonney,  Chicago,  111.;  Hon.  C.  E. 
Young;  Hon.  Frederick  Douglas,  LL.  D.,  Washington,  D.  C; 
Prince    Serge    Wolkonsky,     St.    Petersburg,    Russia;    Mrs. 


Isabella  B.  Hooker,  Connecticut;  Rev.  S.  P.  Mercer,  Chicag-o, 
111.;  Rev.  J.  C.  Embry,  D.  D.,  Philadelphia,  Pa.;  Rev.  L.  J. 
Coppin,  D.  D.,  Philadelphia,  Pa.;  Rev.  H.  T.  Johnson,  D.  D., 
A.  M.,  Ph.  D.,  Philadelphia,  Pa.;  Rev.  Wm.  D.  Johnson, 
D.  D.,  Atlanta,  Ga.;  Rev.  C.  S.  Smith,  D.  D.,  Nashville, 
Tenn.;  Rev.  W.  B.  Derrick,  D.  D.,  New  York,  N.  Y.;  Rev. 
J.  H.  Armstrong",  D.  D.,  Philadelphia,  Pa.;  Rev.  A.  M. 
Green,  D.  D.,  New  Orleans,  La.;  Mrs.  Bishop  B.  W.  Arnett, 
Wilberforce,  Ohio;  Mrs.  Bishop  B.  T.  Tanner,  Philadelphia, 
Pa.;  Mrs.  Bishop  H.  M.  Turner,  Atlanta,  Ga.;  Mrs.  Bishop 
A.  W.  Wayman,  Baltimore,  Md.;  Mrs.  Dr.  W.  H.  Yeocum, 
Camden,  N.  J.;  Mrs.  Rev.  G.  W.  Prioleau,  Wilberforce,  Ohio; 
Mrs.  Rev.  G.  L.  Jackson,  Nashville,  Tenn.;  Mrs.  Rev.  J.  H. 
Armstrong-,  Washing-ton,  D.  C;  Mrs.  Rev.  A.  A.  Whitman, 
Lawrence,  Kan.;  Mrs.  Rev.  O.  P.  Ross,  Vicksburg-,  Miss.; 
Mrs.  Rev.  C.  H.  Thomas,  Chicago,  111.;  Mrs.  Rev.  D.  A. 
Graham,  Chicago,  111.;  Mrs.  S.  J.  W.  Earley,  Nashville, 
Tenn.;  Mrs.  Landonia  Williams,  Indianapolis,  Ind.;  Mrs. 
Louisa  White,  Portsmouth,  Ohio;  Prince  Momo  Massaqua, 
Africa;  Mrs.  Grace  Offer,  Pittsburgh,  Pa.;  Mrs.  E.  J.  Page, 
Cincinnati,  Ohio;  Mrs.  E.  J.  Thompson,  Pittsburgh,  Pa.;  Mrs. 
Eudora  Duncan,  Toledo,  Ohio;  Mrs.  Henrietta  Morgan, 
Chicago,  111.;  Mrs.  W.  R.  Rodger  Webb,  Texarkana;  Mrs. 
Saddie  Tjree,  Washington,  D.  C;  Mrs.  J.  A.  Davis,  Nash- 
ville, Tenn. ;  Mrs.  J.  A.  Brown,  Cleveland,  Ohio ;  Rev.  W. 
H.  Mixon,  Selma,  Ala.;  Rev.  W.  A.  Moore,  Lincoln,  Neb.; 
Rev.  J.  W.  Beckett,  Baltimore,  Md.;  Rev.  Jno.  Coleman, 
Portsmouth,  Ohio;  Rev.  A.  A.  Whitman,  Lawrence,  Kan.; 
Hon.  Jas.  Madison  Bell,  Toledo,  Ohio;  Prof.  J.  P.  Shor- 
ter, Wilberforce,  Ohio;  Rev.  Geo.  W.  Prioleau,  Wilber- 
force, Ohio;  Rev.  S.  A.  Hardison,  Clinton,  Iowa;  Rev.  Jas. 
M.  Townsend,  Chicago,  111.;  Rev.  Henry  Brown,  Spring- 
field, 111.;  Rev.  I.  S.  Lee,  Baltimore,  Md.;  Rev.  Jno.  Hurst, 
Baltimore,  Md.;  Rev.  Cornelius  Asbury,  Pittsburgh,  Pa.;  Rev. 
S.  R.  Reed,  Memphis,  Tenn.;  Rev.  B.  F.  Watson,  Wichita, 
Kan.;  Rev.  Jno.  G.  Mitchell,  Wilberforce,  Ohio; Rev.  W.  A.  J. 
Phillips,  Little  Rock,  Ark. ;  Rev.  W.  J.  Davis,  Champaign,  111. ; 
Rev.  C.  H.  Thomas,  Chicago,  111.;  Rev.  W.  H.  Yeocum,  Cam- 
den, N.  J;  Rev.  J.  A.  Davis,  Nashville,  Tenn.;  Rev.  Chas.  H. 
Sheen,  Cairo,  111. ;  Rev.  J.  H.  Morgen,  Orange,  N.  J. ;  Rev.  Jno. 


T.  Jenifer,  Washington,  D.  C. ;  Rev.  Jno.  B.  Dawison,  Kvans- 
ton.  111.;  Rev.  D.  S.  Bentley,  Pittsburgh,  Pa.;  Rev.  P.  A.  Hub- 
bard, Denver,  Col. ;  Rev.  S.  A.  Johnson,  Washington,  D.  C. ; 
Rev.  G.  W.  Gaines,  St.  Paul,  Minn.;  Rev.  K.  H.  Bolden,  Ports- 
mouth, Va.;  Rev.  O.  D.  Robinson,  Baltimore,  Md.;  Rev.  Jas. 
T.  Evans,  Carlisle,  Pa.;  Hon.  I.  T.  Montgomery,  Mound 
Bayou,  Miss.;  Rev.  R.  McDaniel,  Indiana;  Rev.  Walter  S. 
Lewis,  Memphis,  Tenn. ;  Rev.  W.  H.  Brown,  New  Brighton, 
Pa.;  Rev.  S.  B.  Jones,  Ottumwa,  Iowa;  Rev.  Jno.  A.  Collins, 
Grand  Rapids,  Mich.;  Rev.  Walter  S.  Lowery,  Pittsburgh, 
Pa.;  Rev.  J.  H.  McGee,  Chicago,  111.;  Rev.  D.  Franklin  Tay- 
lor, Palestine,  Texas;  Rev.  C.  H.  Johnson,  Washington  C.  H., 
Ohio;  Rev.  J.  C.  Anderson,  Rockford,  111.;  Rev.  Anderson 
Hunter,  Troup,  Texas;  Rev.  F.  T.  Harvery,  Decatur,  111.; 
Rev.  Jno.  M.  Henderson,  Detroit,  Mich.;  Rev.  T.  W-  Hender- 
son, Indianapolis,  Ind.;  Prof.  F.  H.  Steward,  Wisconsin;  Miss 
IdaB.  Wells,  Chicago,  111.;  Miss  F.  E.  W.  Harper,  Chicago, 
111.;  Miss  Mary  Harper,  Chicago,  111.;  Daniel  Payne  Arnett, 
Wilberforce,  Ohio;  Hon.  James  Hill,  Jackson,  Miss.;  Rev. 
W.  W.  Beckett,  Charleston,  S.  C. ;  Rev.  S.  F.  Flegler,  Sum- 
merville,  S.  C;  Rev.  John  H.  Welsh,  Charleston,  S.  C;  Rev. 
M.  B.  Parks,  Omaha,  Neb.;  Rev.  O.  P.  Ross,  Vicksburg, 
Miss.;  Prof.  W.  S.  Scarborough,  LL.  D.,  Wilberforce,  Ohio. 


14  DAY  USE 

ESTURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recalL 


ICir  (N) 


■^•»  .^ 


I^ 


Oiii:  MOOTil  fci'iLK 


IHNr?QiqfiR 


ffK.  SinnA.  It^iy  '•^ 


s 


INTER-LIBRARV 


LUA.'. 


NOV  1  3  1967 


jEEffli 


LOAN 


ONE  MONTH  tf!£RiUeC an 


ir^ 


LD  21A-607*f3765 
(F2336sl0)476B 


m^T" 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


